Quotes from book
Friday

Robert A. Heinlein

Friday is a 1982 science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. It is the story of a female "artificial person", the eponymous Friday, genetically engineered to be stronger, faster, smarter, and generally better than normal humans. Artificial humans are widely resented, and much of the story deals with Friday's struggle both against prejudice and to conceal her enhanced attributes from other humans. The story is set in a Balkanized 21st century, in which the nations of the North American continent have been split up into a number of smaller states.

Robert A. Heinlein photo

“You’re not a stranger; you’re an old friend we haven’t known very long.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Friday

Source: Friday (1982), Chapter 12 (p. 110)

Robert A. Heinlein photo

“Stupid fools look just as good as military geniuses until the fighting starts.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Friday

Source: Friday (1982), Chapter 4 (p. 37)

Robert A. Heinlein photo

“Don’t kid yourself, knowing too much is a capital offense. In politics it always has been.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Friday

Source: Friday (1982), Chapter 31 (p. 327)
Context: Don’t kid yourself, Friday; knowing too much is a capital offense. In politics it always has been.

Robert A. Heinlein photo

“Sick cultures show a complex of symptoms such as you have named...but a dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than is a riot.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Friday

Source: Friday (1982), Chapter 23 (p. 242)

Robert A. Heinlein photo

“Before a revolution can take place, the population must lose faith in both the police and the courts.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Friday

Source: Friday (1982), Chapter 23 (pp. 240-241)
Context: “So far as I have listened, before a revolution can take place, the population must lose faith in both the police and the courts.“ Elementary. Go on. “Well…high taxation is important and so is inflation of the currency and the ratio of the productive to those on the public payroll. But that’s old hat; everybody knows that a country is on the skids when its income and outgo get out of balance and stay that way—even though there are always endless attempts to wish it away by legislation.”

Robert A. Heinlein photo

“Brainpower is the scarcest commodity and the only one of real value. Any human organization can be rendered useless, impotent, a danger to itself, by selectively removing its best minds while carefully leaving the stupid ones in place.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Friday

Source: Friday (1982), Chapter 4 (p. 37)

Robert A. Heinlein photo

“My mistake. My inexcusable mistake, as a con man never stops being a con man; he can’t. But I suffered from a will to believe, a defect of character that I thought I had rooted out. I was mistaken.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Friday

Source: Friday (1982), Chapter 3 (p. 22)