Quotes from William H. Patterson Jr.

Nineteen-year-old Ray Bradbury was rambunctious and so energetic that it made Leslyn tired to be in the same room with him; it was too much like having to manage a large and unruly puppy

A smart man learns from experience; a wise man learns from the experience of others.

I suggest that it never helps anyone to tell a mother that her baby is ugly.

a logical man must behave in a crisis as if his calculated risk were indeed a certainty Ã¢â'¬Â¦

My brother, Major General Lawrence Heinlein, once told me that there are only two promotions in life that mean a damn: from buck private to corporal, and from colonel to general officer. I made corporal decades ago Ã¢â'¬Â¦ but now at long last I know what he meant about the other. Thank you.17

Treat people magnanimously if you can," he said, "It'll make you feel better. Expect nothing and you won't be disappointed. Do the decent thing if you can, but for its own sake.

If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think, they'll hate you.

It appears that there is now a drive on to make the world safe for morons[,]

Family is, after all—however irritating—family.

the right to be naked and not to be ruled by Mrs. Grundy deserves financial support from anyone who believes in freedom.

She is what I feel to be a good person in the word's simplest and plainest meaning. Which includes lashing out with her claws on some occasions when others may consider it improper—I don't give a damn whether Ginny is "proper" or not; I like her. I like her values.

My religious beliefs are private to me," he began, … and I suppose that yours may be to you. I am going to talk about more homely matters, matters so simple and obvious that it has almost gone out of fashion to talk about them—trite things, as trite as approving of good roads and good weather, or declaring for the American home and the American flag. I believe in my neighbors.32

are incurably conceited and pathologically unsure of themselves; they respond to stroking the way a cat does.

If a person names as his three favorites of my books Stranger, Harsh Mistress, and Starship Troopers Ã¢â'¬Â¦ then I believe that he has grokked what I meant. But if he likes one—but not the other two—I am certain that he has misunderstood me, he has picked out points—and misunderstood what he picked. If he picks 2 of 3, then there is hope, 1 of 3—no hope. All three books are on one subject: Freedom and Self-Responsibility.28 And

In the end, it comes down, as it always comes down, to each individual human being doing what he—or she—must to live with himself/herself.