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It is always wiser, where there is a choice, to trust inertia. It is the greatest force in the world.

Rex Stout

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Rex Stout
Age: 88 †
Born: 1886
Born: December 1
Died: 1975
Died: October 27
Novelist
Radio Personality
Science Fiction Writer
Screenwriter
Writer
Noblesville
Indiana
World
Inertia
Wiser
Choice
Trust
Greatest
Choices
Force
Always

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MY rule is never to be rude to anyone unless you mean it.
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If I'm home with no chore at hand, and a package of books has come, the television set and the chess board and the unanswered mail will have to manage without me if one of the books is a detective story.
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Nothing is more admirable than the fortitude with which millionaires tolerate the disadvantages of their wealth.
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No man should tell a lie unless he is shrewd enough to recognize the time for renouncing it, if and when it comes, and knows how to renounce it gracefully.
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We are all vainer of our luck than of our merits.
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Hemingway never grew out of adolescence. His scope and depth stayed shallow because he had no idea what women are for.
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The only two kinds of books could earn an American writer a living are cookbooks and detective novels.
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All my important decisions are made for me by my subconscious. My frontal lobes are just kidding themselves that they decide anything at all. All they do is think up reasons for the decisions that are already made.
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As a professional writer of detective stories, I string along with the ballplayers. I love a ball game.
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Opinions, from experts, cost money.
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I have a strong moral sense - by my standards.
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I don't approve of open fires. You can't think, or talk or even make love in front of a fireplace. All you can do is stare at it.
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One of the hardest things to believe is that anyone will abandon the effort to escape a charge of murder. It is extremely important to suspend disbelief on that. If you don't, the story is spoiled.
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I love to make a mistake. It is my only assurance that I cannot reasonably be expected to assume the responsibility of omniscience.
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The requisitions of the income tax have added greatly to the attractions of mercenary crime.
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Bosh. I find a rival - but no, I won't flatter myself that Tecumseh Fox would consider himself a rival of Dol Bonner - I find an eminent detective in your apartment, and that alone is enough, without adding that he is concealed in your bedroom while I am discussing my business with you.
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The trouble with an alarm clock is that what seems sensible when you set it seems absurd when it goes off
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Everything in a story should be credible.
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What do I believe in? Belief means faith, and there's only one damned thing in the world I have any faith in. That's the idea of American democracy, because it seems to me so obvious that that's the only sensible way to run human affairs.
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A schedule broken at will becomes a mere procession of vagaries.
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