Time Enough for Love

by Robert A. Heinlein

There are still plenty of clumsy liars, approximately as many as there are mouths.

I get up early from long habit—the habit of work. But I don’t say it’s a virtue.” “Which? Work? Or early rising? Neither is a virtue. But getting up early does not get more work done . . any more than you can make a piece of string longer by cutting off one end and tying it onto the other.

The air screw was driven by an engine powered by a chemical exothermic reaction—oxidation of a hydrocarbon fluid called “gas,” which it was not. If you think this unlikely, I assure you that it was unlikely even then. The method was woefully inefficient. A flier was not only likely to run out of gas with nothing around him but ocean, but also this temperamental engine often coughed and quit. Embarrassing. Sometimes fatal.

Never appeal to a man’s “better nature.” He may not have one. Invoking his self-interest gives you more leverage.

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.