Robert A. Heinlein citations

Page 7

“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..”

“Random chance was not a sufficient explanation of the Universe---in fact, random chance was not sufficient to explain random chance; the pot could not hold itself.”

“Darling, a true lady takes off her dignity with her clothes and does her whorish best. At other times you can be as modest and dignified as your persona requires.”

“It's a man's business to be what he is, and to be it in style.”

“One might define adulthood as the age at which a person learns that he must die… and accepts his sentence undismayed.”

“I never learned from a man who agreed with me.”

“I was not offended, my love. An insult is like a drink; it affects one only if accepted. And pride is too heavy baggage for my journey…”

“His older self had taught his younger self a language which the older self knew because the younger self, after being taught, grew up to be the older self and was, therefore, capable of teaching.”

“The drive for power is even less logical than the sex urge… and stronger.”

“Money problems can always be solved by a man not frightened by them.”

“The coldest depth of Hell is reserved for people who abandon kittens.”

“Women talk when they want to. Or don't.”

“Under our system every voter and officeholder is a man who has demonstrated through voluntary and difficult service that he places the welfare of the group ahead of personal advantage.”

“Little girls, like butterflies, need no excuse”

“He's as weird as snake's suspenders but sweet as a stolen kiss, too.”

“Madam, the commonest weakness of our race is our ability to rationalize our most selfish purposes.”

“It is a bad sign when the people of a country stop identifying themselves with the country and start identifying with a group. A racial group. Or a religion. Or a language. Anything, as long as it isn't the whole population.”

“when faced with a problem you do not understand, do any part of it you do understand, then look at it again.”

“When a place gets crowded enough to require ID’s, social collapse is not far away. It is time to go elsewhere. The best thing about space travel is that it made it possible to go elsewhere.”

“Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done.”

“We came here for a small, informal meeting. We find you've turned it into a circus. Well, if you're going to have a circus, you've got to have elephants.”

“The 3-legged stool of understanding is held up by history, languages, and mathematics. Equipped with those three you can learn anything you want to learn. But if you lack any one of them you are just another ignorant peasant with dung on your boots.”

“… a book need never die and should not be killed; books were the immortal part of man.”

“Cast me into a dungeon;, burn me at the state, crown me king of kings, I can 'pursue happiness' as long as my brain lives -- but neither gods nor saints, wise men nor subtle drugs, can insure that I will catch it.”

“In terms of morals there is no such thing as ‘state.’ Just men. Individuals. Each responsible for his own acts.”

“Christ was crucified for preaching without a police permit”

“Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and their freedoms”

“Revolution is an art that I pursue rather than a goal I expect to achieve. Nor is this a source of dismay; a lost cause can be as spiritually satisfying as a victory.”

“Damnit! Nationalism should stop at the stratosphere!”

“Have you ever known me to be rude to a lady?" "I have seen you be intentionally rude to a woman. I have never seen you be rude to a lady.”