
“When the iron is hot, strike.”
Part I, chapter 3.
Proverbs (1546)
“When the iron is hot, strike.”
Part I, chapter 3.
Proverbs (1546)
“4266. Strike, while the Iron is hot.”
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
“God is an iron… and that's a hot one.”
Author's Postscript to the story. This story is also the second chapter of his novel Mindkiller (1982) and appears as the title story in the collection God Is An Iron and Other Stories ISBN 0-7862-4162-4 · Cover art for Book http://www.spiderrobinson.com/images/GodIron.jpg
God Is An Iron (1977)
Il n'est pas de sauveurs suprêmes
Ni Dieu, ni César, ni tribun
Producteurs, sauvons-nous nous-mêmes
Décrétons le salut commun
Pour que le voleur rende gorge
Pour tirer l'esprit du cachot
Soufflons nous-mêmes notre forge
Battons le fer quand il est chaud
The Internationale (1864)
“You should hammer your iron when it is glowing hot.”
Maxim 262
Sentences, The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave
Twelve Virtues Of Rationality http://yudkowsky.net/rational/virtues
Context: Do not flinch from experiences that might destroy your beliefs. The thought you cannot think controls you more than thoughts you speak aloud. Submit yourself to ordeals and test yourself in fire. Relinquish the emotion which rests upon a mistaken belief, and seek to feel fully that emotion which fits the facts. If the iron approaches your face, and you believe it is hot, and it is cool, the Way opposes your fear. If the iron approaches your face, and you believe it is cool, and it is hot, the Way opposes your calm. Evaluate your beliefs first and then arrive at your emotions. Let yourself say: “If the iron is hot, I desire to believe it is hot, and if it is cool, I desire to believe it is cool.”
“No politician can sit on a hot issue if you make it hot enough.”
Source: Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals (1971), p. xxiv