The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there’s no good reason to go into space.
Don’t handicap your children by making their lives easy.
Secrecy is the keystone to all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy and censorship.
The best things in life are beyond money; their price is agony and sweat and devotion.
A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity.
I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.
Always listen to experts. They’ll tell you what can’t be done, and why. Then do it.
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.
There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.
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.
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.
Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn’t there. Theologians can persuade themselves of anything.
If you would hit the mark, you must aim a little above it; Every arrow that flies feels the attraction of earth.
The hardest part about gaining any new idea is sweeping out the false idea occupying that niche.
One man’s ‘magic’ is another man’s engineering. ‘Supernatural’ is a null word.
Never worry about theory as long as the machinery does what it’s supposed to do.
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.
The two highest achievements of the human mind are the twin concepts of ‘loyalty’ and ‘duty.’ Whenever these twin concepts fall into disrepute – get out of there fast! You may possibly save yourself, but it is too late to save that society. It is doomed.
The most costly of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind.
Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.
Sex without love is merely healthy exercise.
Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.
You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity.
The whole principle is wrong; it’s like demanding that grown men live on skim milk because the baby can’t eat steak.
The difference between science and the fuzzy subjects is that science requires reasoning while those other subjects merely require scholarship.
The more you love, the more you can love – and the more intensely you love. Nor is there any limit on how many you can love. If a person had time enough, he could love all of that majority who are decent and just.
If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing.
I am not a person who subscribes to the ‘nothing but’ theory of happiness.
When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, ‘This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know,’ the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives.
Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other ‘sins’ are invented nonsense.
Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn’t there. Theologians can persuade themselves of anything.
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.
Being right too soon is socially unacceptable.
I’ve never been able to understand why a Republican contributor is a ‘fat cat’ and a Democratic contributor of the same amount of money is a ‘public-spirited philanthropist’.
Don’t ever become a pessimist… a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun, and neither can stop the march of events.
What are the facts? Again and again and again – what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what ‘the stars foretell,’ avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable ‘verdict of history’ – what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!
Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn’t there. Theologians can persuade themselves of anything.
I never learned from a man who agreed with me.
One man’s ‘magic’ is another man’s engineering. ‘Supernatural’ is a null word.
Everything is theoretically impossible until it is done.
Don’t worry about what anybody else is going to do. The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
The two highest achievements of the human mind are the twin concepts of ‘loyalty’ and ‘duty.’ Whenever these twin concepts fall into disrepute – get out of there fast! You may possibly save yourself, but it is too late to save that society. It is doomed.
Do not confuse ‘duty’ with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different.
Never appeal to a man’s ‘better nature.’ He may not have one. Invoking his self-interest gives you more leverage.
Government! Three fourths parasitic and the other fourth stupid fumbling.
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