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You Can Go Wrong By Being Too Skeptical As Readily As By Being Too Trusting.
-Robert A. Heinlein
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You Can Go Wrong

Robert A. Heinlein
...
You Can Go Wrong By Being Too Skeptical As Readily As By Being Too Trusting.

Understanding the Quote: "you can go wrong by being too skeptical as readily as by..."

This quote by Robert A. Heinlein reflects deeply on the theme of trust. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Trust, Skeptical, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Robert A. Heinlein interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Robert A. Heinlein

Robert A. Heinlein is celebrated for insightful thoughts on trust and skeptical. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Trust
Skeptical
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Women Talk When They Want To. Or Don't.
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Women Will Forgive Anything. Otherwise, The Race Would Have Died Out Long Ago.
Funny
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I Am Free, No Matter What Rules Surround Me. If I Find Them Tolerable, I Tolerate Them; If I Find Them Too Obnoxious, I Break Them.
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Nobody Has Ever Seen An Electron. Nor A Thought. You Can't See A Thought, You Can't Measure, Weigh, Nor Taste It- But Thoughts Are The Most Real Things In The Galaxy.
Real
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A Pacifist Male Is A Contradiction In Terms. Most Self-described "pacifists" Are Not Pacific; They Simply Assume False Colors. When The Wind Changes, They Hoist The Jolly Roger.
Self
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Reason Is Poor Propaganda When Opposed By The Yammering, Unceasing Lies Of Shrewd And Evil And Self-serving Men.
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Self
Animals Can Be Driven Crazy By Placing Too Many In Too Small A Pen. Homo Sapiens Is The Only Animal That Voluntarily Does This To Himself.
Crazy
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Don't Explain Computers To Laymen. Simpler To Explain Sex To A Virgin.
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There Is No Worse Tyranny Than To Force A Man To Pay For What He Does Not Want Merely Because You Think It Would Be Good For Him.
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English Is The Largest Of Human Tongues, With Several Times The Vocabulary Of The Second Largest Language -- This Alone Made It Inevitable That English Would Eventually Become, As It Did, The Lingua Franca Of This Planet, For It Is Thereby The Richest And Most Flexible -- Despite Its Barbaric Accretions . . . Or, I Should Say, Because Of Its Barbaric Accretions. English Swallows Up Anything That Comes Its Way, Makes English Out Of It.
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It's An Indulgence To Sit In A Room And Discuss Your Beliefs As If They Were A Juicy Piece Of Gossip.
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Little Girls, Like Butterflies, Need No Excuse.
Girl
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Always Listen To Experts. They'll Tell You What Can't Be Done, And Why. Then Do It.
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Die Trying" Is The Proudest Human Thing.
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My Folks Tried To Make A Preacher Of Me And Missed By A Narrow Margin… I Would Have Made A Good One If I Hadn’t Fallen Into The Fatal Folly Of Reading Anything I Could Lay Hands On. With Just A Touch More Self Confidence And A Liberal Helping Of Ignorance I Could Have Been A Famous Evangelist.
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Gentlemen, Let's Go Row!
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Everybody Lies About Sex.
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...more Than Six People Cannot Agree On Anything, Three Is Better And One Is Perfect For A Job That One Can Do. This Is Why Parliamentary Bodies All Through History, When They Accomplished Anything, Owed It To A Few Strong Men Who Dominated The Rest.
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It Seems To Me That The Secret Of True Happiness In Life Is To Know What You Are And Then Be Content To Be That, In Style, Head Up And Proud, And Not Yearn To Be Something Else.
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Political Tags - Such As Royalist, Communist, Democrat, Populist, Fascist, Liberal, Conservative, And So Forth - Are Never Basic Criteria. The Human Race Divides Politically Into Those Who Want People To Be Controlled And Those Who Have No Such Desire.
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Democracy Can Survive Anything Except Democrats
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Specialization Is For Insects... The Race Of Man? He's A Whole Other Creature.
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The First Principle Of Freedom Is The Right To Go To Hell In Your Own Handbasket.
Atheist
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I Believe That Almost All Politicians Are Honest. For Every Bribed Alderman There Are Hundreds Of Politicians, Low Paid Or Not Paid At All, Doing Their Level Best Without Thanks Or Glory To Make Our System Work. If This Were Not True, We Would Never Have Gotten Past The Thirteen Colonies.
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Once A Month, Some Women Act Like Men Act All The Time.
Men
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In Ascending Order The Qualities Of Patriotism Are: 1. To Work, Fight, Or Die For Your Own Survival. 2. To Work, Fight, Or Die For Your Immediate Family. 3. To Work, Fight, Or Die For A Group, Extended Family, Tribe, Or Clan. 4. To Work, Fight, Or Die For A Group Too Large For All The Individuals To Know Each Other. 5. To Work, Fight, Or Die For A Way Of Life.
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Stupidity Cannot Be Cured. Stupidity Is The Only Universal Capital Crime; The Sentence Is Death. There Is No Appeal, And Execution Is Carried Out Automatically And Without Pity.
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Never Try To Outstubborn A Cat.
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It Is A Truism That Almost Any Sect, Cult, Or Religion Will Legislate Its Creed Into Law If It Acquires The Political Power To Do So.
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I've Never Understood How God Could Expect His Creatures To Pick The One True Religion By Faith-it Strikes Me As A Sloppy Way To Run A Universe.
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Way
To Be Matter-of-fact About The World Is To Blunder Into Fantasy - And Dull Fantasy At That, As The Real World Is Strange And Wonderful.
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But Does Man Have Any 'right' To Spread Through The Universe? Man Is What He Is, A Wild Animal With The Will To Survive, And (so Far) The Ability, Against All Competition. Unless One Accepts That, Anything One Says About Morals, War, Politics, You Name It, Is Nonsense. Correct Morals Arise From Knowing What Man Is, Not What Do-gooders And Well-meaning Old Aunt Nellies Would Like Him To Be. The Universe Will Let Us Know - Later - Whether Or Not Man Has Any "right" To Expand Through It.
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When You're Rich, You Don't Have Friends; You Just Have Endless Acquaintances.
Rich
Endless
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Between Being 'right' And Being Kind, I Know Which Way I Vote.
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The Lessons Of History Teach Us - If The Lessons Of History Teach Us Anything - That Nobody Learns The Lessons That History Teaches Us.
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When The Need Arises - And It Does - You Must Be Able To Shoot Your Own Dog. Don't Farm It Out — That Doesn't Make It Nicer, It Makes It Worse.
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When You Vote, You Are Exercising Political Authority, You're Using Force. And Force, My Friends, Is Violence. The Supreme Authority From Which All Other Authorities Are Derived.
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How Can I Possibly Put A New Idea Into Your Heads, If I Do Not First Remove Your Delusions?
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Moving Parts In Rubbing Contact Require Lubrication To Avoid Excessive Wear. Honorifics And Formal Politeness Provide Lubrication Where People Rub Together. Often The Very Young, The Untravelled, The Naive, The Sophisticated Deplore These Formalities As 'empty,' 'meaningless,' Or 'dishonest,' And Scorn To Use Them. No Matter How 'pure' Their Motives, They Thereby Throw Sand Into Machinery That Does Not Work Too Well At Best.
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A Fake Fortuneteller Can Be Tolerated. But An Authentic Soothsayer Should Be Shot On Sight. Cassandra Did Not Get Half The Kicking Around She Deserved.
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Remember Though, Your Best Weapon Is Between Your Ears And Under Your Scalp -provided It's Loaded.
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May You Live As Long As You Wish And Love As Long As You Live.
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Long
He Should Have Known Better Because, Early In His Learnings Under His Brother Mahmoud, He Had Discovered That Long Human Words (the Longer The Better) Were Easy, Unmistakable, And Rarely Changed Their Meanings, But Short Words Were Slippery, Unpredictable Changing Their Meanings Without Any Pattern. Or So He Seemed To Grok. Short Human Words Were Never Like A Short Martian Word - Such As Grok Which Forever Meant Exactly The Same Thing. Short Human Words Were Like Trying To Lift Water With A Knife. And This Had Been A Very Short Word.
Brother
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There Are Perhaps 5% Of The Population That Simply Can't Think. There Are Another 5% Who Can, And Do. The Remaining 90% Can Think, But Don't
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Whores Perform The Same Function As Priests, But Far More Thoroughly.
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Sad
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Government! Three-fourths Parasitic And The Rest Stupid Fumbling - Oh, Harshaw Concluded That Man, A Social Animal, Could Not Avoid Government, Any More Than An Individual Could Escape Bondage To His Bowels. But Simply Because An Evil Was Inescapable Was No Reason To Term It "good." He Wished That Government Would Wander Off And Get Lost! (96)
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Formal Courtesy Between Husband And Wife Is Even More Important Than It Is Between Strangers.
Husband
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Progress Is Made By Lazy Men Looking For Easier Ways To Do Things.
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Progress
No Storyteller Has Been Able To Dream Up Anything As Fantastically Unlikely As What Really Does Happen In This Mad Universe.
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The Best Thing About Space Travel Is That It Made It Possible To Go Elsewhere.
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Made
Crowded Places
The Most Important Lesson In The Writing Trade Is That Any Manuscript Is Improved If You Cut Away The Fat.
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Important
Heinlein's Rules For Writers Rule One: You Must Write Rule Two: Finish What Your Start Rule Three: You Must Refrain From Rewriting, Except To Editorial Order Rule Four: You Must Put Your Story On The Market Rule Five: You Must Keep It On The Market Until It Has Sold
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Two
A Family Reunion Is An Effective Form Of Birth Control.
Birth Control
Family Reunion
Genealogy
An Invention Is Something That Was "impossible" Up To Then That's Why Governments Grant Patents.
Government
Patents
Impossible
Violence, Naked Force, Has Settled More Issues In History Than Has Any Other Factor.
Issues
Naked
Violence
He Had Learned That Close-held Secrets Could Often Be Cracked By Going All The Way To The Top And There Making Himself Unbearably Unpleasant. He Knew That Such Twisting Of The Tiger's Tail Was Dangerous, For He Understood The Psychopathology Of Great Power.
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Tails
When I Don’t Understand, I Have An Unbearable Itch To Know Why.
Unbearable
Knows
I Was There To See Beautiful Naked Women. So Was Everybody Else. It's A Common Failing.
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Naked
Common
But I Contend That The Disgusting Behavior Of Many Of Their Alleged 'holy Men' Relieves Us Of Any Intellectual Obligation To Take The Stuff Seriously. No Amount Of Sanctimonious Rationalization Can Make Such Behavior Anything But Pathological.
Men
Intellectual
Religion
Widows Are Far Better Than Brides. They Don't Tell, They Won't Yell, They Don't Swell, They Rarely Smell, And They're Grateful As Hell.
Grateful
Smell
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Being A Mother Is An Attitude, Not A Biological Relation.
Inspirational
Mom
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The Trouble With Conspiracies Is That They Rot Internally.
Trouble
Conspiracy
The Earth Is Just Too Small And Fragile A Basket For The Human Race To Keep All Its Eggs In.
Race
Eggs
Space
If You Would Know A Man, Observe How He Treats A Cat.
Cat
Men
Treats
Straining At Gnats And Swallowing Camels Is A Required Course In Law Schools.
School
Law
Gnats
The Saddest Thing About Ephemerals Was That Their Little Lives Rarely Held Time Enough For Love.
Love
Life
Littles
Taxes Are Not Levied For The Benefit Of The Taxed.
Liberty
Debt
Benefits
I'm Not Trying To Frighten You, But Only A Fool Makes Predictions Based On Ignorance; I Am Not That Sort Of Fool.
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Trying
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Never Encourage A Man To Cook Breakfast; It Cause Him To Wonder If Women Are Necessary.
Sex
Men
Breakfast
The Police Of A State Should Never Be Stronger Or Better Armed Than The Citizenry. An Armed Citizenry, Willing To Fight, Is The Foundation Of Civil Freedom. That's A Personal Evaluation, Of Course.
Fighting
Police
Stronger
Audacity, Always Audacity - Soundest Principal Of Strategy.
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Strategy
Principal
In A Society In Which It Is A Moral Offense To Be Different From Your Neighbor Your Only Escape Is To Never Let Them Find Out.
Tolerance
Different
Moral
Expertise In One Field Does Not Carry Over Into Other Fields. But Experts Often Think So. The Narrower Their Field Of Knowledge The More Likely They Are To Think So.
Knowledge
Science
Thinking
I Came, I Saw, She Conquered." The Original Latin Seems To Have Been Garbled.
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Saws
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A Friend Who Offers Help Without Asking For Explanations Is A Treasure Beyond Price
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Cute Friendship
Asking
Does History Record Any Case In Which The Majority Was Right?
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Historical
Majority
A Little More Money Won't Do You Any Good - Because Daughters Can Use Up Ten Percent More Than A Man Can Make In Any Normal Occupation, Regardless Of The Amount.
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Nothing Could Go Wrong Because Nothing Had...i Meant "nothing Would." No - Then I Quit Trying To Phrase It, Realizing That If Time Travel Ever Became Widespread, English Grammar Was Going To Have To Add A Whole New Set Of Tenses To Describe Reflexive Situations - Conjugations That Would Make The French Literary Tenses And The Latin Historical Tenses Look Simple.
Latin
Simple
English Grammar
The Bugs Are Not Like Us. The Pseudo-arachnids Aren’t Even Like Spiders. They Are Arthropods Who Happen To Look Like A Madman’s Conception Of A Giant Intelligent Spider, But Their Organization, Psychological And Economic, Is More Like That Of Ants Or Termites; They Are Communal Entities, The Ultimate Dictatorship Of The Hive.
Intelligent
Organization
Giants
An Armed Man Need Not Fight.
Fighting
Gun
Men
God Split Himself Into A Myriad Parts That He Might Have Friends. This May Not Be True, But It Sounds Good, And Is No Sillier Than Any Other Theology.
Religion
Sound
Splits
No Intelligent Man Has Any Respect For An Unjust Law.
Intelligent
Men
Law
You Were Probably Educated In The Conventional Economic Theories Of Your Period Which Were Magnificent And Most Ingenious, But--if You Will Pardon My Saying So--all Wrong.
Economic
Pardon
Theory
I Am Not Going To Talk About Religious Beliefs, But About Matters So Obvious That It Has Gone Out Of Style To Mention Them.
Religious
Style
Matter
Ability Is A Wonderful Thing, But Its Value Is Greatly Enhanced By Dependability. Ability Implies Repeatability And Accountability.
Accountability
Wonderful
Dependability
The Most Expensive Thing In The World Is A Second-best Military Establishment, Good But Not Good Enough To Win.
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Cats Have No Sense Of Humor, They Have Terribly Inflated Egos, And They Are Very Touchy.
Cat
Ego
Sense Of Humor
Patriotism Is Not 'my Country Right Or Wrong'; Patriotism Means Loving The Ideals For Which America Stands And Having The Courage To Speak Up When These Ideals Are Distorted For Personal Or Political Gain. The American Government Was Instituted To Be The Servant Of The People, Not Our Master.
Country
Mean
Government
The Power To Tax, Once Conceded, Has No Limits; It Continues Until It Destroys.
Mistress
Libertarian
Limits
The Meek Shall Inherit The Earth - A 6 Foot Plot Above Them.
Feet
Plot
Earth
In Terms Of Morals There Is No Such Thing As ‘state.’ Just Men. Individuals. Each Responsible For His Own Acts.
Men
Moral
Individual
A Handy Short Definition Of Almost All Science Fiction Might Read: Realistic Speculation About Possible Future Events, Based Solidly On Adequate Knowledge Of The Real World, Past And Present, And On A Thorough Understanding Of The Nature And Significance Of The Scientific Method.
Real
Past
Thorough Understanding
Always Tell Her She Is Beautiful, Especially If She Is Not.
Beauty
Beautiful
Sex
The Universe Never Did Make Sense; I Suspect It Was Built On Government Contract.
Government
Contracts
Make Sense
With Eternity To Draw On There Could Be No Reason For Hurrying - 'hurry' Was Not A Concept In Martian.
Life Changing
Eternity
Reason
It Is A Truism That Almost Any Sect, Cult, Or Religion Will Legislate Its Creeds Into Law If It Acquires The Political Power To Do So, And Will Follow It By Suppressing Opposition, Subverting All Education To Seize Early The Minds Of The Young, And By Killing, Locking Up, Or Driving Underground All Heretics.
Law
Political
Mind
People Who Are Busy And Happy Don't Write Diaries; They Are Too Busy Living.
Writing
People
Diaries
We Have Our Hands, We Have Our Brains, We Have The Challenge All Around Us, And We Have Within (from Whatever Source) The Will To Strive. That Is Enough; There Is No Need To Assert 'belief' In That Which We Do Not, As Yet, Know.
Hands
Challenges
Brain
It Would Take Centuries And He Must Grow And Grow And Grow, But He Was In No Hurry--he Grokked That Eternity And The Ever-beautifully-changing Now Were Identical.
Eternity
Century
Grows
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Education
Honest
Lawyer
I Believe In - I Am Proud To Belong To - The United States.
Believe
Proud
United States
Darling, A True Lady Takes Off Her Dignity With Her Clothes And Does Her Whorish Best. At Other Times You Can Be As Modest And Dignified As Your Persona Requires.
Sex
Clothes
Doe
There Is No Way That Writers Can Be Tamed And Rendered Civilized. Or Even Cured.
Way
Civilized
Tamed
A Society That Gets Rid Of All Its Troublemakers Goes Downhill.
Life
Society
Trouble Maker
One Might Define Adulthood As The Age At Which A Person Learns That He Must Die ...and Accepts His Sentence Undismayed.
Age
Might
Accepting
Patriotism Is Not Sentimental Nonsense. Nor Something Dreamed Up By Demagogues. Patriotism Is As Necessary A Part Of Man's Evolutionary Equipment As Are His Eyes, As Useful To The Race As Eyes Are To The Individual.
Eye
Men
Race
A Fool Cannot Be Protected From His Folly. If You Attempt To Do So, You Will Not Only Arouse His Animosity But Also You Will Be Attempting To Deprive Him Of Whatever Benefit He Is Capable Of Deriving From Experience. Never Attempt To Teach A Pig To Sing; It Wastes Your Time And Annoys The Pig.
Pigs
Benefits
Waste
It Was Better To Live With Disappointment And Frustration Than To Live Without Hope.
Hope
Disappointment
Ambition
You Have Attributed Conditions To Villainy That Simply Result From Stupidity.
Stupid
Results
Malice
When The Citizens Of A Nation Will No Longer Volunteer To Defend It, Then It Is Probably Not Worth Saving. No Nation Has The Right To Survive With Conscript Troops, And In The Long Run, No Nation Ever Has.
Running
Long
Volunteer
I Also Think There Are Prices Too High To Pay To Save The United States. Conscription Is One Of Them. Conscription Is Slavery, And I Don't Think That Any People Or Nation Has A Right To Save Itself At The Price Of Slavery For Anyone, No Matter What Name It Is Called. We Have Had The Draft For Twenty Years Now; I Think This Is Shameful. If A Country Can't Save Itself Through The Volunteer Service Of Its Own Free People, Then I Say: Let The Damned Thing Go Down The Drain!
Country
Thinking
Years
Roman Matrons Used To Say To Their Sons: 'come Back With Your Shield Or On It.' Later On, This Custom Declined. So Did Rome... (but Not Before It Created An Empire That Changed The World -em).
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Courage
Son
Secrecy Begets Tyranny.
Political
Secrecy
Tyranny
What We Think Of As 'physical Beauty' Is Almost Certainly A Tag For A Complex Of Useful Survival Characteristics. Smartness - Intelligence - Among Them.
Thinking
Survival
Tag
The Marks Won't Listen If It's Free.
Mark
Ifs
There Will Always Be Survivors.
Survivor
Beauty Is Not Diminished By Being Shared.
Clothings
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Like Love
Want
Some Logics Get Nervous Breakdowns. Overloaded Phone System Behaves Like Frightened Child. Mike Did Not Have Upsets, Acquired Sense Of Humor Instead. Low One. If He Were A Man, You Wouldn't Dare Stoop Over. His Idea Of Thigh-slapper Would Be To Dump You Out Of Bed — Or Put Itch Powder In Pressure Suit.
Children
Men
Phones
Anyone Who Can Worship A Trinity And Insist That His Religion Is A Monotheism Can Believe Anything.
Believe
Religion
Worship
Sex Should Be Friendly. Otherwise Stick To Mechanical Toys; It's More Sanitary.
Sex
Friendly
Toys
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Military
Military Service
Okay
Almost Everything About A Human Creature Is Ridiculous, Except Its Ability To Suffer Bravely And Die Gallantly For Whatever It Loves And Believes In. The Validity Of That Belief, The Appropriateness Of That Love, Is Irrelevant; It Is The Bravery And The Gallantry That Count.
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Love Is
Bravery
Avoid Making Irrevocable Decisions While Tired Or Hungry.
Tired
Decision
Hungry
It Is Impossible For A Man To Love His Wife Whole Heartedly Without Loving All Women Somewhat. I Suppose That The Converse Must Be True Of Women.
Men
Wife
Impossible
Never Underestimate The Power Of Human Stupidity.
Sad
Stupid
Silly
Anyone Who Considers Protocol Unimportant Has Never Dealt With A Cat.
Cat
Protocol
Kitty Cat
He's An Honest Politician--he Stays Bought.
Honest
Politician
Man Is Not A Rational Animal, He Is A Rationalizing Animal.
Animal
Men
Rational
Another Ingredient In A Happy Marriage: Budget The Luxuries First!
Luxury
Happy Marriage
Ingredients
The Mind's Ability To Rationalize It's Own Shortcomings Is Unlimited; I Am No Exception.
Mind
Unlimited
Ability
Beware Of Altruism. It Is Based On Self-deception, The Root Of All Evil.
Self
Roots
Evil
There Is An Old, Old Story About A Theologian Who Was Asked To Reconcile The Doctrine Of Divine Mercy With The Doctrine Of Infant Damnation. 'the Almighty,' He Explained, 'finds It Necessary To Do Things In His Official And Public Capacity Which In His Private And Personal Capacity He Deplores.
Religion
Damnation
Doctrine
Nowhere On Earth Was Sex So Vigorously Suppressed As In America--and Nowhere Else Was There Such A Deep Interest In It.
Sex
America
Earth
Citizenship Is An Attitude, A State Of Mind, An Emotional Conviction That The Whole Is Greater Than The Part...and That The Part Should Be Humbly Proud To Sacrifice Itself That The Whole May Live.
Attitude
Sacrifice
Emotional
Of All The Nonsense That Twists The World, The Concept Of 'altruism' Is The Worst. People Do What They Want To, Every Time. If It Pains Them To Make A Choice - If The Choice Looks Like A 'sacrifice' - You Can Be Sure That It Is No Nobler Than The Discomfort Caused By Greediness... The Necessity Of Deciding Between Two Things You Want When You Can't Have Both.
Pain
Sacrifice
Two
Any Government Will Work If Authority And Responsibility Are Equal And Coordinate. This Does Not Insure “good” Government, It Simply Insures That It Will Work. But Such Governments Are Rare — Most People Want To Run Things, But Want No Part Of The Blame. This Used To Be Called The “backseat Driver” Syndrome.
Running
Responsibility
Government
Belief Gets In The Way Of Learning.
Clever
Believe
Creativity
All Societies Are Based On Rules To Protect Pregnant Women And Young Children. All Else Is Surplusage, Excrescence, Adornment, Luxury, Or Folly Which Can - And Must - Be Dumped In Emergency To Preserve This Prime Function. As Racial Survival Is The Only Universal Morality, No Other Basic Is Possible. Attempts To Formulate A "perfect Society" On Any Foundation Other Than "women And Children First!" Is Not Only Witless, It Is Automatically Genocidal. Nevertheless, Starry-eyed Idealists (all Of Them Male) Have Tried Endlessly - And No Doubt Will Keep Trying.
Children
Luxury
Perfect
Democracy Is Four Wolves And A Sheep Voting On Dinner.
Truth
Freedom
Knowledge
A Generation Which Ignores History Has No Past — And No Future.
Future
Past
History
A Critic Is A Man Who Creates Nothing And Thereby Feels Qualified To Judge The Work Of Creative Men. There Is Logic In This; He Is Unbiased, He Hates All Creative People Equally.
Hate
Science
Men
A Zest For Living Must Include A Willingness To Die.
Zest
Motorcycle
Bikers
Nursing Does Not Diminish The Beauty Of A Woman's Breasts; It Enhances Their Charm By Making Them Look Lived In And Happy.
Nursing
Breastfeeding
Doe
For Me, Politeness Is A Sine Qua Non Of Civilization.
Civilization
Atheism
Polite
It Is Said That God Notes Each Sparrow That Falls. And So He Does. But The Proper Closest Statement Of It That Can Be Made In English Is That God Cannot Avoid Noting The Sparrow Because The Sparrow Is God. And When A Cat Stalks A Sparrow Both Of Them Are God, Carrying Out God's Thoughts.
God
Fall
Cat
There Has Grown Up In The Minds Of Certain Groups In This Country The Notion That Because A Man Or Corporation Has Made A Profit Out Of The Public For A Number Of Years, The Government And The Courts Are Charged With The Duty Of Guaranteeing Such Profit In The Future, Even In The Face Of Changing Circumstances And Contrary Public Interest. This Strange Doctrine Is Not Supported By Statute Nor Common Law. Neither Individuals Nor Corporations Have Any Right To Come Into Court And Ask That The Clock Of History Be Stopped, Or Turned Back...
Country
Men
Law
There Is Solemn Satisfaction In Doing The Best You Can For Eight Billion People. Perhaps Their Lives Have No Cosmic Significance, But They Have Feelings. They Can Hurt.
Hurt
Eight
People
Son, The Phrase Is Self-contradictory; "sense" Is Never "common".
Son
Self
Common Sense
Analogy Is Even Slipperier Than Logic.
Analogies
Logic
A Religion Is A Source Of Happiness And I Would Not Deprive Anyone Of Happiness. But It Is A Comfort Appropriate For The Weak, Not For The Strong--and You Are Strong. The Great Trouble With Religion--any Religion--is That The Religionist, Having Accepted Certain Propositions By Faith, Cannot Thereafter Judge These Propositions By Evidence. One May Bask At The Warm Fire Of Faith Or Choose To Live In The Bleak Uncertainty Of Reason--but One Cannot Have Both.
Strong
Fire
Judging
Seems To Be A Deep Instinct In Human Beings For Making Everything Compulsory That Isn't Forbidden.
Mistress
Instinct
Forbidden
The Ordinary Bloke Will Not Voluntarily Pay For "art" That Leaves Him Unmoved--if He Does Pay For It, The Money Has To Be Conned Out Of Him, By Taxes And Such.
Art
Ordinary
Doe
By The Laws Of Statistics We Could Probably Approximate Just How Unlikely It Is That It Would Happen. But People Forget Especially Those Who Ought To Know Better, Such As Yourself That While The Laws Of Statistics Tell You How Unlikely A Particular Coincidence Is, They State Just As Firmly That Coincidences Do Happen.
Law
People
Statistics
If You Pray Hard Enough, Water Will Run Uphill. How Hard? Why, Hard Enough To Make Water Run Uphill, Of Course!
Running
Water
Stupidity
Of All The Creatures On This Planet None Is More Dangerous Than A Human Being.
Humanity
Being Human
Danger
The Most Ridiculous Concept Ever Perpetrated By Homo Sapiens Is That The Lord God Of Creation, Shaper And Ruler Of The Universes, Wants The Saccharine Adoration Of His Creations, That He Can Be Persuaded By Their Prayers, And Becomes Petulant If He Does Not Receive This Flattery. Yet This Ridiculous Notion, Without One Real Shred Of Evidence To Bolster It, Has Gone On To Found One Of The Oldest, Largest And Least Productive Industries In History.
Religious
Prayer
Real
Most People Can't Think, Most Of The Remainder Won't Think, And The Small Fraction Who Do Think Mostly Can't Do It Very Well.
Thinking
People
Fractions
Once You Get To Earth Orbit, You're Halfway To Anywhere In The Solar System.
Space
Orbit
Earth
Long Human Words (the Longer The Better) Were Easy, Unmistakable, And Rarely Changed Their Meanings . . . But Short Words Were Slippery, Unpredictable, Changing Their Meanings Without Any Pattern.
Long
Patterns
Easy
I Do Know That The Slickest Way To Lie Is To Tell The Right Amount Of Truth--then Shut Up.
Lying
Way
Shut Up
The Nice Thing About Citing God As An Authority Is That You Can Prove Anything You Set Out To Prove.
Nice
Religion
Citing
The Only Thing Privacy Laws Accomplish Is Making The Bugs Smaller.
Law
Bugs
Privacy
Faith Strikes Me As Intellectual Laziness, But I Don't Argue With It - Especially As I Am Rarely In A Position To Prove That It Is Mistaken. Negative Proof Is Usually Impossible.
Faith
Intellectual
Negative
One Should Not Attend Even The End Of The World Without A Good Breakfast.
Funny Food
Breakfast
End Of The World
The Shamans Are Forever Yacking About Their Snake Oil Miracles. I Prefer The Real Mccoy, A Pregnant Woman.
Real
Snakes
Oil
What A Wonderful World It Is That Has Girls In It!
Girl
World
Wonderful
...a Book Need Never Die And Should Not Be Killed; Books Were The Immortal Part Of Man.
Book
Men
Needs
Gratitude: An Imaginary Emotion That Rewards An Imaginary Behavior, Altruism. Both Imaginaries Are False Faces For Selfishness, Which Is A Real And Honest Emotion.
Gratitude
Real
Selfishness
My Old Man Claimed That The More Complicated The Law The More Opportunity For Scoundrels.
Opportunity
Men
Law
High Frontier Places A Bullet-proof Vest On Our Bare Chest. High Frontier Is As Non-aggressive As A Bullet-proof Vest. There Is No Way To Kill Anyone With High Frontier - All That High Frontier Can Do Is To Keep Others From Killing Us.
Peace
War
Bullets
Any Priest Or Shaman Must Be Presumed Guilty Until Proved Innocent.
Guilty
Innocent
Priests
I Woke Up In Bed With A Man And A Cat. The Man Was A Stranger; The Cat Was Not
Cat
Men
Bed
Behind Every Mystery Lies Another Mystery.
Lying
Mystery
Behinds
Work Is Not An End In Itself; There Must Always Be Time Enough For Love.
Love
Romantic
Enough
Ninety Percent Of All Human Wisdom Is The Ability To Mind Your Own Business.
Wisdom
Mind Your Own Business
Ninety
Sex, Whatever Else It Is, Is An Athletic Skill. The More You Practice, The More You Can, The More You Want To, The More You Enjoy It, The Less It Tires You.
Sex
Practice
Skills
There Are No Dangerous Weapons; There Are Only Dangerous Men.
Gun
Men
Dangerous Man
At One Time Kings Were Anointed By Deity, So The Problem Was To See To It That Deity Chose The Right Candidate. In This Age The Myth Is "the Will Of The People" ... But The Problem Changes Only Superficially.
Kings
People
Age
But If You Didn't Have More Urgent Things To Do After Supper [in Boot Camp], You Could Write A Letter, Loaf, Gossip, Discuss The Myriad Mental Shortcomings Of Sergeants And, Dearest Of All, Talk About The Female Of The Species (we Became Convinced That There Was No Such Creatures, Just Mythology Created By Inflamed Imaginations - One Boy In Our Company Claimed To Have Seen A Girl, Over At Regimental Headquarters; He Was Unanimously Judged A Liar And A Braggart).
Girl
Liars
Writing
The Difference Between Science And The Fuzzy Subjects Is That Science Requires Reasoning While Those Other Subjects Merely Require Scholarship.
Science
Differences
Fuzzy
In A Mature Society, 'civil Servant' Is Semantically Equal To 'civil Master.'
Mature
Masters
Equal
Most Gods Have The Manners And Morals Of A Spoiled Child.
Children
Religion
Moral
I Have Never Been Able To See How A Thirty-year Old Moron Can Vote More Wisely Than A Fifteen-year Old Genius.
Years
Genius
Fifteen
I Believe In The Honest Craft Of Workmen.
Believe
Crafts
Honest
In The Eighty Or Ninety Years I Have Given To This Subject, Trying To Trace Out The Meanderings Of Their Twisty Little Minds, The Only Thing That I Have Learned For Certain About Women Is That When A Gal Is Gonna, She's Gonna. All A Man Can Do Is Cooperate With The Inevitable.
Women
Years
Mind
Love Your Country, But Never Trust Its Government.
Country
Love You
Government
Yield To Temptation. It May Not Pass Your Way Again.
Wisdom
Philosophy
Yield
Ignorance Is Curable, Stupid Is Forever.
Stupid
Ignorance
Forever
The Truth Of A Proposition Has Nothing To Do With Its Credibility. And Vice Versa.
Science
Vices
Vice Versa
When He Kisses You He Isn't Doing Anything Else. You're His Whole Universe, And The Moment Is Eternal Because He Doesn't Have Any Plans And Isn't Going Anywhere. Just Kissing You ... It's Overwhelming.
Kissing
Moments
Stolen Kisses
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