الطيبة وحدها لا تكفي. لا بد من حكمة باردة قاسية للطيبة كي تحقق الخير. الطيبة بلا حكمة تؤدي حتما إلى الشر. - Robert A. Heinlein

Patriotism is not sentimental nonsense. Nor something dreamed up by demagogues. Patriotism is as necessary a part of man's evolutionary equipment as are his eyes, as useful to the race as eyes are to the individual.

A man who marries at my age isn’t taking a wife, he’s indenturing a nurse.

It’s not enough to be able to lie with a straight face; anybody with enough gall to raise on a busted flush can do that. The first way to lie artistically is to tell the truth — but not all of it. The second way involves telling the truth, too, but is harder: Tell the exact truth and maybe all of it…but tell it so unconvincingly that your listener is sure you are lying.