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I don't trust a man who talks about ethics when he is picking my pocket. But if he is acting in his own self-interest and says so, I have usually been able to work out some way to do business with him.

Robert A. Heinlein

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Robert A. Heinlein
Age: 80 †
Born: 1907
Born: July 7
Died: 1988
Died: May 8
Essayist
Literary Critic
Naval Officer
Novelist
Prosaist
Science Fiction Writer
Science Writer
Screenwriter
Stonemason
Writer
Butler
Missouri
Robert Anson Heinlein
Anson MacDonald
Lyle Monroe
John Riverside
Caleb Saunders
Simon York
Acting
Picking
Interest
Pocket
Business
Talks
Able
Pockets
Self
Ethics
Work
Usually
Way
Trust
Men
Says

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Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.
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Death is an old friend I know him well. I lived with him, ate with him, slept with him to meet him again does not frighten me death is as necessary as birth, as happy in its own way.
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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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Budget the luxuries first.
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Rarest of all is the man who can and does reason at all times, quickly, accurately, inclusively, despite hope or fear or bodily distress, without egocentric bias or thalmic disturbance, with correct memory, with clear distinction between fact, assumption, and non-fact.
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I had taken a partner once before—but, damnation, no matter how many times you get your fingers burned, you have to trust people. Otherwise you are a hermit in a cave, sleeping with one eye open.
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It's better to copulate than not.
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If you pray hard enough, water will run uphill. How hard? Why, hard enough to make water run uphill, of course!
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I have never been impressed by the formal schools of ethics.
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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.
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The Stone trembled and threw herself outward bound, toward Saturn. In her train followed hundreds and thousands and hundreds of thousands of thousands of restless, rolling Stones . . . to Saturn . . . to Uranus, to Pluto . . . rolling on out to the stars . . . outward bound to the ends of the Universe.
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My old man taught me two things: 'Mind own business' and 'Always cut cards.'
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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.
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Are you trying to tell all of us we have a bad signal-to-noise ratio?
Robert A. Heinlein
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From my point of view, a great deal of openly expressed piety is insufferable conceit.
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Civilians are like beans you buy 'em as needed for any job which merely requires skill and savvy. But you can't buy fighting spirit.
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The killer looked up as the bullet hit him. He looked as if he were puzzled by some strange occurence, being too freshly dead to be aware of it.
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A girl's name ending in 'a' - that always suggests a 'C' cup.
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A monarch's neck should always have a noose around it. It keeps him upright.
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Christ was crucified for preaching without a police permit
Robert A. Heinlein