The key to traveling halfway around a planet without leaving tracks is: Pay cash. Never credit, never anything that goes into a computer. – Friday

No matter how lavishly overpaid, civil servants everywhere are convinced that they are horribly underpaid — but all public employees have larceny in their hearts or they wouldn’t be feeding at the public trough. – Friday

I was taught in basic that no place is ever totally safe and that any place you habitually return to is your top danger spot, the place most likely for booby trap, ambush, stakeout. – Friday

If you are ever questioned under pain, do scream. The Iron Man routine just makes them worse and it worse. Take it from one who’s been there. Scream your head off and crack as fast as possible. – Friday

We each have a moral obligation to conserve and preserve beauty in this world; there is none to waste. – Dr. Hartley M. Baldwin

Self-defense sometimes must take the form of ‘Do unto others what they would do unto you but do it first.’ – Dr. Hartley M. Baldwin

Friday, one of your weaknesses is that you lack appropriate conceit. – Dr. Hartley M. Baldwin

It isn’t any one thing; it’s a million little things that are the difference between being reared as a human child and being raised as an animal. – Friday

Friday, brainpower is the scarcest commodity and the only one of real value. Any human organization can be rendered useless, impotent, a danger to itself, by selectively removing its best minds while carefully leaving the stupid ones in place. It took only a few careful ‘accidents’ to ruin utterly the great Prussian military machine and turn it into a blundering mob. But this did not show until the fighting was well under way, because stupid fools look just as good as military geniuses until the fighting starts. – Dr. Hartley M. Baldwin

Properly regarded, male vanity is a virtue, not a vice. Treated correctly, it makes him enormously pleasanter to deal with. – Friday

Bare feet are as provocative as bare breasts, although most people do not seem to know it. A female packaged only in a lava-lava is far more provocative than one totally nude. – Friday

One might almost define intelligence as the level at which an aware organism demands ‘what’s in it for me?’ – George Perrault

…you would like to run down to the recruiting office, enlist for the duration, and thereby turn your consciences over to the sergeants. This served your fathers and grandfathers, and I am truly sorry that it can’t serve you. – Janet Tormey

There you are. Everybody is Equal, and Everybody has a vote. But you have to draw the line somewhere. Now shut-up, damnit, and don’t interrupt while your betters are talking.” – “Warwhoop” Tumbril

The simplest sort [of code] and thereby impossible to break. The first ad told the person or persons concerned to carry out number seven or expect number seven or it said something about something designated as seven. This one says the same with respect to code item number ten. But the meaning of the numbers cannot be deduced through statistical analysis because the code can be changed long before a useful statistical universe can be reached. It’s an idiot code… and an idiot code can never be broken if the user has the good sense not to go too often to the well. – George Perrault

Field operatives, even common soldiers, are expensive; management does not expend them casually. A trained assassin costs at least ten times as much as a common soldier: she is not expected to get herself killed — goodness me, no! She is expected to make the kill and get out, scot free. – Friday

A credit card is a leash around your neck. In the world of credit cards a person has no privacy . . . or at best protects her privacy only with great effort and much chicanery. Besides that, do you ever know what the computer network is doing when you poke your card into a slot? I don’t. I feel much safer with cash. I’ve never heard of anyone who had much luck arguing with a computer. – Friday

How many people have died because they could not abandon their baggage? – Friday

Geniuses and supergeniuses always make their own rules on sex as on everything else; they do not accept the monkey customs of their lessers. – Dr. Hartley M. Baldwin

People are so used to the computer net today that it is easy to forget what a window to the world it can be… One can grow so canalized in using a terminal only in certain ways — paying bills, making telephone calls, listening to news bulletins — that one can neglect its richer uses. If a subscriber is willing to pay for the service, almost anything can be done at a terminal that can be done out of bed.

…the absence of Eyes and Ears today simply means that they are concealed. – Dr. Hartley M. Baldwin

Sick cultures show a complex of symptoms . . . but a dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for other in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than is a riot.” – Dr. Hartley M. Baldwin

If you don’t believe that such things can happen, we aren’t living in the same world and there is no point in your reading any more of this… Throughout history the conventional way of dealing with an awkward witness has been to arrange for him to stop breathing. – Friday

To a revolutionist, communications are a sine-qua-non. – Bernardo de la Paz

The trouble with conspiracies is that they rot internally. When the number is as high as four, chances are even that one is a spy. – Bernardo de la Paz

…revolutions are not won by enlisting the masses. Revolution is a science only a few are competent to practice. It depends on correct organization and, above all, on communications. Then, at the proper moment in history, they strike. Correctly organized and properly timed it is a bloodless coupe. Done clumsily or prematurely and the result is a civil war, more violence, purges, terror. I hope you will forgive me if I say that, up to now, it has been done clumsily.

Organization must be no larger than necessary — never recruit anyone merely because he wants to join. Nor seek to persuade for the pleasure of having another share your views. He’ll share them when the time comes . . . or you’ve misjudged the moment in history. Oh, there will be an educational organization but it must be separate; agitprop is no part of basic structure.

As to basic structure, a revolution starts as a conspiracy; therefore structure is small, secret, and organized as to minimize damage by betrayal — since there always are betrayals. One solution is the cell system and so far nothing better has been invented.

Much theory has gone into optimizing cell size. I think that history shows that a cell of three is best — more than three can’t agree on when to have to have dinner, much less when to strike. – Bernardo de la Paz

For example, under what circumstance may the State justly place its welfare above that of a citizen? – Bernardo de la Paz

I’m a rational anarchist… A rational anarchist believes that concepts such as ‘state’ and ‘society’ and ‘government’ have no existence save as physically exemplified in the acts of self- responsible individuals. He believes that it is impossible to shift blame, share blame, distribute blame . . . as blame, guilt, responsibility are matters taking place inside human beings singly and nowhere else . But being rational, he knows that not all individuals hold his evaluations, so he tried to live perfectly in an imperfect world . . . aware that his effort will be less than perfect yet undismayed by self-knowledge of self-failure. – Bernardo de la Paz

Professor, I can’t understand you. I don’t insist that you call it ‘government’ –I just want you to state what rules you think are necessary to insure equal freedom for all.

Dear lady, I’ll happily accept your rules.

But you don’t seem to want any rules!

True. But 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. – Bernardo de la Paz and Wyoming Knott

Revolution is art that I pursue rather than a goal I expect to achieve. Nor is this a source of dismay; a lost cause can be as spiritually satisfying as a victory. – Bernardo de la Paz

A revolutionist must keep his mind free of worry or the pressure becomes intolerable. – Bernardo de la Paz

Don’t explain computers to laymen. Simpler to explain sex to a virgin. – Manuel Kelly Garcia Davis

(de la Paz says) stickiest problems in conspiracy are communications and security, and had pointed out that they conflict — easier are communications, greater is risk to security; if security is tight, organization can be paralyzed by safety precautions. – Manuel Kelly Garcia Davis

…most money is simply bookkeeping. [...] bear in mind that an auditor must assume that machines are honest. He will make test runs to check that machines are working correctly — but it will not occur to him that tests prove nothing because machine itself is dishonest. – Manuel Kelly Garcia Davis

(de la Paz) claimed that communication to enemy were essential to any war if was to be fought and settled sensibly. (Prof was a pacifist. Like his vegetarianism, he did not let it keep him from being rational.) – Manuel Kelly Garcia Davis

Since they can inflict their will upon us, our only chance lies in weakening their will. That was why we had to go (to them). To be divisive. To create many opinions. The shrewdest of the great generals in China’s history once said that perfection in war lay in so sapping the opponents will that he surrenders without fighting. In that maxim lies both our ultimate purpose and our most pressing danger. – Bernardo de la Paz

In each age it is necessary to adapt to the popular mythology. At one time kings were anointed by Diety, so the problem was to see to it that Diety anointed the right candidate. In this age the myth is ‘the will of the people’… but the problem only changes superficially. – Bernardo de la Paz

Distrust the obvious, suspect the traditional… – Bernardo de la Paz

You might even consider installing the candidates who receive the least number of votes; unpopular men may be just the sort to save you from a new tyranny. Don’t reject the idea merely because it seems preposterous — think about it! In past history popularly elected governments have been no better and sometimes worse than overt tyrannies. – Bernardo de la Paz

– the more impediment to legislation the better. – Bernardo de la Paz

But in writing your constitution let me invite attention to 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. – Bernardo de la Paz

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. Please remember always that the Lunar Authority was created for the noblest of purposes by just such sober and well-intentioned men, all popularly elected. And with that thought I leave you to your labors. Thank you. – Bernardo de la Paz

But if you really believe that your neighbors must have laws for their own good, why shouldn’t you pay for it? 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. – Bernardo de la Paz

You have put your finger on the dilemma of all government — and the reason I am an anarchist. The power to tax, once conceded, has no limits; it contains until it destroys. – Bernardo de la Paz

As (de la Paz) says, “If possible, leave room for your enemy to become your friend.” – Manuel Kelly Garcia Davis

…when faced with a problem you do not understand, do any part of it you do understand, then look at it again. – Bernardo de la Paz

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This is how humans are: We question all our beliefs, except for the ones we really believe, and those we never think to question. – Orson Scott Card (Speaker for the Dead)

The tragedy of language… Those who know each other only through symbolic representations are forced to imagine each other. And because their imagination is imperfect, they are often wrong. – Orson Scott Card (Xenocide)

The wise are not wise because they make no mistakes. They are wise because they correct their mistakes as soon as they recognize them. – Orson Scott Card (Xenocide)

At the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him. I think it’s impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves. – Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game)

[People with] inner strength and outward respect. These are the people who hold a community together, who lead. Unlike the sheep and the wolves, they perform a better role than the script given to them by their inner fears and desires. They act out the script of decency, of self-sacrifice, of public honor–of civilization. And in the pretense, it becomes reality. – Orson Scott Card (Xenocide)

It slowed him down to have his own thoughts move around in circles–without outside stimulation it was hard to break free of his own assumptions. One mind can think only of its own questions; it rarely surprises itself. – Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Shadow)

A man might have plenty of help finding the short path to hell, but no one else can make him set foot upon it. – Orson Scott Card (Seventh Son)

What human life is, what it’s for, what we do, is create communities. (Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus) – Orson Scott Card

All the causes or purposes of all our acts are just stories we tell ourselves, stories we believe or disbelieve, changing all the time. But still we live, we act, and all those acts have some kind of cause. The patterns fit together into a web that connects everyone who’s ever lived with anyone else. (The Changed Man) – Orson Scott Card

For science fiction, at its best, has the capacity to take its readers into societies that have never existed, or give ironic twists to the familiar milieux so that all meanings are transformed. By reading science fiction we are given a different kind of revelation… that gives, not easy answers, but extremely perplexing questions; it is a revelation that, at its truest, shows us a world of extraordinarily complex moral dilemmas in which there are few clear choices, and yet in which choices must be made. (Future on Ice) – Orson Scott Card

The positive development of a society in the absence of creative, independent thinking, critical individuals is as inconceivable as the development of an individual in the absence of the stimulus of the community. – Einstein

Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it. – Einstein

If you treat people the way they are, you make them worse. If you treat them the way they ought to be, you make them capable of becoming what they ought to be. – Goethe

The most significant development of the last few millenia has been the way human beings have supplemented and supplanted the oral tradition with a written one. The library is the defining symbol of civilization. – Michael P. Kube-McDowwell

If civilization has an opposite, it is war. – LeGuin (Left Hand of Darkness)

To the extent that we applaud and elect governments that regard tax-cuts and personal wealth as the ultimate objects of our political will–in place of investment in peacemaking, economic justice around the globe, and environmental health and well-being–we are all terrorists. – Walkter Pitman (The Ploughshares Monitor)

Any culture will become an obscenity when blown up into a universal world culture to which all must belong. – Daniel Quinn (The Story of B)

I learned something about obsession… I learned it isn’t madness or even foolishness, though madness and foolishness have given it a bad name. How could anyone who wasn’t obsessed compose a symphony or write a thousand-page novel? How could anyone who wasn’t obsessed cross an uncharted ocean in a seventy-foot sailboat? – Daniel Quinn (After Dachau)

People know it is wrong to use violence, but they are so anxious to continue to live a life secured by “the strong arm of the law” that, instead of devoting their intellects to the elucidation of the evils which have flowed and are still flowing from admitting that man has a right to use violence to his fellow men, they prefer to exert their mental powers in defense of that error. – Tolstoy on Civil Disobedience and Nonviolence

Digressions, incontestably, are the sunshine, the life, the soul of reading! Take them out and one cold eternal winter would reign in every page. – Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451)

Tourism is a two-faced giant that, at its best, has rescued many communities from depression and poverty. At its worst, it has created an international market for child prostitution and left a trail of destroyed natural habitats from Mount Everest, with its garbage-littered slopes, to resorts where bewildered sea turtle hatchlings head for the lights of hotels instead of into the sea. – Patricia Bow (University of Waterloo Magazine)

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. – Asimov (Foundation)

There were so many different ways in which you were required to provide absolute proof of your identity these days that life could easily become extremely tiresome just from that factor alone, never mind the deeper existential problems of trying to function as a coherent consciousness in an epistemologically ambiguous physical universe. – Douglas Adams (Mostly Harmless)

“To be governed is to be at every operation, at every transaction, noted,
registered, enrolled, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized,
admonished, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished.”
- Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

“The state can’t give you free speech, and the state can’t take it away. You’re born with it, like your eyes, like your ears. Freedom is something you assume, then you wait for someone to try to take it away. The degree to which you resist is the degree to which you are free…”
- Utah Phillips

“The most powerful weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.”
- Stephen Biko

You cannot put a rope around the neck of an idea; you cannot put an idea up against the barrack-square wall and riddle it with bullets; you cannot confine it in the strongest prison cell your slaves could ever build. – Sean O’Casey

“..it does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority to set brush fires in people’s minds”
- Samuel Adams

“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.”
- Ben Franklin

“[T]he right of freely examining public characters and measures, and of free communication among the people thereon … has ever been justly deemed the only effectual guardian of every other right.”
-James Madison

The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.”
-Patrick Henry

“A practical scheme, says Oscar Wilde, is either one already in existence, or a scheme that could be carried out under the existing conditions; but it is exactly the existing conditions that one objects to. And any scheme that could accept these conditions is wrong and foolish. The true criterion of the practical, therefore, is not whether the latter can keep intact the wrong and foolish; rather is it whether the scheme has the vitality enough to leave the stagnant waters of the old, and build, as well, sustain life.”
-Emma Goldman

“Fiction is about everything human and we are made out of dust, and if you scorn getting yourself dusty, then you shouldn’t try to write fiction.” (Flannery O’Connor)

Origin or Pawn: An Origin has a strong feeling of personal causation, a feeling that the locus for causation of effects in his environment lies within himself. . . . A Pawn has a feeling that causal forces beyond his control, or personal forces residing within others, or in the physical environment, determine his behavior. This constitutes a strong feeling of powerlessness or ineffectiveness.  – Richard De Charms