I recently read an old sci-fi novel. It was Robert A. Heinlein’s book, “Time
enough for love”. One of the characters gives
out life advice throughout the story. Some
of his advice is very interesting. Here
are a few quotes from the book.
1 - “Never attempt to teach a pig to sing;
it wastes your time and annoys the pig.”
This reminds me of my attempts to learn to
speak Chinese. My teacher spent months
trying to teach me to recognise the difference in tone of four words which
sounded to me like, ma, ma, ma, and ma.
This pig never learned to sing.
2 – “Never try to out-stubborn a cat.”
Cats don’t change their ways to suit
humans. In the news today there was a story
about a cat who returned home 12 years after jumping out of a window and
running away. He didn’t even say sorry,
but went straight to the place where his food bowl had been kept.
3 – “A society that gets rid of all of its
trouble-makers goes downhill.”
This makes me think of recent
demonstrations in Hong Kong. Young
demonstrators have certainly caused a lot of trouble for the city. But maybe it is a scarier situation when no
one is brave enough to cause any trouble at all.
4 – “Delusions are often functional. A mother’s opinions about her children’s intelligence, beauty, goodness, etc. keep her from drowning them.”
Sometimes it is best to pretend. I am still as handsome and desirable as I was
twenty years ago.
5 – “If you are part of a society that
votes, then do so. There may be no
candidates and no measure that you want to vote for… But there are certain to be ones that you
want to vote against.”
This is timely advice for the upcoming
election for Tokyo governor.
Vocabulary:
to be stubborn – to be unwilling to change
your opinion or attitude; to be hard-headed
to go downhill – to become worse
a delusion – an imagined and false reality
to be functional – to have a practical
purpose
to drown someone – to kill someone by
forcing their head underwater
a measure – a policy or plan or proposal to
change something
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