OK, now that the 30 Days of Heinlein are done, I know there are RAH quotes that I didn't include.
Come on, he wrote so much that is quotable that I had a hard time winnowing the list down to 30.
So what are your favorite Heinleinisms that I didn't include?
Some of my other favorites that I don't think you got to:
ReplyDelete"There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him." - from "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress", by Robert A. Heinlein
"My old man claimed that the more complicated the law the more opportunity for scoundrels." - Robert Heinlein, The Door into Summer
"I note one proposal to make this Congress a two-house body. Excellent— the more impediments to legislation the better. But, instead of following tradition, I suggest one house of legislators, another whose single duty is to repeal laws. Let the legislators pass laws only with a two-thirds majority... while the repealers are able to cancel any law through a mere one-third minority. Preposterous? Think about it. If a bill is so poor that it cannot command two-thirds of your consents, is it not likely that it would make a poor law? And if a law is disliked by as many as one-third is it not likely that you would be better off without it?" -- Robert Heinlein, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress
"Every law that was ever written opened up a new way to graft." - Robert Heinlein, The Man Who Sold the Moon
“Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors --- and miss.” -- Robert Heinlein, Time Enough For Love
"An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life." -- Robert Heinlein, Beyond This Horizon
"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." -- Robert Heinlein, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress
"You have put your finger on the dilemma of all government — and the reason I am an anarchist. The power to tax, once conceded, has no limits; it contains until it destroys. I was not joking when I told them to dig into their own pouches. It may not be possible to do away with government — sometimes I think that government is an inescapable disease of human beings. But it may be possible to keep it small and starved and inoffensive — and can you think of a better way than by requiring the governors themselves to pay the costs of their antisocial hobby?" -- Robert Heinlein, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress
"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. " -- Robert Heinlein, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress
"I will accept any rules that you feel necessary to your freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do."
-- Robert Heinlein, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress
You picked a great author thats for sure.
The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress is one of my favorite libertarian-esque novels. I read it whenever I begin to forget what society could be like without a busy-body government running everything for everybody, like it or lump it. I don't necessarily agree with the novel's politics, I just like the free spirit voice with which it speaks.
Heinlein is right up there at the top of the list, and still someone I like to read today. He has such a huge library I am always coming across a less known book that I have not read yet in the ye-old-books store.
"Is there anything wrong with a woman preferring the dignity of an armed citizen? I don't like to be coddled and I don't like to be treated like a minor child. So I waive immunity and claim my right – I go armed." – Longcourt Phyllis in Beyond This Horizon by Robert Heinlein
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