{
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  "text": "That we were slaves I had known all my life — and nothing could be done about it. True, we weren't bought and sold — but as long as Authority held monopoly over what we had to have and what we could sell to buy it, we were slaves.",
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  "author": {
    "name": "Robert A. Heinlein",
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    "title": "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress",
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  "page": 31,
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      "name": "power",
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      "name": "slavery",
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  "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:58",
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      "slug": "what-i-fear",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-moon-is-a-harsh-mistress/what-i-fear",
      "text": "What I fear most are affirmative actions of sober and well-intentioned men, granting to government powers to do something that appears to need doing.",
      "language": "en",
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      "chapter": null,
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      "topics": [
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        {
          "name": "good intentions",
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      "slug": "in-writing-your",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-moon-is-a-harsh-mistress/in-writing-your",
      "text": "In writing your constitution let me invite attention to the wonderful virtue of the negative! Accentuate the negative! Let your document be studded with things the government is forever forbidden to do. No conscript armies... no interference however slight with freedom of press, or speech, or travel, or assembly, or of religion, or of instruction, or communication, or occupation... no involuntary taxation.",
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          "name": "freedom",
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          "name": "the state",
          "slug": "the-state",
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    {
      "id": "b520a257-e314-4a52-9974-230f5492bb83",
      "slug": "at-one-time",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-moon-is-a-harsh-mistress/at-one-time",
      "text": "At one time kings were anointed by Deity, so the problem was to see to it that Deity chose the right candidate. In this age the myth is \"the will of the people\" ... but the problem changes only superficially.",
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          "name": "power",
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          "name": "democracy",
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