Time Enough for Love

 “Do not confuse "duty" with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect ... 

         So learn to say No—and to be rude about it when necessary. Otherwise you will not have time to carry out your duty, or to do your own work, and certainly no time for love and happiness. The termites will nibble away your life and leave none of it for you. (This rule does not mean that you must not do a favor for a friend, or even a stranger. But let the choice be yours. Don't do it because it is "expected" of you.)”

Time Enough for Love - Robert Heinlein

Time

.
This cute little article about time reminds me of a very bad joke.

Put on your imagination cap.
A man named Stein robbed a bank of $1,000,000 in 1985. He placed the money in US Treasuries at 16% per year and then stepped into a time machine that he had borrowed from an elf. (The elf is not really part of the story, but I had to have a source for the time machine and I am fond of elves.) Stein came out of the time machine in 1992, sold the treasuries for approximately $4,000,000 gave the bank $2 million for their original loss + interest, and turned himself in. At the trial he claimed that he could not be prosecuted because the statute of limitations had run out.

The judge agreed in a one line decision: "an itch in time saves Stein".

I apologize.
.