From the Notebook of Lazarus Long
From Robert Heinlein's Time Enough For Love
Always tell her she is beatiful, especially if she is not.
If you are part of a society that votes, than do so. There may be
no candidates and no measures you want to vote for .. but there are
certain to be ones you want to vote against. In case of doubt, vote
against. By this rule, you will rarely go wrong.
If this is too blind for your taste, consult some well meaning fool
(there is always one around) and ask his advice. Then vote the other
way. This enables you to be a good citizen (if such is your wish)
without spending the enormous amount of time on it that truly
intelligent exercise of franchise requires.
Sovereign ingredient for a happy marriage: pay cash or do without.
Interest charges not ony eat up a household budget; awareness of debt
eats up domestic felicity.
Those who refuse to support and defend a state have no claim to
protection by that state. Killing an anarchist or a pacifist should not
be defined as 'murder' in a legalistic sense. The offense against the
state, if any, should be 'Using deadly weapon inside city limits,' or
'Creating a taffic hazard,' or 'Endangering bystanders,' or other
misdemeanor.
However, the state may reasonably place a closed season on these
exotic asocial animals whenever they are in danger of becoming extinct.
An authentic buck pacifist has rarely been seen off Earth, and it is
doubtful that any have survived the trouble there .. regrettable, as
they had the biggest mouths and the smallest brains of any of the
primates.
The small-mouthed variety of anarchist has spread through the Galaxy
at the very wave front of the Diaspora; there is no need to protect
them. But they often shoot back.
Another ingredient for a happy marriage: Budget the luxuries first!
And still another - See to it that
she has her own desk - then keep your hands off it!
And another - In a family argument,
if it turns out you are right - apologize at once!
'God split himself into a myriad parts that he might have friends.'
This may not be true, but it sounds good - and is no sillier than any
other theology.
To stay young requires unceasing cultivation of the ability to
unlearn old falsehoods.
When the fox gnaws - smile!
A 'critic' is a man who creates nothing and thereby feels qualified
to judge the work of creative men. There is logic in this; he is
unbiased - he hates all creative people equally.
Money is truthful. If a man speaks of his honor, make him pay cash.
Never frighten a little man. He'll kill you.
Only a sadistic scoundrel - or a fool - tells the bald truth on
social occasions.
This sad little lizard told me that he was a brontosaurus on his
mother's side. I did not laugh; people who boast of ancestry often have
little else to sustain them. Humoring them costs nothing and adds to
happiness in a world in which happiness is always in short supply.
In handling a stinging insect, move very slowly.
To be 'matter of fact' about the world is to blunder into fantasy -
and dull fantasy at that, as the real world is strange and wonderful.
The difference between science and the fuzzy subjects is that
science requires reasoning, while those other subjects merely require
scholarship.
Copulation is spiritual in essence - or it is merely friendly
exercise. On second thought, strike out 'merely.' Copulation is not
'merely' - even when it is just a happy pastime for two strangers. But
copulation at its spiritual best is so much more than physical coupling
that it is different in kind as well as in degree.
The saddest feature of homosexuality is not that it is 'wrong' or
'sinful' or even that it can't lead to progeny - but that it is more
difficult to reach through it this spiritual union. Not impossible -
but the cards are stacked against it.
But - most sorrowfully - many people never achieve spiritual sharing
even with the help of male-female advantage; they are condemned to
wander through life alone.
Touch is the most fundamental sense. A baby experiences it, all
over, before he is born and long after he learns to use sight, hearing,
or taste, and no human ever ceases to need it. Keep your children short
on pocket money - but long on hugs.
Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny.
The greatest productive force is human selfishness.
Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors -
and miss.
The profession of shaman has many advantages. It offers high status
with a safe livelyhood free of work in the dreary, sweaty sense. In
most societies it offers legal privileges and immunities not granted to
other men. But it is hard to see how a man who has been given a mandate
from on high to spread tidings of joy to all mankind can be seriously
interested in taking up a collection to pay his salary; it causes one to
suspect that the shaman is on the moral level of any other con man.
But it's lovely work if you can stomach it.
A whore should be judged by the same criteria as other professionals
offering services for pay - such as dentists, lawyers, hairdressers,
physicians, plumbers, etc. Is she professionally competent? Does she
give good measure? Is she honest with her clients?
It is possible that the percentage of honest competent whores is
higher than that of plumbers and much higher than that of lawyers. And
enormously higher than that of professors.
Minimize your therbligs until it becomes automatic; this doubles
your effective lifetime - and thereby gives you time to enjoy
butterflies and kittens and rainbows.
Have you noticed how much they look like orchids? Lovely!
Expertise in one field does not carry over into other fields. But
experts often think so. The narrower their field of knowledge the more
likely they are to think so.
Never try to outstubborn a cat.
Tilting at windmills hurts you more than the windmills.
Yield to temptation; it may not pass your way again.
Waking a person unnecessarily should not be considered a capital
crime. For a first offense, that is.
'Go to hell!' or other insult direct is all the answer a snoopy
question rates.
The correct way to punctuate a sentence that starts: 'Of course it
is none of my business but-' is to place a period after the word 'but.'
Don't use excessive force in suplying such a moron with a period.
Cutting his throat is only a momentary pleasure and is bound to get you
talked about.
A man does not insist on physical beauty in a woman who builds up
his morale. After a while he realizes that she is beautiful - he just
hadn't noticed it at first.
A skunk is better company than a person who prodes himself on being
'frank.'
'All's fair in love and war' - what a contemptible lie!
Beware of the 'Black Swan' fallacy. Deductive logic is
tautological; there is no way to get a new truth out of it, and it
manipulates false statements as readily as true ones. If you fail to
remember this, it can trip you - with perfect logic. The designers of
the earliest computers called this the 'Gigo Law,' i.e., 'Garbage in,
garbage out.'
Inductive logic is much more difficult - but can produce new truths.
A 'practical joker' deserves applause for his wit according to its
quality. Bastinado is about right. For exceptional wit one might grant
keelhauling. But staking him out on an anthill should be reserved for
the very wittiest.
Natural laws have no pity.
On the planet Tranquille around KM849 (G-O) lives a little animal
known as a 'knafn.; It is herbivorous and has no natural enemies and is
easily approached and may be petted - sort of a six-legged puppy with
scales. Stroking it is very pleasant; it wiggles its pleasure and
broadcasts euphoria in some band that humans can detect. It's worth the
trip.
Someday some bright boy will figure out how to record this broadcast,
then some smart boy will figure out commercial angles - and not long
after that it will be regulated and taxed.
In the meantime I have faked that name and catalog number; it is
several thousand light-years off in another direction. Selfish of me-
Freedom begins when you tell Mrs. Grundy to go fly a kite.
Take of the cojones and the frijoles will take care of themselves.
Try to have getaway money - but son't be fanatic about it.
If 'everybody knows' such-and-such, then it ain't so, by at least
ten thousand to one.
Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist,
fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria.
The human race divides politically into those who want people to be
controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists
acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest
number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in
altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.
All cats are not gray after midnight. Endless variety-
Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other
'sins' are invented nonsense. (Hurting yourself is not sinful - just
stupid.)
Being generous is inborn; being altruistic is a learned perversity.
No resemblance-
It is impossible for a man to love his wife wholeheartedly without
loving all women somewhat. I suppose that the converse must be true of
women.
You can go wrong by being too skeptical as readily as by being to
trusting.
Formal courtesy between husband and wife is even more important than
it is between strangers.
Anything free is worth what you pay for it.
Don't store garlic near other victuals.
Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get.
Pessimist by policy, optimist by temperament - it is possible to be
both. How? By never taking an unnecessary chance and by minimizing
risks you can't avoid. This permits you to play out the game happily,
untroubled by the certainty of the outcome.
Do not confuse 'duty' with what other people expect of you; they are
utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill
obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail
anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die.
Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect.
But there is no reward at all for doing what other people expect of
you, and to do so is not merely difficult, but impossible. It is easier
to deal with a footpad than it is with the leech who wants 'just a few
minutes of your time, please - this won't take long.' Time is your
total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few. If you
allow yourself to fall into the vice of agreeing to such requests, they
quickly snowball to the point where these parasites will use up 100
percent of your time - and squawk for more!
So learn to say No - and to be rude about it when necessary.
Otherwise you will not have time to carry out your duty, or to do
your own work, and certainly no time for love and happiness. The
termites will nibble away your life and leave none of it for you.
(This rule does not mean that you must not do a favor for a friend,
or even a stranger. But let the choice be yours. Don't do it because
it is 'expected' of you.)
"I came, I saw, she conquered."
(The original Latin seems to have been garbled.)
A committee is a life form with six or more legs and no brain.
Animals can be driven crazy by placing too many in too small a pen.
Homo sapiens is the only animal that voluntarily does this to himself.
Don't try to have the last word. You might get it.
Always store beer in a dark place.
By the data to date, there is only one animal in the Galaxy
dangerous to man - man himself. So he must supply his own indispensable
competition. He has no enemy to help him.
Men are more sentimental than women. It blurs their thinking.
Certainly the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you; if you don't
bet, you can't win.
Any priest or shaman must be presumed guilty until proven innocent.
Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and
why. Then do it.
Get a shot off fast. This upsets him long enough to let you make
your second shot perfect.
There is no conclusive evidence of life after death. But there is
no evidence of any sort against it. Soon enough you will know. So why
fret about it?
If it can't be expressed in figures, it is not science; it is opinion.
It has long been known that one horse can run faster than another -
but which one? Differences are crucial.
A fake fortuneteller can be tolerated. But an authentic soothsayer
should be shot on sight. Cassandra did not get half the kicking around
she deserved.
Delusions are often functional. A mother's opinions about her
children's beauty, intelligence, goodness, et cetera ad nauseam, keep
her from drowning them at birth.
Most 'scientists' are bottle washers and button sorters.
A 'pacifist male' is a contradiction in terms. Most self-described
'pacifists' are not pacific; they simply assume false colors. When the
wind changes, they hoist the Jolly Roger.
Nursing does not diminish the beauty of a woman's breasts; it
enhances their charm by making them look lived in and happy.
A generation which ignores history has no past - and no future.
A poet who reads his verse in public may have other nasty habits.
What a wonderful world it is that has girls in it!
Small change can often be found under seat cushions.
History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any
rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to
stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people
do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive
considerable pleasure from fiddling with it.
It's amazing how much 'mature wisdom' resembles being too tired.
If you don't like yourself, you can't like other people.
Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes. Keep this in mind;
it may offer a way to make him your friend. If not, you can kill him
without hate - and quickly.
A motion to adjourn is always in order.
No state has an inherent right to survive through conscript troops
and, in the long run, no state ever has. Roman matrons used to say to
their sons: 'Come back with your shield, or on it.' Later on, this
custom declined. So did Rome.
Of all the strange 'crimes' that human beings have legislated out of
nothing, 'blasphemy' is the most amazing - with 'obscenity' and
'indecent exposure' fighting it out for second and third place.
Cheops' Law: Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget.
It is better to copulate than never.
All societies are based on rules to protect pregnant women and young
children. All else is surplusage, excrescence, adornment, luxury, or
folly which can - and must - be dumped in emergency to preserve this
prime function. As racial survival is the only universal morality, no
other basic is possible. Attempts to formulate a 'perfect society' on
any foundation other than 'Women and children first!' is not only
witless, it is automatically genocidal. Nevertheless, starry-eyed
idealists (all of them male) have tried endlessly - and no doubt will
keep on trying.
All men are created unequal.
Money is a powerful aphrodisiac. But flowers work almost as well.
A brute kills for pleasure. A fool kills from hate.
There is only one way to console a widow. But remember the risk.
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.
Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites.
Moderation is for monks.
It may be better to be a live jackal than a dead lion, but it is
better still to be a live lion. And usually easier.
One man's theology is another man's belly laugh.
Sex should be friendly. Otherwise stick to mechanical toys; it's
more sanitary.
Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to
themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.
Never appeal to a man's 'better nature.' He may not have one.
Invoking his self-interest gives you more leverage.
Little girls, like butterflies, need no excuse.
You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once.
Avoid making irrevocable decisions while tired or hungry. N.B.:
Circumstances can force your hand, so think ahead!
Place your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark.
An elephant: A mouse built to government specifications.
Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man.
Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded - here and there, now and
then - are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised,
often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people.
Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes
happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into
abject poverty.
This is known as 'bad luck.'
In a mature society, 'civil servant' is semantically equal to 'civil
master.'
When a place gets crowded enough to require ID's, social collapse is
not far away. It is time to go elsewhere. The best thing about spce
travel is that it made it possible to go elsewhere.
A woman is not property, and husbands who think otherwise are living
in a dreamworld.
The second best thing about space travel is that the distances
involved make war very difficult, usually impractical, and almost always
unnecessary. This is probably a loss for most people, since war is our
race's most popular diversion, one which gives purpose and color to dull
and stupid lives. But it is a great boon to the intelligent man who
fights only when he must - never for sport.
A zygote is a gamete's way of producing more gametes. This may be
the purpose of the universe.
There are hidden contradictions in the minds of people who "love
Nature" while deploring the 'artificialities' with which "Man has
spoiled 'Nature'." The obvious contradiction lies in their choice of
words, which imply that Man and his artifacts are not part of 'Nature' -
but beavers and their dams are. But the contradictions go deeper than
this prima-facie absurdity. In declaring his love for a beaver dam
(erected by beavers for beavers' purposes) and his hatred for dams
erected by men (for the purposes of men) the 'Naturist' reveals his
hatred for his own race - i.e., his own self-hatred.
In the case of 'Naturists' such self-hatred is understandable; they
are such a sorry lot. But hatred is too strong an emotion to feel
toward them; pity and comtempt are the most they rate.
As for me, willy-nilly I am a man, not a beaver, and H. sapiens is
the only race I have or can have. Fortunately for me, I like being part
of a race made up of men and women - it strikes me as a fine arrangement
and perfectly 'natural.'
Believe it or not, there were 'Naturists' who opposed the first
flight to old Earth's Moon as being 'unnatural' and a 'despoiling of
Nature.'
'No man is an island-' Much as we may fell and act as individuals,
our race is a single organism, always growing and branching - which must
be pruned regularly to be healthy. This necessity need not be argued;
anyone with eyes can see that any organism which grows without limit
always dies in its own poisons. The only rational question is whether
pruning is best done before or after birth.
Being an incurable sentimentalist I favor the former of these methods
- killing makes me queasy, even when it's a case of 'He's dead and I'm
alive and that's the way I wanted it to be.'
But this may be a matter of taste. Some shamans think that it is
better to be killed in a war, or to die in childbirth, or to starve in
misery, than never to have lived at all. They may be right.
But I don't have to like it - and I don't.
Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser
than one man. How's that again? I missed something.
Autocracy is based on the assumption that one man is wiser than a
million men. Let's play that over again, too. Who decides?
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.'
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!
Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by
legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can't help being
stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence
is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically
and without pity.
God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent - it says so right
here on the label. If you have a mind capable of believing all three of
these divine attributes simultaneously, I have a wonderful bargain for
you. No checks, please. Cash and in small bills.
Courage is the complement of fear. A man who is fearless cannot be
courageous. (He is also a fool.)
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.
People who go broke in a big way never miss any meals. It is the
poor jerk who is shy a half slug who must tighten his belt.
The truth of a proposition has nothing to do with its credibility.
And vice versa.
Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best
he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe, and not
make messes in the house.
Moving parts in rubbing contact require lubrication to avoid
excessive wear. Honorifics and formal politeness provide lubrication
where people rub together. Often the very young, the untraveled, the
naive, the unsophisticated deplore these formalties as 'empty,'
'meaningless,' or 'dishonest,' and scorn to use them. No matter how
pure their motives, they thereby throw sand into machinery that does not
work too well at best.
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion,
butcher a hog, conn a shp, 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.
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 that are decent and
just.
Masturbation is cheap, clean, convenient, and free of any
possibility of wrongdoing - and you don't have to go home in the cold.
But it's lonely.
Beware of altruism. It is based on self-deception, the root of all evil.
If tempted by something that feels 'altruistic,' examine your
motives and root out that self-deception. Then, if you still want to do
it, wallow in it.
The most preposterous notion that H. sapiens has ever dreamed up is
that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes,
wants the saccharine adoration of His creatures, can be swayed by their
prayers, and becomes petulant if He does not receive this flattery. Yet
this absurd fantasy, without a shred of evidence to bolster it, pays all
the expenses of the oldest, largest, and least productive industry in
all history.
The second most preposterous notion is that copulation is inherently
sinful.
Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of - but do it in
private and wash your hands afterwards.
$100 placed at 7 percent interest compounded quarterly for 200 years
will increase to more than $100,000,000 - by which time it will be worth
nothing.
Dear, don't bore him with trivia or burden him with your past
mistakes. The happiest way to deal with a man is never to tell him
anything he does not need to know.
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.
Everybody lies about sex.
If men were the automatons that behaviorists claim they are, the
behaviorist psychologists could not have invented the amazing nonsense
called 'behaviorist psychology.' So they are wrong from scratch - as
clever and as wrong as phlogiston chemists.
The shamans are forever yacking about their snake-oil 'miracles.' I
prefer the real McCoy - a pregnant woman.
If the universe has any purpose more important than topping a woman
you love and making a baby with her hearty help, I've never heard of it.
Thou shalt remember the Eleventh Commandment and keep it Wholly.
A touchstone to determine the actual worth of an 'intellectual' -
find out how he feels about astrology.
Taxes are not levied for the benefit of the taxed.
There is no such thing as 'social gambling.' Either you are there
to cut the other bloke's heart out and eat it - or you're a sucker. If
you don't like this choice - don't gamble.
When the ship lifts, all bills are paid. No regrets.
The first time I was a drill instructor I was too inexperienced for
the job - the things I taught those lads must have got some of them
killed. War is too serious a matter to be taught by the inexperienced.
A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in
anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity.
Money is the sincerest of all flattery.
Women love to be flattered.
So do men.
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You live and learn. Or you don't live long.
Whenever women have insisted on absolute equality with men, they
have invariably wound up with the dirty end of the stick. What they are
and what they can do makes them superior to men, and their proper tactic
is to demand special privileges, all the traffic will bear. They should
never settle merely for equality. For women, 'equality' is a disaster.
Peace is an extension of war by political means. Plenty of elbow
room is pleasanter - and much safer.
One man's 'magic' is another man's engineering. 'Supernatural' is a
null word.
The phrase 'we (I) (you) simply must-' designates something that
need not be done. 'That goes without saying' is a red warning. 'Of
course' means that you had best check it yourself. These small-change
cliches and others like them, when read correctly, are reliable channel
markers.
Do not handicap your children by making their lives easy.
Rub her feet.
If you happen to be one of the fretful minority who can do creative
work, never force an idea; you'll abort it if you do. Be patient and
you'll give birth to it when the time is ripe. Learn to wait.
Never crowd youngsters about their private affairs - sex especially.
When they are growing up, they are nerve ends all over, and resent
(quite properly) any invasion of their privacy. Oh sure, they'll make
mistakes - but that's their business, not yours. (You made your own
mistakes, did you not?)
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.