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Start by following Robert A. Heinlein.
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“Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.”
― Stranger in a Strange Land
― Stranger in a Strange Land
“Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.”
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“Happiness consists in getting enough sleep. Just that, nothing more.”
― Starship Troopers
― Starship Troopers
“Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.”
― Time Enough for Love
― Time Enough for Love
“Anybody can look at a pretty girl and see a pretty girl. An artist can look at a pretty girl and see the old woman she will become. A better artist can look at an old woman and see the pretty girl that she used to be. But a great artist-a master-and that is what Auguste Rodin was-can look at an old woman, protray her exactly as she is...and force the viewer to see the pretty girl she used to be...and more than that, he can make anyone with the sensitivity of an armadillo, or even you, see that this lovely young girl is still alive, not old and ugly at all, but simply prisoned inside her ruined body. He can make you feel the quiet, endless tragedy that there was never a girl born who ever grew older than eighteen in her heart...no matter what the merciless hours have done to her. Look at her, Ben. Growing old doesn't matter to you and me; we were never meant to be admired-but it does to them.”
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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. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.”
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“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
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“Don't handicap your children by making their lives easy.”
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“A prude is a person who thinks that his own rules of propriety are natural laws.”
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“Jealousy is a disease, love is a healthy condition. The immature mind often mistakes one for the other, or assumes that the greater the love, the greater the jealousy - in fact, they are almost incompatible; one emotion hardly leaves room for the other.”
― Stranger in a Strange Land
― Stranger in a Strange Land
“You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.”
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“Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.”
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“You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity.”
― The Green Hills of Earth
― The Green Hills of Earth
“Never try to outstubborn a cat.”
― Time Enough for Love
― Time Enough for Love
“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.”
― The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
― The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
“Being a mother is an attitude, not a biological relation.”
― Have Space Suit—Will Travel
― Have Space Suit—Will Travel
“I've found out why people laugh. They laugh because it hurts so much . . . because it's the only thing that'll make it stop hurting.”
― Stranger in a Strange Land
― Stranger in a Strange Land
“A dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than is a riot.”
― Friday
― Friday
“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.”
― The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
― The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
“Once a month, some women act like men act all the time.”
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“Sin lies only in hurting others unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense.”
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“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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“Butterflies are self propelled flowers.”
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“Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it.”
― Time Enough for Love
― Time Enough for Love
“Do not confuse "duty" with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect.
But there is no reward at all for doing what other people expect of you, and to do so is not merely difficult, but impossible. It is easier to deal with a footpad than it is with the leech who wants "just a few minutes of your time, please—this won't take long." Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few. If you allow yourself to fall into the vice of agreeing to such requests, they quickly snowball to the point where these parasites will use up 100 percent of your time—and squawk for more!
So learn to say No—and to be rude about it when necessary. Otherwise you will not have time to carry out your duty, or to do your own work, and certainly no time for love and happiness. The termites will nibble away your life and leave none of it for you.
(This rule does not mean that you must not do a favor for a friend, or even a stranger. But let the choice be yours. Don't do it because it is "expected" of you.)”
― Time Enough for Love
But there is no reward at all for doing what other people expect of you, and to do so is not merely difficult, but impossible. It is easier to deal with a footpad than it is with the leech who wants "just a few minutes of your time, please—this won't take long." Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few. If you allow yourself to fall into the vice of agreeing to such requests, they quickly snowball to the point where these parasites will use up 100 percent of your time—and squawk for more!
So learn to say No—and to be rude about it when necessary. Otherwise you will not have time to carry out your duty, or to do your own work, and certainly no time for love and happiness. The termites will nibble away your life and leave none of it for you.
(This rule does not mean that you must not do a favor for a friend, or even a stranger. But let the choice be yours. Don't do it because it is "expected" of you.)”
― Time Enough for Love
“Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.”
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“Secrecy is the keystone to all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy and censorship. When any government or church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, "This you may not read, this you must not know," the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man who has been hoodwinked in this fashion; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, whose mind is free. No, not the rack nor the atomic bomb, not anything. You can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him.”
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“The most preposterous notion that Homo sapiens has ever dreamed up is that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes, wants the saccharine adoration of His creatures, can be swayed by their prayers, and becomes petulant if He does not receive this flattery. Yet this absurd fantasy, without a shred of evidence to bolster it, pays all the expenses of the oldest, largest, and least productive industry in all history.”
― Time Enough for Love
― Time Enough for Love
“May you live as long as you wish and love as long as you live.”
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“There are no dangerous weapons; there are only dangerous men.”
― Starship Troopers
― Starship Troopers
