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I've read about 98% of everything Heinlein published[1], and don't recognize that quote. An archive.org search find a few examples, like this 1979 Harlequin sh
by eesmith 4y ago
I've read about 98% of everything Heinlein published[1], and don't recognize that quote.
An archive.org search find a few examples, like this 1979 Harlequin short story https://archive.org/details/romanticshortsto00harl/page/30/mode/2up?q=%22two+things%22 https://archive.org/details/romanticshortsto00harl/page/30/m...
If Heinlein did use a phrase like it, I expect my searches would have found it.
It doesn't appear to be a common saying, so I'm curious how you acquired the association between it and Heinlein. It doesn't seems like a common misquote people end up spreading.
[1] I've only read "Tramp Royale" up to the point where they left the US, I haven't read the "stinkeroos", nor his posthumous novels, nor most of what Wikipedia lists under "Other short fiction", nor a couple more non-fiction publications.
- morphle 4y agoI agree, having read most Heinlein ever published (even including his unfortunate right wing and conservative and unscientific ramblings that wasted my time), I never came across "If it is not one thing, it is two things."
- joshmarinacci 4y agoMaybe Niven?
- morphle 4y agoI'm even more sure it was not written by Larry Niven. I read most of Heinlein twice but read Niven at least 4 times.
- JoeAltmaier 4y agoMaybe Spider Robinson?
- eesmith 4y agoIf Spider Robinson used that quote, I presume my text searches of archive.org would have found it. Yet across the different search combinations, I only found a dozen-odd books, none by an SF author. Why do you associate it with something written by a famous author? I don't see anything which suggests its a well-known phrase. Google and DDG together found fewer than 100 pages using that quote. Most appear to have been spontaneous creation. One attributed it to "a Norwegian friend." (This all assumes my search terms were meaningful.)