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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.

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
Country
Personal
Stands
Right
Wrong
Gain
Mean
American
Gains
People
Means
Master
Speak
Ideals
Instituted
Political
Loving
Distorted
America
Masters
Patriotism
Government
Courage
Servant

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From somewhere, back in my youth, heard Prof say, 'Manuel, when faced with a problem you do not understand, do any part of it you do understand, then look at it again.' He had been teaching me something he himself did not understand very well—something in math—but had taught me something far more important, a basic principle.
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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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To permit irresponsible authority is to sell disaster.
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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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Certain types of loudmouthism should be a capital offense among decent people.
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Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own... 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.
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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.
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The meek shall inherit the earth - a 6 foot plot above them.
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I'm afraid of coaching, of writer's classes, of writer's magazines, of books on how to write. They give me centipede trouble - you know the yarn about the centipede who was asked how he managed all his feet? He tried to answer, stopped to think about it, and was never able to walk another step.
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To stay young requires unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods.
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An invention is something that was impossible up to then that's why governments grant patents.
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One might define adulthood as the age at which a person learns that he must die ...and accepts his sentence undismayed.
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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.
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Was there ever a time when the majority was right?
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A committee is a life form with six or more legs and no brain.
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Selfishness is the bedrock on which all moral behavior starts and it can be immoral only when it conflicts with a higher moral imperative.
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Logic is a feeble reed, friend. Logic proved that airplanes can't fly and that H-bombs won't work and that stones don't fall out of the sky. Logic is a way of saying that anything which didn't happen yesterday won't happen tomorrow.
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The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.
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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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The greatest productive force is human selfishness.
Robert A. Heinlein