“You put me in mind of a case I ran into in the American West. A respected citizen shot a professional gunthrower in the back. When asked why he didn’t give the other chap a chance to draw, the survivor said, ‘Well, he’s dead and I’m alive and that’s how I wanted it to be.’ Jamie, if you use sportsmanship on a known scamp, you put yourself at a terrible disadvantage.”

Source: Red Planet (1949), Chapter 10, “We’re Boxed In!”, p. 148

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Robert A. Heinlein557

American science fiction author 1907–1988

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