He had learned that close-held secrets could often be cracked by going all the way to the top and there making himself unbearably unpleasant. He knew… - Robert A. Heinlein

“I talked with it, boss. It’s stupid.”
“I can’t see that you have established that. Assuming that an e.-t. is stupid because he can’t speak our language well is like assuming that an Italian is illiterate because he speaks broken English. A non-sequitur.”

“The trouble with you youngsters,” Joe said, “is that if you can’t understand a thing right off, you think it can’t be true. The trouble with your elders is, anything they didn’t understand they reinterpreted to mean something else and then thought they understood it. None of you has tried believing clear words the way they were written and then tried to understand them on that basis. Oh, no, you’re all too bloody smart for that—if you can’t see it right off, it ain’t so—it must mean something different.”

You aren't really there at all. There isn't anybody but me — Jane — here alone in the dark. I miss you dreadfully!