“If a country can't save itself through the volunteer service of its own free people, then I say : Let the damned thing go down the drain!”

—  Robert A. Heinlein

Guest of Honor Speech at the 29th World Science Fiction Convention, Seattle, Washington (1961)<br> The Quotable Heinlein http://www.quotableheinlein.com/html/home.html <br class="br">Context: I also think there are prices too high to pay to save the United States. Conscription is one of them. Conscription is slavery, and I don&#x27;t think that any people or nation has a right to save itself at the price of slavery for anyone, no matter what name it is called. We have had the draft for twenty years now; I think this is shameful. If a country can&#x27;t save itself through the volunteer service of its own free people, then I say : Let the damned thing go down the drain!

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Robert A. Heinlein photo
Robert A. Heinlein557
American science fiction author 1907–1988

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