Part 25 (2/2)
A touchstone to determine the actual worth of an ”intellectual”-find out how he feels about astrology.
[image]
Taxes are not levied for the benefit of the taxed.
[image]
There is no such thing as ”social gambling.” Either you are there to cut the other bloke's heart out and eat it-or you're a sucker. If you don't like this choice-don't gamble.
[image]
When the s.h.i.+p lifts, all bills are paid. No regrets.
[image]
The first time I was a drill instructor I was too inexperienced for the job-the things I taught those lads must have got some of them killed. War is too serious a matter to be taught by the inexperienced.
[image]
A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity.
[image]
Money is the sincerest of all flattery.
Women love to be flattered.
So do men.
[image]
You live and learn. Or you don't live long.
[image]
Whenever women have insisted on absolute equality with men, they have invariably wound up with the dirty end of the stick. What they are and what they can do makes them superior to men, and their proper tactic is to demand special privileges, all the traffic will bear. They should never settle merely for equality. For women, ”equality” is a disaster.
[image]
Peace is an extension of war by political means. Plenty of elbowroom is pleasanter-and much safer.
[image]
One man's ”magic” is another man's engineering. ”Supernatural” is a null word.
[image]
The phrase ”we (I) (you) simply must must-” designates something that need not be done. ”That goes without saying” is a red warning. ”Of course” means you had best check it yourself. These small-change cliches and others like them, when read correctly, are reliable channel markers.
[image]
Do not handicap your children by making their lives easy.
[image]
Rub her feet.
[image]
If you happen to be one of the fretful minority who can do creative work, never force an idea; you'll abort it if you do. Be patient and you'll give birth to it when the time is ripe. Learn to wait.
[image]
Never crowd youngsters about their private affairs-s.e.x especially. When they are growing up, they are nerve ends all over, and resent (quite properly) any invasion of their privacy. Oh, sure, they'll make mistakes-but that's their their business, not yours. (You made your own mistakes, did you not?) business, not yours. (You made your own mistakes, did you not?) [image]
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.
VARIATIONS ON A THEME.
XI.
The Tale of the Adopted Daughter
Stand with me on Man's old planet, gazing north when sky has darkened; follow down the Dipper's handle, half again and veering leftward-Do you see it? Can you sense it? Nothing there but cold and darkness. Try again with both eyes covered, try once more with inner vision, hearken now to wild geese honking, sounding through the endless s.p.a.ces, bouncing off the strange equations- There it glistens! Hold the vision, warp your s.h.i.+p through crumpled s.p.a.ces. Gently, gently, do not lose it. Virgin planet, new beginnings- it glistens! Hold the vision, warp your s.h.i.+p through crumpled s.p.a.ces. Gently, gently, do not lose it. Virgin planet, new beginnings- Woodrow Smith, of many faces, many names, and many places, led this band to New Beginnings, planet clean and bright as morning. End of line, he told his s.h.i.+pmates. Endless miles of untouched prairie, endless stands of uncut timber, winding rivers, soaring mountains, hidden wealth and hidden dangers. Here is life or here is dying; only sin is lack of trying. Grab your picks and grab your shovels; dig latrines and build your hovels-next year better, next year stronger, next year's furrows that much longer.
Learn to grow it, learn to eat it. You can't buy it; learn to make make it! How d'you know until you've tried it? Try again and keep on trying- it! How d'you know until you've tried it? Try again and keep on trying-
Ernest Gibbons, ne Woodrow Smith, sometimes known as Lazarus Long, et al., President of New Beginnings Bank of Commerce, walked out of the Waldorf Dining Room. He stood on the veranda, picking his teeth and looking over the busy street scene. Half a dozen saddle mules and a loper (muzzled) were hitched just below him. Up the street to the right a mule train from out back was unloading at the dock of the Top Dollar Trading Post (E. Gibbons, Prop.). A dog lay in the dust in the middle of the street; mounted traffic went around him. Across the street to his left a dozen children played some noisy game in the yard of Mrs. Mayberry's Primary School.
He could count thirty-seven people without moving from that spot. What a change eighteen years made! Top Dollar was no longer the only settlement, or even the largest. New Pittsburgh was larger (and dirtier), and both Separation and Junction were large enough to be called towns. This from only two s.h.i.+ploads and in a colony that had almost starved its first winter.
He did not like to think about that winter. That one family -cannibalism had not actually been proved proved-still, it was just as well that they were all dead.
Forget it. The weak ones died, and the bad ones died or were killed; the stock that survived was always stronger, smarter, more decent. New Beginnings was a planet to be proud of, and it would get better and better and better for a long time.
Still, almost twenty years was long enough to stay in one place; it was time to s.h.i.+p out again. In many ways it had been more fun when he and Andy, G.o.d rest his sweet innocent soul, had gone banging around the stars together, lining up real estate and never staying longer than necessary to a.s.sess potentialities. He wondered if his son Zaccur would be back on time with a third load of hopefuls.
He lifted his kilt and scratched above his right knee-checked his blaster-hitched at the belt band on the left, checked his needle gun-scratched the back of his neck, made sure of his second throwing knife. Ready to face the public, he considered whether to go to his desk at the bank or to the trading post and check that incoming s.h.i.+pment. Neither appealed to him.
One of the hitched mules nodded at him. Gibbons looked at him, then said, ”Hi, Buck. How are you, boy? Where's your boss?”
<script>