It pays to stop and think whenever you’ve got time to stop and think. - Wasp

Anyway, one soon loses appreciation of the value of something gained for nothing, one becomes bored by getting it for the mere asking."
"I don't," assured Zalumar. "I like it, I love it."
"Every day I see windows full of gold watches," said Lakin. "They tire me. I have a gold watch which I obtained by demanding it. I don't want fifty gold watches. I don't even want two of them. So what use are all the others to me?

Any chance of accidentally dropping our cargo of bureaucrats overboard on the way back? A misfortune like that might benefit the spaceways, if not humanity.

From what I have heard, from all that I have been told, I deduce a basic rule applying to lifeforms deemed intelligent."…
"And what is this rule?"
"That the governing body of any lifeforms such as ours will be composed of power-lovers rather than of specialists."
"Well, isn't it?"
"Unfortunately, it is. Government falls into the hands of those who desire authority and escapes those with other interests." He paused, went on. "That is not to say that those who govern us are stupid. They are quite clever in their own particular field of mass-organization. But by the same token they are pathetically ignorant of other fields.