Robert A. Heinlein citations

Page 5

“Il est plus facile de soulever mille hommes en s'adressant à leurs préjugés que d'en convaincre un seul à l'aide de la logique.”

“Je commençai à entrevoir que la base de toute tyrannie n'est pas tant la force que le secret, la dissimulation, la censure. Lorsqu'un gouvernement — ou une Église — dit à ses sujets : « Il ne faut pas lire ceci, il ne faut pas voir cela, il est interdit de savoir telle chose », il en résulte inévitablement une tyrannie, quels qu'aient été les mobiles primitifs. Il faut bien peu de force pour contrôler un homme dont l'esprit est ainsi déformé. En revanche, nulle violence ne peut venir à bout d'un esprit libre, ni la torture, ni les bombes à fission, rien… on ne peut pas soumettre un homme libre. On ne peut que le tuer.”

“Si la parole d'un homme n'est pas une garantie suffisante, sa signature ne vaudra pas davantage”

“Les femmes et les chats ne feront que ce qui leur plaît, et les hommes et les chiens doivent se détendre et s'habituer à cette idée..”

“One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortune of others.”

“A woman is not property, and husbands who think otherwise are living in a dreamworld.”

“Does history record any case in which the majority was right?”

“Do this. Don't do that. Stay back in line. Where's tax receipt? Fill out form. Let's see license. Submit six copies. Exit only. No left turn. No right turn. Queue up and pay fine. Take back and get stamped. Drop dead— but first get permit.”

“God created men to test the souls of women.”

“If you are part of a society that votes, then do so. There may be no candidates and no measures you want to vote for… but there are certain to be ones you want to vote against. In case of doubt, vote against. By this rule you will rarely go wrong.”

“I came, I saw, she conquered."
The original Latin seems to have been garbled.”

“Democracy is a poor system of government at best; the only thing that can honestly be said in its favor is that it is eight times as good as any other method the human race has ever tried.”

“Cheops' Law: Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget.”

“If a grasshopper tries to fight a lawnmower, one may admire his courage but not his judgement.”

“I don't see why human people make such a heavy trip out of sex. It isn't anything complex, it is simply the best thing in life, even better than food.”

“Most neuroses and some psychoses can be traced to the unnecessary and unhealthy habit of daily wallowing in the troubles and sins of five billion strangers.”

“Don't explain computers to laymen. Simpler to explain sex to a virgin.”

“The slickest way in the world to lie is to tell the right amount of truth at the right time-and then shut up.”

“Animals can be driven crazy by placing too many in too small a pen. Homo sapiens is the only animal that voluntarily does this to himself.”

“Never own more than you can carry in both hands at a dead run.”

“He's an honest politician--he stays bought.”

“My old man says when it's time to be counted, the important thing is to be man enough to stand up.”

“Any group is weaker than a man alone unless they are perfectly trained to work together.”

“I'm always suspicious of disinterested interest.”

“To permit irresponsible authority is to sell disaster.”

“Thou art god, I am god. All that groks is god.”

“A poet who reads his verse in public may have other nasty habits.”

“Never tease an old dog; he might have one bite left.”

“Sense is never common.”

“Taxes are not levied for the benefit of the taxed.”

“Nothing uses up alcohol faster than political argument.”

“Faith strikes me as intellectual laziness.”

“Logic is a way of saying that anything which didn't happen yesterday won't happen tomorrow.”