Mr. Jones, has it ever occurred to you, the world being what it is, that women sometimes prefer not to appear too bright? - Robert A. Heinlein

“Spare the rod and spoil the child” is not sadistic; it is hard common sense. You fail your children worst if you do not punish them when they need it. The lessons you fail to teach them will be taught later and much more harshly by a cruel world, the real world where no excuses are accepted.

Old age is not an accomplishment; it is just something that happens to you despite yourself, like falling downstairs.

File off the serial numbers, change the body lines a bit, give it a new paint job, switch it over the state line, and it’s yours!—that’s the secret of literary success. Editors always claim to be looking for new stories but they don’t buy them; they buy “mixture as before.” Because the cash customers want to be entertained, not amazed, not instructed, not frightened.