“I began to sense faintly that secrecy is the keystone of all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy…censorship. When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, “This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know,” the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything—you can’t conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him.”

— Robert A. Heinlein, book If This Goes On

If This Goes On— (p. 401)
Short fiction, The Past Through Tomorrow (1967)

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Robert A. Heinlein557

American science fiction author 1907–1988

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Robert A. Heinlein557

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