None were stupid enough to accept it as serious assertion of fact.
The reaction showed that the audience had never encountered this argument before or concocted anything like it of their own accord. I cannot argue with someone who casts aside the accepted rules of logic and invents ones of his own. Fander tried to explain the alien in non-alien terms. Appearances aren’t always what they seem. I have a gold watch which I obtained by demanding it. “Every day I see windows full of gold watches,” said Lakin. “Anyway, one soon loses appreciation of the value of something gained for nothing, one becomes bored by getting it for the mere asking.”. Any chance of accidentally dropping our cargo of bureaucrats overboard on the way back? A misfortune like that might benefit the spaceways, if not humanity. In fact, a day may come when it can be done without pain.” It will get easier and easier as time rolls on. “Do plenty of thinking whenever you’ve the chance and it will become a habit. He lugged a couple of huge tomes our of the wall-shelves, began to thumb rapidly through them. “I approve of that,” put in His Excellency. Time-the older you get the faster it goes. 
“If anyone on Terra exercises such idiotic power, it is only because idiots permit him.
No man has the right to define another man’s duties.” She paused, eyeing him speculatively.
“Who defines those duties-himself, or somebody else?” “No?” She raised tantalizing eyebrows, delicately curved.
“It’s your right to refuse to believe. Our minds are now enriched by the thought that an anonymous individual may be presented with a futile object for an indefinable purpose when he reaches his unknown destination. Well, that is a valuable addition to the sum total of our knowledge. “What’s the matter with you? Got a bellyache or something?”. Quotes Short fiction Major Ingredients (2000) Page numbers from this omnibus hardcover edition, published by the NESFA Press in 2000 ISBN 1-88, 2nd printing (March 2003) See Eric Frank Russell's Internet Science Fiction Database page for original publication details All spelling, punctuation, ellipses (unless noted), and italics per the text in the book
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