Paul Shealy > Paul's Quotes

“You must pay for everything in this world one way and another. There is nothing free except the Grace of God. You cannot earn that or deserve it.”
― Charles Portis, True Grit

“There is no knowing what is in a man's heart.”
― Charles Portis, True Grit

“Time just gets away from us.”
― Charles Portis, True Grit

“The wicked flee when none pursueth.”
― Charles Portis, True Grit

“Don't let someone spend money who never earned it.”
― Nick Cole, The Old Man and the Wasteland

“People don't hate each other. They hate each other's ideas.”
― Nick Cole, The Old Man and the Wasteland

“Peer pressure is when you decide to lob a few warheads at this week's Nazi because CNN told you to.”
― Nick Cole, The Old Man and the Wasteland

“But in writing your constitution let me invite attention the wonderful virtues of the negative! Accentuate the negative! Let your document be studded with things the government is forever forbidden to do. No conscript armies . . . no interference however slight with freedom of press, or speech, or travel, or assembly, or of religion, or of instruction, or communication, or occupation. . . no involuntary taxation. Comrades, if you were to spend five years in a study of history while thinking of more and more things that your government should promise never to do and then let your constitution be nothing but those negatives, I would not fear the outcome.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

“Oh, ‘tanstaafl.’ Means ‘There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.’ And isn’t,” I added, pointing to a FREE LUNCH sign across room, “or these drinks would cost half as much. Was reminding her that anything free costs twice as much in long run or turns out worthless.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

“Comrades, I beg you – do not resort to compulsory taxation. There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

“The power to tax, once conceded, has no limits;”
― Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

“government is a dangerous servant and a terrible master. You now have freedom—if you can keep it. But do remember that you can lose this freedom more quickly to yourselves than to any other tyrant.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

“I will accept any rules that you feel necessary to your freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

“May I ask this? Under what circumstances is it moral for a group to do that which is not moral for a member of that group to do alone?” “Uh . . . that’s a trick question.” “It is the key question, dear Wyoming. A radical question that strikes to the root of the whole dilemma of government. Anyone who answers honestly and abides by all consequences knows where he stands—and what he will die for.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

“What I fear most are affirmative actions of sober and well- intentioned men, granting to government powers to do something that appears to need doing.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

“There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

“Navajos did not kill with cold-blooded premeditation. Nor did they kill for profit. To do so violated the scale of values of The People. Beyond meeting simple immediate needs, the Navajo Way placed little worth on property. In fact, being richer than one’s clansmen carried with it a social stigma. It was unnatural, and therefore suspicious.”
― Tony Hillerman, The Blessing Way

“Peace, though beloved of our Lord, is a cardinal virtue only if your neighbors share your conscience.”
― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

“Torturous advances won over generations can be lost by a single stroke of a myopic president's pen or a vainglorious general's sword.”
― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

“Once any tyranny becomes accepted as ordinary, its victory is assured.”
― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

“My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?”
― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

“By each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.”
― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

“The weak are meat the strong do eat.”
― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

“War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“Power is not a means; it is an end.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation. These contradictions are not accidental, nor do they result from from ordinary hypocrisy: they are deliberate exercises in doublethink”
― George Orwell, 1984

“From where we stand the rain seems random. If we could stand somewhere else, we would see the order in it.”
― Tony Hillerman, Coyote Waits