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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
Business
Talks
Able
Pockets
Self
Ethics
Work
Usually
Way
Trust
Men
Says
Acting
Picking
Interest
Pocket

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In past history popularly elected governments have been no better and sometimes far worse than overt tyrannies.
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I came, I saw, she conquered. The original Latin seems to have been garbled.
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His older self had taught his younger self a language which the older self knew because the younger self, after being taught, grew up to be the older self and was, therefore, capable of teaching.
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Art is the process of evoking pity and terror, which is not abstract at all but very human. What the self-styled modern artists are doing is a sort of unemotional pseudointellectual masturbation . . . whereas creative art is more like intercourse, in which the artist must seduce -- render emotional -- his audience, each time.
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Only a sadistic scoundrel-or a fool-tells the bald truth on social occasions.
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All human behavior, all human motivations, all man’s hopes and fears, were heavily colored and largely controlled by mankind’s tragic and oddly beautiful pattern of reproduction.
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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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There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
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First you must learn to control your self. The rest follows. Blessed is he who knows himself and commands himself, for the world is his and love and happiness and peace walk with him wherever he goes.
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One man's 'magic' is another man's engineering. 'Supernatural' is a null word.
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Age does not bring wisdom... but it does give perspective... and the saddest sight of all is to see, far behind you, temptations you've resisted.
Robert A. Heinlein
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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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'Savage' describes a cultural condition, not a degree of intelligence.
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Unarmed hand-to-hand fighting does not change through the ages only the name changes, and it has only one rule: do it first, do it fast, do it dirtiest.
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He's an honest politician--he stays bought.
Robert A. Heinlein
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Straining at gnats and swallowing camels is a required course in law schools.
Robert A. Heinlein
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It was better to live with disappointment and frustration than to live without hope.
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Nothing of value is free. Even the breath of life is purchased at birth only through gasping effort and pain.
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Most women are damn fools and children. But they've got more range than we've got. The brave ones are braver, the good ones are better - and the vile ones are viler, for that matter.
Robert A. Heinlein
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The more you love, the more you can love - and the more intensely you love.
Robert A. Heinlein