“These savages and their false gods! I grow weary of them. Yet they are necessary; the priests and the gods of slaves always fight on the side of the Masters. It is a rule of nature.”

Source: Sixth Column (1949; originally serialized in 1941), Chapter 5 (p. 62)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "These savages and their false gods! I grow weary of them. Yet they are necessary; the priests and the gods of slaves al…" by Robert A. Heinlein?
Robert A. Heinlein photo
Robert A. Heinlein 557
American science fiction author 1907–1988

Related quotes

Thucydides photo
African Spir photo

“The virtue preached by devout persons is the virtue of the slave who always believe themselves under the eye of the master. However, Jésus said: 'Serve God not as slaves, but as sons in the house”

African Spir (1837–1890) Russian philosopher

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 39, with a quote from Galatians, IV, 6-8.

John Howard Yoder photo
Abraham Lincoln photo
Robert A. Heinlein photo
Robert G. Ingersoll photo

“What would we think of such a savage? And yet, according to the theologians, this is exactly the course pursued by God.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

Why I Am an Agnostic (1896)
Context: Suppose we had a man in this country who could control the wind, the rain and lightning, and suppose we elected him to govern these things, and suppose that he allowed whole States to dry and wither, and at the same time wasted the rain in the sea. Suppose that he allowed the winds to destroy cities and to crush to shapelessness thousands of men and women, and allowed the lightnings to strike the life out of mothers and babes. What would we say? What would we think of such a savage? And yet, according to the theologians, this is exactly the course pursued by God.

Don Marquis photo

“Growing and learning and obeying the rules of their elders, or fighting against them, are not easy things to do.”

Don Marquis (1878–1937) American writer

The Almost Perfect State (1921)
Context: Infancy is not what it is cracked up to be. The child seems happy all the time to the adult, because the adult knows that the child is untouched by the real problems of life; if the adult were similarly untouched he is sure that he would be happy. But children, not knowing that they are having an easy time, have a good many hard times. Growing and learning and obeying the rules of their elders, or fighting against them, are not easy things to do.

Robert A. Heinlein photo

“Three things only do slaves require, food, work, and their gods, and of the three their gods must never be touched, else they grow troublesome.”

Source: Sixth Column (1949; originally serialized in 1941), Chapter 5 (p. 57)

James Frazer photo
Lysander Spooner photo

Related topics