01c. 1947 ADIf you don't like yourself, you can't like other people. -- Lazarus Long.Robert A. Heinlein / quote ↗
03c. 1947 ADDo you know your Bible?''Uh, not very well.''It merits study, it contains very practical advice for most emergencies.Robert A. Heinlein / quote ↗
04c. 1947 ADIn Wilson's scale of evaluations breakfast rated just after life itself and ahead of the chance of immortality.Robert A. Heinlein / quote ↗
05c. 1947 ADThen I glanced at the ring on my finger.The Snake That Eats Its Own Tail, Forever and Ever. I know where I came from—but where did all you zombies come from?I felt a headache coming on, but a headache powder is one thing I do not take. I did once—and you all went away.So I crawled into bed and whistled out the light.You aren’t really there at all. There isn’t anybody but me—Jane—here alone in the dark.I miss you dreadfully!Robert A. Heinlein / quote ↗
06c. 1947 ADNever own more than you can carry in both hands at a dead run.Robert A. Heinlein / quote ↗
07c. 1947 ADNothing could go wrong because nothing had...I meant "nothing would." No - Then I quit trying to phrase it, realizing that if time travel ever became widespread, English grammar was going to have to add a whole new set of tenses to describe reflexive situations - conjugations that would make the French literary tenses and the Latin historical tenses look simple.Robert A. Heinlein / quote ↗
08c. 1947 ADOh, "Tanstaafl." Means "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch." And isn't,' I added, pointing to a FREE LUNCH sign across room, 'or these drinks would cost half as much. Was reminding her that anything free costs twice as much in long run or turns out worthless.Robert A. Heinlein / quote ↗
09c. 1947 ADI've never been able to understand 'faith' myself, nor to see how a just God could expect his creatures to pick the one true religion out of an infinitude of false ones - by faith alone. It strikes me as a sloppy way to run an organization, whether universe or a smaller one.Robert A. Heinlein / quote ↗
10c. 1947 ADHe never once repeated himself and he never used either profanity or obscenity. (I learned later that he saved those for very special occasions, which this wasn’t.) But he described our shortcomings, physical, mental, moral, and genetic, in great and insulting detail.But somehow I was not insulted; I became greatly interested in studying his command of language. I wished that we had had him on our debate team.Robert A. Heinlein / quote ↗
11c. 1947 ADSick cultures show a complex of symptoms such as you have named...but a dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than is a riot.Robert A. Heinlein / quote ↗
12c. 1947 ADEnglish is capable of defining sentiments that the human nervous system is quite incapable of experiencing.Robert A. Heinlein / quote ↗
14c. 1947 ADBut how, from the viewpoint of a Martian, did man differ from other animals? Would a race that could levitate and god knows what else be impressed by engineering? If so would the Aswan Dam or a thousand miles of coral reef win first prize? Man's self awareness, sheer conceit. There was no way to prove that sperm whales and sequoias were not philosophers and poets exceeding any human merit?Robert A. Heinlein / quote ↗
15c. 1947 ADThinking doesn't pay. Just makes you discontented with what you see around you.Robert A. Heinlein / quote ↗
16c. 1947 ADThe instinct to survive is human nature itself, and every aspect of our personalities derives from it. Anything that conflicts with the survival instinct acts sooner or later to eliminate the individual and thereby fails to show up in future generations. . . . A scientifically verifiable theory of morals must be rooted in the individual's instinct to survive--and nowhere else!--and must correctly describe the hierarchy of survival, note the motivations at each level, and resolve all conflicts.We have such a theory now; we can solve any moral problem, on any level. Self-interest, love of family, duty to country, responsibility toward the human race . . . .The basis of all morality is duty, a concept with the same relation to group that self-interest has to individual.Robert A. Heinlein / quote ↗
17c. 1947 ADYou. What is the moral difference, ifany, between the soldier and the civilian?""The difference," I answered carefully, "lies in the field of civicvirtue. A soldier accepts personal responsibility for the safety of the bodypolitic of which he is a member, defending it, if need be, with his life.The civilian does not.Robert A. Heinlein / quote ↗
18c. 1947 ADProperty is not the natural and obvious and inevitable concept that most people think it is.Robert A. Heinlein / quote ↗
19c. 1947 ADHarshaw had the arrogant humility of the man who has learned so much that he is aware of his own ignorance and he saw no point in 'measurements' when he did not know what he was measuring.Robert A. Heinlein / quote ↗
21c. 1947 ADIt’s not enough to be able to lie with a straight face; anybody with enough gall to raise on a busted flush can do that. The first way to lie artistically is to tell the truth — but not all of it. The second way involves telling the truth, too, but is harder: Tell the exact truth and maybe all of it…but tell it so unconvincingly that your listener is sure you are lying.Robert A. Heinlein / quote ↗
22c. 1947 ADGood!” the creature echoed. “Doctor Nelson will be along in a minute. Feel like breakfast?”All symbols were in Smith’s vocabulary but he had trouble believing that he had heard rightly. He knew that he was food, but he did not “feel like” food. Nor had he any warning that he might be selected for such honor.Robert A. Heinlein / quote ↗
23c. 1947 ADThe Bible is such a gargantuan collection of conflicting values that anyone can "prove" anything from it.Robert A. Heinlein / quote ↗
24c. 1947 ADGovernment! Three fourths parasitic and the other fourth Stupid fumbling.Robert A. Heinlein / quote ↗
