Robert A. Heinlein idézet

oldal 15

„Ne hozd hátrányos helyzetbe gyermekeid azzal, hogy megkönnyíted az életüket.”

„A prűd egy olyan személy, aki azt gondolja, hogy a saját illendőségi szabályai természetes törvények.”

„Lehet béke és lehet szabadság. De soha ne számolj azzal, hogy mindkettő egyszerre lessz.”

„Nincs rosszabb zsarnokság, mint arra kényszeríteni az embert, hogy fizessen valamiért, amiért nem akar, pusztán azért, mert úgy gondoljuk, hogy az jó lenne a számára.”

„A szerelem az az állapot, amelyben egy másik ember boldogsága elengedhetetlen a saját boldogságod számára.”

„Soha ne próbálj meg egy disznót énekelni tanítani; ez csak időpocsékolás, és a disznót is idegesíti.”

„Olyan feltételeket tulajdonítottál a gazemberségnek, amelyek egyszerűen az ostobaságból fakadnak.”

„Soha ne próbálj meg túlszárnyalni egy macskát.”

„A bűn csak abban rejlik, hogy szükségtelenül megbántunk másokat. Minden más "bűn" kitalált ostobaság. Saját magadat bántani nem bűn - csak ostobaság.”

“There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute nor common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back, for their private benefit.”

“I've heard all the usual Sweetness and Light that kids get pushed at them—how they should always forgive, how there’s some good in the worst of us, etc. But when I see a black widow, I step on it; I don’t plead with it to be a good little spider and please stop poisoning people. A black widow spider can’t help it—but that’s the point.”

“The police of a state should never be stronger or better armed than the citizenry. An armed citizenry, willing to fight, is the foundation of civil freedom. That’s a personal evaluation, of course.”

“Bill, why is it that some apparently-grown men never learn to do simple arithmetic?”

“Go ahead. Go right ahead. Don’t let me discourage you. Any objections from me would simply confirm your preconceptions.”

““What sort of a remark?”
“Just priestly mumbo-jumbo. Impressive and no real meaning. Can you do it?”
“I think so—I used to sell magazine subscriptions.””

““What course of action do you favor?”
“Me? Why, none. Mary, if there is any one thing I have learned in the past couple of centuries, it’s this: These things pass. Wars and depressions and Prophets and Covenants—they pass. The trick is to stay alive through them.””

“Beat the plowshares back into swords; the other was a maiden aunt’s fancy.”

“Premenstrual Syndrome: Just before their periods women behave the way men do all the time.”

“First they junked the concept of “justice.” Examined semantically “justice” has no referent—there is no observable phenomenon in the space-time-matter continuum to which one can point, and say, “This is justice.” Science can deal only with that which can be observed and measured. Justice is not such a matter; therefore it can never have the same meaning to one as to another; any “noises” said about it will only add to confusion.
But damage, physical or economic, can be pointed to and measured. Citizens were forbidden by the Covenant to damage another. Any act not leading to damage, physical or economic, to some particular person, they declared to be lawful.”

“High I. Q., good compatibility index, superior education—everything that makes a person pleasant and easy and interesting to have around.”

“People tend to fall into three psychological types, all differently motivated. There is the type, motivated by economic factors, money…And there is the type motivated by ‘face,’ or pride. This type is a spender, fighter, boaster, lover, sportsman, gambler; he has a will to power and an itch for glory. And there is the professional type, which claims to follow a code of ethics rather than simply seeking money or glory—priests and ministers, teachers, scientists, medical men, some artists and writers. The idea is that such a man believes that he is devoting his life to some purpose more important than his individual self. You follow me?”

“From my point of view, a great deal of openly expressed piety is insufferable conceit.”

““You have us going faster than light.”
“I thought the figures were a bit large.””

“Natural selection—the dying out of the poorly equipped—goes on day in and day out, inexorable and automatic. It is as tireless, as inescapable, as entropy.”

“We may eliminate death someday but I doubt if we’ll ever eliminate taxes.”

“A religion is sometime a source of happiness, and I would not deprive anyone of happiness. But it is a comfort appropriate for the weak, not for the strong. The great trouble with religion — any religion — is that a religionist, having accepted certain propositions by faith, cannot thereafter judge those propositions by evidence. One may bask at the warm fire of faith or choose to live in the bleak uncertainty of reason — but one cannot have both.”

““Going to dance at my wake?”
“I don’t dance,” the lawyer answered, “but you tempt me to learn.””

“The next higher level is to work, fight, and sometimes die for your own immediate family. This is the level at which six pounds of mother cat can be so fierce that she'll drive off a police dog. It is the level at which a father takes a moonlighting job to keep his kids in college — and the level at which a mother or father dives into a flood to save a drowning child … and it is still moral behavior even when it fails.”

“Don, have you been dealing with a booklegger?”

“A second sun blazed white and swelled visibly as he watched. What on Earth would have been—so many times had been—a climbing mushroom cloud was here in open space a perfect geometrical sphere, growing unbelievably. It swelled still larger, dropping from limelight white to to silvery violet, became blotched with purple, red and flame. And still it grew, until it blanked out the earth beyond it.
At the time it had been transformed into a radioactive cosmic cloud Circum-Terra had been passing over, or opposite, the North Atlantic; the swollen incandescent cloud was visible to most of the habitable portions of the globe, a burning symbol in the sky.”

“It was so darn quiet you could hear your hair grow.”

“We lived like that “Happy Family“ you sometimes see in traveling zoos: a lion caged with a lamb. It is a startling exhibit but the lamb has to be replaced frequently.”

“This Universe never did make sense; I suspect that it was built on government contract.”

“Man is not a rational animal; he is a rationalizing animal.”

“I am forced to conclude that being right has little to do with holding a woman’s affections.”

“History is never surprising—after it happens.”

“Hamilton took a deep breath, let it out, then said, “Listen to me. I don’t know much about women, and sometimes it seems like I didn’t know anything about them. But I’m sure of this—she won’t let a little thing like you taking a pot shot at her stand in the way if you ever had any chance with her at all. She’ll forgive you.”
“You don’t really mean that, do you?” Monroe-Alpha’s face was still tragic, but he clutched at the hope.
“Certainly I do. Women will forgive anything.” With a flash of insight he added, “Otherwise the race would have died out long ago.””

“There was nothing under her clothes but girl and assorted items of lethal hardware.”