Double Star

by Robert A. Heinlein

If a man walks in dressed like a hick and acting as if he owned the place, he’s a spaceman.

However, although the art of strolling is almost lost, I savor it—and it gave me time to collect my thoughts.

“I was going to say that I don’t regard smuggling as a crime.” “Who does? Except those who make money off the rest of us by limiting trade.

However, insofar as I had political leanings of any sort, they certainly did not lean toward Bonforte. I considered him a dangerous man and very possibly a traitor to the human race. The idea of standing up and getting killed in his place was—how shall I put it?—distasteful to me. But—what a role!

Let us protect our own—but let us not be seduced by fear and hatred into foolish acts. The stars will never be won by little minds; we must be big as space itself.”

“There is no such thing as a dirty game. But you sometimes run into dirty players.”

“Take sides! Always take sides! You will sometimes be wrong—but the man who refuses to take sides must always be wrong!

and the bow tie should be tied poorly enough to show that it has been tied by hand—but it is too much to expect a man to understand both politics and period costuming.

“I don’t know. This job I have is not bad. The hours are easy and the pay is good—and the social security is first-rate—barring the outside chance of revolution, and my line has always been lucky on that score. But much of the work is tedious and could be done as well by any second-rate actor.” He glanced up at me. “I relieve your office of a lot of tiresome cornerstone-laying and parade-watching, you know.”

The people will take a certain amount of reform, then they want a rest. But the reforms stay. People don’t really want change, any change at all—and xenophobia is very deep-rooted. But we progress, as we must—if we are to go out to the stars.

“If Satan should ever replace God he would find it necessary to assume the attributes of Divinity.”