Heaven for climate, Hell for society.

My Take:  I live in Kentucky.  Not really a fan of the climate, but the people are nice.  Guess this must be hell.

Whose property is my body? Probably mine. I so regard it. If I experiment with it, who must be answerable? I, not the State. If I choose injudiciously, does the State die? Oh no.

If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.

My Take – Telling lies is so exhausting because you have to keep all the lies straight.  I’m lazy, so I tell the truth.

As I slowly grow wise I briskly grow cautious.

My Take – I think Heinlein was thinking of this when he said “Live and learn, or don’t live long”.  I’m always amazed at what I lived through as a younger man, mostly caused by my own stupidity and ego.  Age may not make me wiser, but it does make me more conscious of my ability to die.

Loyalty to petrified opinions never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul in this world — and never will.

To create man was a fine and original idea; but to add the sheep was a tautology.

My Take – Some would be insulted by the idea that men are sheep, but after meeting people from around the world, that may be an overestimation.

To put it in rude, plain, unpalatable words — true patriotism, real patriotism: loyalty not to a Family and a Fiction, but a loyalty to the Nation itself!

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.

My Take – Obviously, this was written before the advent of Internet porn.

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world, and moral courage so rare.

My Take – It takes more guts to take an unpopular stand than it does to jump off a cliff.  I hope that I have both kinds of courage, but if I had to choose between them, I’d prefer to have the courage to stand up for what I believe in.

A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar.