«Tell me what you read and I’ll tell you who you are» is true enough, but I’d know you better if you told me what you reread.
François Mauriac
Being a student at school sucked big time, but one of the good memories I have is reading a lot of books. And once I discovered Robert A. Heinlein, I pretty much devoured his works.
If you like social science fiction, I can highly recommend his works to you. Sure, at times he might go too far, but still, impressive stories.
Depending on your interests, and going only by memory of stories I have read 20+ years ago, perhaps the following books might be something for you. I’ll give a short summary and add a few quotes.
«Have Space Suit, Will Travel»
Story about a young man who takes learning into his own hands (after being shown by his father that state education isn’t that great). It also involves a planned invasion of Earth, an alien council, and a «know it all».
«The point is, Mr. Secretary, I don’t want them. This household has no clocks. Nor calendars. Once I had a large income and a larger ulcer; I now have a small income and no ulcer. I stay here.»
«But the job needs you.»
«The need is not mutual. Do have some more meat loaf.»
«Have Space Suit will Travel» by Robert A. HeinleinI have talked more about my father but that doesn’t mean that Mother is less important – just different. Dad is active, Mother is passive; Dad talks, Mother doesn’t. But if she died, Dad would wither like an uprooted tree. She makes our world.
«Have Space Suit will Travel» by Robert A. HeinleinThe boss and I were alone shortly after. He said quietly, «Kip, a reverence for life does not require a man to respect Nature’s obvious mistakes.»
«Sir?»
«You need not serve Quiggle again. I don’t want his trade.»
«Oh, I don’t mind. He’s harmless.»
«I wonder how harmless such people are? To what extent civilization is retarded by the laughing jackasses, the empty-minded belittlers? Go home; you’ll want to make an early start tomorrow.»
«Have Space Suit will Travel» by Robert A. Heinlein«There is no such thing as luck; there is only adequate or inadequate preparation to cope with a statistical universe. Do you intend to enter this?»
«Have Space Suit will Travel» by Robert A. Heinlein«I really ought to sell the suit back to them.» «Son, any statement that starts ‘I really ought to-‘ is suspect. It means you haven’t analyzed your motives.» «But five hundred dollars is tuition for a semester, almost.» «Which has nothing to do with the case. Find out what you want to do, then do it. Never talk yourself into doing something you don’t want. Think it over.»
«Have Space Suit will Travel» by Robert A. HeinleinI wanted to talk to Dad about it. Dad reads everything from The Anatomy of Melancholy to Acta Mathematica and Paris-Match and will sit on a curbstone separating damp newspapers wrapped around garbage in order to see continued-on-page-eight. Dad would haul down a book and we’d look it up. Then he would try four or five more with other opinions. Dad doesn’t hold with the idea that it-must-be-true-or-they-wouldn’t-have-printed-it; he doesn’t consider any opinion sacred – it shocked me the first time he took out a pen and changed something in one of my math books.
«Have Space Suit will Travel» by Robert A. HeinleinNo! If I gave in, if I admitted I had to dicker with him for my prison rations, he would own me. I’d wait on him hand and foot, do anything he told me, just to eat. I let him see my tin dagger. «I’ll fight you for it.»
«Have Space Suit will Travel» by Robert A. HeinleinI could follow his «logic»-provided you accepted his «live louse» standard. But he had left out a key point. «Even so. Jock, I don’t see how you could do that to a little girl.»
«Have Space Suit will Travel» by Robert A. HeinleinI marked eleven inches on the floor with two pennies. It turns out that a dollar bill is two and a half inches wide and quarter is a smidgeon under an inch. Shortly I knew the dimensions of room and can pretty accurately.
«Have Space Suit will Travel» by Robert A. HeinleinIt would take fourteen hours to fill the room and the hole above, plus an hour to allow for crude methods. Could I stay afloat that long?
«Have Space Suit will Travel» by Robert A. HeinleinThen I ate. I felt sleepy and went to sleep in a warm glow. I was still a prisoner but I had a weapon of sorts and I believed that I had figured out what I was up against. Getting a problem analyzed is two-thirds of solving it. I didn’t have nightmares.
«Have Space Suit will Travel» by Robert A. Heinlein«Oh. I told you about that click [of the prison cell door]. Daddy says that, in a dilemma, it is helpful to change any variable, then reexamine the problem. I tried to introduce a change with my bubble gum.»
«Have Space Suit will Travel» by Robert A. Heinlein«Well, don’t look so smug! It’s not fetishism, not even primitive animism; it’s merely a conditioned reflex. I’m aware that it’s just a doll-I’ve understood the pathetic fallacy for … oh, years and years!»
«Have Space Suit will Travel» by Robert A. Heinlein«Of course I’m right!» she retorted. «I’m always right.»
«Goodness me! The handy-dandy pocket encyclopedia.»
She blushed. «I can’t help being a genius.»
Which left her wide open and I was about to rub her nose in it – when I saw how unhappy she looked.
I remembered hearing Dad say: «Some people insist that ‘mediocre’ is better than ‘best.’ They delight in clipping wings because they themselves can’t fly. They despise brains because they have none. Pfah!»
«Have Space Suit will Travel» by Robert A. HeinleinThat Scientific American article concerning «summer» on Pluto had predicted «sharp isostatic readjustments» as the temperature rose – which is a polite way of saying, «Hold your hats! Here comes the chimney!»
«Have Space Suit will Travel» by Robert A. HeinleinRemember that while Pluto is a long way off to us, it was only five days from Luna for Wormface. Think about World War II, back when speeds were slow. Main Base is safely out of reach (U.S.A./Pluto) but only about five days from advance base (England/The Moon) which is three hours from theater-of-operations (France-Germany/Earth). That’s a slow way to operate but it worked for the Allies in World War II.
«Have Space Suit will Travel» by Robert A. HeinleinThe outer door started to open.
‹Ave, Mother Thing! Nos morituri.›
«Have Space Suit will Travel» by Robert A. Heinlein«You have misunderstood the purpose of this examination. You speak of ‘justice.’ I know what you think you mean. But no two races have ever agreed on the meaning of that term, no matter how they say it. It is not a concept I deal with here. This is not a court of justice.» [ …] «You would call it a ‹Security Council›. Or you might call it a committee of vigilantes. It does not matter what you call it; my sole purpose is to examine your race and see if you threaten our survival. If you do, I will now dispose of you. The only certain way to avert a grave danger is to remove it while it is small. Things that I have learned about you suggest a possibility that you may someday threaten the security of Three Galaxies. I will now determine the facts.»
«Have Space Suit will Travel» by Robert A. HeinleinI stopped, wondering where to turn. I couldn’t guarantee good behavior, not for the whole human race – the machine knew it and I knew it.
«Have Space Suit will Travel» by Robert A. HeinleinStars are the source of life-planets are merely life’s containers. Chop off the star … and the planet gets colder … and colder … and colder-then still colder.
«Have Space Suit will Travel» by Robert A. HeinleinPick a savage so far back in the jungle that they don’t even have installment-plan buying. Say he has an I.Q. of 190 and Peewee’s yen to understand. Dump him into Brookhaven Atomic Laboratories. How much will he learn? With all possible help?
He’ll learn which corridors lead to what rooms and he’ll learn that a purple trefoil means: «Danger!»
That’s all. Not because he can’t; remember he’s a supergenius – but he needs twenty years schooling before he can ask the right questions and understand the answers.
«Have Space Suit will Travel» by Robert A. HeinleinI never met one of their young. Joe explained that children should not see «strange creatures» until they had learned to feel understanding sympathy. That would have offended me if I hadn’t been learning some «understanding sympathy» myself. Matter of fact, if a human ten-year-old saw a Vegan, he would either run, or poke it with a stick.
«Have Space Suit will Travel» by Robert A. Heinlein«‹Luck› is a question-begging word,» he answered. «You spoke of the ‘amazing luck’ that you were listening when my daughter called for help. That wasn’t luck.» [ …]
«Why were you on that frequency? Because you were wearing a space suit. Why were you wearing it? Because you were determined to space. When a space ship called, you answered. If that is luck, then it is luck every time a batter hits a ball. Kip, ‘good luck’ follows careful preparation; ‘bad luck’ comes from sloppiness. You convinced a court older than Man himself that you and your kind were worth saving. Was that mere chance?»
«Have Space Suit will Travel» by Robert A. HeinleinHe frowned. «I’m glad you like Peewee. She is about twenty years old intellectually and six emotionally; she usually antagonizes people. So I’m glad she has gained a friend who is smarter than she is.»
«Have Space Suit will Travel» by Robert A. HeinleinBut I meant it. Oh, I didn’t think we could do it. Not yet. But we’d try. «Die trying» is the proudest human thing.
«Have Space Suit will Travel» by Robert A. HeinleinDad said, «He is not a boy; he is a man. Kip, how do you expect to face a firing squad calmly if this upsets you?»
«Have Space Suit will Travel» by Robert A. Heinlein
«Double Star»
An actor replaces a politician who was abducted. He embodies his virtues and … eases into the role.
There is solemn satisfaction in doing the best you can for eight billion people. Perhaps their lives have no cosmic significance, but they have feelings. They can hurt.
«Double Star» by Robert A. Heinlein«Pacifism is a shifty doctrine under which a man accepts the benefits of the social group without being willing to pay – and claims a halo for his dishonesty.»
John Joseph Bonforte in «Double Star» by Robert A. HeinleinI never ad-libbed at all on those parts he corrected, though I often did on the rest – when you get rolling there is often a better, more alive way to say a thing. I began to notice the nature of his corrections; they were almost always eliminations of qualifiers – make it blunter, let ’em like it or lump it!
«Double Star» by Robert A. Heinlein«The show must go on» is the oldest tenet of show business. Perhaps it has no philosophical verity, but the things men live by are rarely subject to logical proof. My father had believed it – I had seen him play two acts with a burst appendix and then take his bows before he had let them rush him to a hospital. I could see his face now, looking at me with the contempt of a trouper for a so-called actor who would let an audience down.
«Double Star» by Robert A. HeinleinMy father had taught me that a woman will forgive any action, up to and including assault with violence, but is easily insulted by language; the lovelier half of our race is symbol-oriented-very strange, in view of their extreme practicality. In any case, I have never let a taboo word pass my lips when it might offend the ears of a lady since the time I last received the back of my father’s hard hand full on my mouth … Father could have given Professor Pavlov pointers in reflex conditioning.
«Double Star» by Robert A. HeinleinThey delivered me to the robing room of the Palace and turned me over to King Willem’s equerry, Colonel Pateel, a bland-faced Hindu with perfect manners and the dazzling dress uniform of the Imperial space forces. His bow to me must have been calculated on a slide rule; it suggested that I was about to be Supreme Minister but was not quite there yet, that I was his senior but nevertheless a civilian – then subtract five degrees for the fact that he wore the Emperor’s aiguillette on his right shoulder. He glanced at the wand and said smoothly, «That’s a Martian wand, is it not, sir? Interesting. I suppose you will want to leave it here – it will be safe.» I said, «I’m carrying it.» «Sir?» His eyebrows shot up and he waited for me to correct my obvious mistake. I reached into Bonforte’s favorite clichès and picked one he used to reprove bumptiousness. «Son, suppose you tend to your knitting and I tend to mine.» His face lost all expression. «Very well, sir. If you will come this way?»
«Double Star» by Robert A. HeinleinPresently he let up on me about his childish trains and we went back into his office. I thought I was about to be dismissed. In fact, he said, «I should let you get back to your work. You had a hard trip?» «Not too hard. I spent it working.» I suppose so. By the way, who are you?» There is the policeman’s tap on the shoulder, the shock of the top step that is not there, there is falling out of bed, and there is having her husband return home unexpectedly – I would take any combination of those in preference to that simple inquiry. I aged inside to match my appearance and more.
«Double Star» by Robert A. HeinleinThe people will take a certain amount of reform, then they want a rest. But the reforms stay. People don’t really want change, any change at all-and xenophobia is very deep-rooted. But we progress, as we must-if we are to go out to the stars. Again and again I have asked myself: «What would Bonforte do?» I am not sure that my answers have always been right (although I am sure that I am the best-read student in his works in the System). But I have tried to stay in character in his role. A long time ago someone – Voltaire? – someone said, «If Satan should ever replace God he would find it necessary to assume the attributes of Divinity.»
«Double Star» by Robert A. Heinlein
«Friday»
An IIRC artificially created woman acting as a spy — and gaining her freedom. Not a book that remained that well in my memory, but okay to read.
I was still reading about the evolution of stars when Professor Perry suggested that we go to lunch. We did but I made some notes first about types of mathematics I wanted to study. Astrophysics is fascinating – but you have to talk the language.
«Friday» by Robert A. HeinleinWhat are the marks of a sick culture? It is a bad sign when the people of a country stop identifying themselves with the country and start identifying with a group. A racial group. Or a religion. Or a language. Anything, as long as it isn’t the whole population.
«Friday» by Robert A. Heinlein
«Glory Road»
Leaving the world to go on the adventure of your life on another world — hell yeah.
«Dum vivimus, vivamus!»
«While we live, let us live!»
Motto of the Hero in «Glory Road» by Robert A. HeinleinWhat did I want? I wanted the hurtling moons of Barsoom. I wanted Storisende and Poictesme, and Holmes shaking me awake to tell me, «The game’s afoot!» I wanted to float down the Mississippi on a raft and elude a mob in company with the Duke of Bilgewater and Lost Dauphin. I wanted Prester John, and Excalibur held by a moon-white arm out of a silent lake. I wanted to sail with Ulysses and with Tros of Samothrace and to eat the lotus in a land that seemed always afternoon. I wanted the feeling of romance and the sense of wonder I had known as a kid. I wanted the world to be the way they had promised me it was going to be, instead of the tawdry, lousy, fouled-up mess it is. I had had one chance – for ten minutes yesterday afternoon. Helen of Troy, whatever your true name may be – and I had known it – and I had let it slip away. Maybe one chance is all you ever get.
Oscar Gordon in «Glory Road» by Robert A. HeinleinAvailable were ways to make a man talk if one didn’t mind using him up. Star didn’t mind. I don’t mean anything so crude as rack and tongs. This was more like peeling an onion, and they peeled several.
«Glory Road» by Robert A. Heinlein«However, I know, as the prime lesson of my profession, that good intentions are the source of more folly than all other causes put together.»
Star, Empress of the Twenty Universes, in «Glory Road» by Robert A. HeinleinBut I like something with a bayonet on the end, in case the party gets intimate — and I like that something to be accurate at long range in case the neighbors get unfriendly from a distance. I put it down and picked up a Springfield — Rock Island Arsenal, as I saw by its serial number, but still a Springfield. I feel the way about a Springfield that I do about a Gooney Bird; some pieces of machinery are ultimate perfection of their sort, the only possible improvement is a radical change in design.
«Glory Road» by Robert A. HeinleinLuckily we had a breathing spell in which I sobered down and took to heart the oldest lesson on patrol: You can’t do the other man’s job. Then I gave all my attention to our rear.
«Glory Road» by Robert A. HeinleinWe had killed about a dozen of them right around us, plus maybe half that many who had fled — and had shot all who fled, I think. How? How can a 60-lb. dog armed only with teeth take on, knock down, and hold prisoner an armed man? Ans: By all-out attack.
I think we arrived as they were changing the guard at that spot known to be a Gate — and had we arrived even with swords sheathed we would have been cut down. As it was, we killed a slew before most of them knew a fight was on. They were routed, demoralized, and we slaughtered the rest, including those who tried to bug out. Karate and many serious forms of combat (boxing isn’t serious, nor anything with rules) — all these work that same way: go-for-broke, all-out attack with no wind up. These are not so much skills as an attitude.
I had time to examine our late foes; one was faced toward me with his belly open. «Iglis» I would call them, but of the economy model. No beauty and no belly buttons and not much brain–presumably constructed to do one thing: fight, and try to stay alive. Which describes us, too — but we did it faster.
«Glory Road» by Robert A. Heinlein«An insult is like a drink; it affects one only if accepted. And pride is too heavy baggage for my journey; I have none.»
Star in «Glory Road» by Robert A. HeinleinCenter is such a hash of cultures, races, customs, and styles that it has few rules. The one invariant custom was: ‹Don’t impose your customs on me.›
«Glory Road» by Robert A. HeinleinSo I kept quiet. I had been almost ruined by too much money, it had grown me up a bit. I followed the rule of Their Wisdoms: Leave well enough alone.
«Glory Road» by Robert A. HeinleinSome of her choices would cause heart failure even on a Riviera beach. She believed that a woman’s costume was a failure unless it made men want to tear it off.
«Glory Road» by Robert A. Heinlein«When did I ever fail to enjoy anything?»
Star in «Glory Road» by Robert A. HeinleinBut she did no official entertaining and felt no obligation to attend social affairs. She did not hold press conferences, make speeches, receive delegations of Girl Scouts, lay cornerstones, proclaim special «Days,» make ceremonial appearances, sign papers, deny rumors, nor any of the time-gnawing things that sovereigns and VIPs do on Earth. She consulted individuals, often summoning them from other universes, and she had at her disposal all the news from everywhere, organized in a system that had been developed over centuries. It was through this system that she decided what problems to consider. One chronic complaint was that the Imperium ignored «vital questions» — and so it did. Her Wisdom passed judgment only on problems she selected; the bedrock of the system was that most problems solved themselves.
«Glory Road» by Robert A. HeinleinI knew that Long-Life was available on Center but knew also that it was rigidly restricted. Anybody could have it — just before emigrating to a sparsely settled planet. Permanent residents must grow old and die. This was one matter in which one of Star’s predecessors had interfered in local government. Center, with disease practically conquered, great prosperity, and lodestone of a myriad peoples, had grown too crowded, especially when Long-Life sent skyward the average age of death. This stern rule had thinned the crowds. Some people took Long-Life early, went through a Gate and took their chances in wilderness. More waited until that first twinge that brings awareness of death, then decided that they weren’t too old for a change. And some sat tight and died when their time came.
«Glory Road» by Robert A. Heinlein‹Democracy›. A curious delusion — as if adding zeros could produce a sum.
«Glory Road» by Robert A. HeinleinDemocracy can’t work. Mathematicians, peasants, and animals, that’s all there is — so democracy, a theory based on the assumption that mathematicians and peasants are equal, can never work. Wisdom is not additive; its maximum is that of the wisest man in a given group.
«Glory Road» by Robert A. Heinlein«But a democratic form of government is okay, as long as it doesn’t work. Any social organization does well enough if it isn’t rigid. The framework doesn’t matter as long as there is enough looseness to permit that one man in a multitude to display his genius. Most so-called social scientists seem to think that organization is everything. It is almost nothing–except when it is a straitjacket. It is the incidence of heroes that counts, not the pattern of zeros.» He added, «Your country has a system free enough to let its heroes work at their trade. It should last a long time — unless its looseness is destroyed from inside.»
«Glory Road» by Robert A. Heinlein«None. Especially as you are not. Wherever you go, you will make yourself felt, you won’t be one of the herd. I respect you, and I don’t respect many. Never people as a whole, I could never be a democrat at heart. To claim to ‘respect’ and even to ‘love’ the great mass with their yaps at one end and smelly feet at the other requires the fatuous, uncritical, saccharine, blind, sentimental slobbishness found in some nursery supervisors, most spaniel dogs, and all missionaries. It isn’t a political system, it’s a disease. But be of good cheer; your American politicians are immune to this disease … and your customs allow the non-zero elbow room.»
«Glory Road» by Robert A. HeinleinIt was a ball not unlike one on Earth. (According to Rufo, all our races everywhere have the same basic entertainment: get together in mobs to dance, drink, and gossip. He claimed that the stag affair and the hen party are symptoms of a sick culture. I won’t argue.)
«Glory Road» by Robert A. Heinlein«So far as I know, your culture is the only semicivilized one in which love is not recognized as the highest art and given the serious study it deserves.» [ …] I lay there a while longer, thinking about what she had said. The «highest art» — and back home we didn’t even study it, much less make any attempt to teach it. Ballet takes years and years. Nor do they hire you to sing at the Met just because you have a loud voice. Why should «love» be classed as an «instinct»? Certainly the appetite for sex is an instinct — but did another appetite make every glutton a gourmet, every fry cook a Cordon Bleu? Hell, you had to learn even to be a fry cook. I walked out of the steam room whistling «The Best Things in Life Are Free» — then chopped it off in sudden sorrow for all my poor, unhappy compatriots cheated of their birthright by the most mammoth hoax in history.
«Glory Road» by Robert A. HeinleinOscar, when you get home, don’t expect too much of your feminine compatriots. You’re sure to be disappointed and the poor dears aren’t to blame. American women, having been conditioned out of their sex instincts, compensate by compulsive interest in rituals over the dead husk of sex … and each one is sure she knows ‘intuitively’ the right ritual for conjuring the corpse. She knows and nobody can tell her any different … especially a man unlucky enough to be in bed with her. So don’t try. You will either make her furious or crush her spirit. You’ll be attacking that most Sacred of Cows: the myth that women know all about sex, just from being women.
Rufo had frowned. «The typical American female is sure that she has genius as a couturiere as an interior decorator, as a gourmet cook, and, always, as a courtesan. Usually she is wrong on four counts. But don’t try to tell her so.»
He had added, «Unless you can catch one not over twelve and segregate her, especially from her mother–and even that may be too late. But don’t misunderstand me; it evens out. The American male is convinced that he is a great warrior, a great statesman, and a great lover. Spot checks prove that he is as deluded as she is. Or worse. Historo-culturally speaking, there is strong evidence that the American male, rattier than the female, murdered sex in your country.»
«What can I do about it?»
«Slip over to France now and then. French women are almost as ignorant but not nearly as conceited and often are teachable.»
Glory Road by Robert A. Heinlein«I promised I would shave your corpse. I owe it to you for the slick job you did on me. So here I am, to shave the barber.» He said slowly, «But I’m not yet a corpse.» He did not move. But his eyes did, estimating distance between us. Rufo wasn’t counting on my being ‹chivalrous›; he had lived too long.
«Glory Road» by Robert A. HeinleinEven positive edicts of the Imperium were usually negative in form: Thou Shalt Not Blow Up Thy Neighbors’ Planet. (Blow your own if you wish.) Hands off the guardians of the Gates. Don’t demand justice, you too will be judged. Above all, don’t put serious problems to a popular vote.
Oh, there is no rule against local democracy, just in imperial matters. Old Rufo — excuse me; Doctor Rufo, a most distinguished comparative culturologist (with a low taste for slumming) — Rufo told me that every human race tries every political form and that democracy is used in many primitive societies … but he didn’t know of any civilized planet using it, as Vox Populi, Vox Dei translates as: «My God! How did we get in this mess!»
But Rufo claimed to enjoy democracy — any time he felt depressed he sampled Washington, and the antics of the French Parliament were second only to the antics of French women. I asked him how advanced societies ran things.
His brow wrinkled. «Mostly they don’t.» That described the Empress of Twenty Universes: Mostly she didn’t. But sometimes she did. She might say: «This mess will clear up if you will take that troublemaker there — What’s your name? You with the goatee — out and shoot him. Do it now.» (I was present. They did it now. He was head of the delegation which had brought the problem to her — some fuss between intergalactic trading empires in the VIIth Universe — and his chief deputy pinned his arms and his own delegates dragged him outside and killed him. Star went on drinking coffee. It’s better coffee than we get back home and I was so upset that I poured myself a cup.
An Emperor has no power. Yet, if Star decided that a certain planet should be removed, people would get busy and there would be a nova in that sky. Star has never done this but it has been done in the past. Not often — His Wisdom will search his soul (and the Egg) a long time before decreeing anything so final even when his hypertrophied horse sense tells him that there is no other solution.
The Emperor is sole source of Imperial law, sole judge, sole executive — and does very little and has no way to enforce his rulings. What he or she does have is enormous prestige from a system that has worked for seven millennia. This non-system holds together by having no togetherness, no uniformity, never seeking perfection, no Utopias — just answers good enough to get by, with lots of looseness and room for many ways and attitudes. Local affairs are local. Infanticide? — they’re your babies, your planet. PTAs, movie censorship, disaster relief — the Empire is ponderously unhelpful.
«Glory Road» by Robert A. HeinleinWhat does a champion owe his lady when the quest is done?
«Glory Road» by Robert A. HeinleinBut a retired hero — first he’s a bore, then he’s a bum.
«Glory Road» by Robert A. Heinlein«You think I like the answer, my husband? Do you think I like most answers I must give? But you asked me to consider it professionally. I obeyed. That is the answer. You must leave this planet — and me.»
«Glory Road» by Robert A. HeinleinI started writing this after the dreams started. I couldn’t see going to a headshrinker and saying, «Look, Doc, I’m a hero by trade and my wife is Empress in another universe–» I had even less desire to lie on his couch and tell how my parents mistreated me as a child (they didn’t) and how I found out about little girls (that s my business). I decided to talk it out to a typewriter.
«Glory Road» by Robert A. HeinleinIn the bus I overheard two ladies: «–much as I despise them, you can’t give a cocktail party without inviting the Sylvesters.» It sounded like a foreign language. Then I played it back and understood the words. But why did she have to invite the Sylvesters? If she despised them, why didn’t she either ignore them, or drop a rock on their heads?
«Glory Road» by Robert A. HeinleinI remembered a time when my grandmother had asked me to explain television to her — the guts, not the funny pictures. There are things which cannot be taught in ten easy lessons, nor popularized for the masses; they take years of skull sweat. This be treason in an age when ignorance has come into its own and one man’s opinion is as good as another’s. But there it is. As Star says, the world is what it is — and doesn’t forgive ignorance.
«Glory Road» by Robert A. Heinlein«I cannot rest from travel; I will drink life to the lees.» A long road, a trail, a «Tramp Royal,» with no certainty of what you’ll eat or where or if, nor where you’ll sleep, nor with whom. But somewhere is Helen of Troy and all her many sisters and there is still noble work to be done.
The Hero, after his quest is done, in «Glory Road» by Robert A. Heinlein
«Methuselahs Children»
What happens when a group in society is blessed with extremely long life. Well, not blessed per se, rather, being bred to make old age more likely. Contains an actually honest politician and some nice solutions.
«The prisoners are being shipped to a reservation in Oklahoma, near the ruins of the Okla-Orleans road city about twenty-five miles east of Harriman Memorial Park. The Chief Provost describes it as a ‹Little Coventry›, and has ordered all aircraft to avoid it by ten miles laterally. The Administrator could not be reached for a statement but a usually reliable source inside the administration informs us that the mass arrest was accomplished in order to speed up the investigations whereby the administration expects to obtain the ‹Secret of the Howard Families› – their techniques for indefinitely prolonging life. This forthright action in arresting and transporting every member of the outlaw group is expected to have a salutary effect in breaking down the resistance of their leaders to the legitimate demands of society. It will bring home forcibly to them that the civil rights enjoyed by decent citizens must not be used as a cloak behind which to damage society as a whole.
«Methuselah’s Children» by Robert A. Heinlein«Nor would I consider it a solution even if it would! The people-even my trusted assistants-are clinging to their belief in a fountain of youth because the only alternative is too bitter to think about. Do you know what it would mean to them? For them to believe the bald truth?» «Go on?» «Death has been tolerable to me only because Death has been the Great Democrat, treating all alike. But now Death plays favorites. Zaccur Barstow, can you understand the bitter, bitter jealousy of the ordinary man of-oh, say ‹fifty›- who looks on one of your sort? Fifty years … twenty of them he is a child, he is well past thirty before he is skilled in his profession. He is forty before he is established and respected. For not more than the last ten years of his fifty he has really amounted to something.» Ford leaned forward in the screen and spoke with sober emphasis: «And now, when he has reached his goal, what is his prize? His eyes are failing him, his bright young strength is gone, his heart and wind are ‹not what they used to be.› He is not senile yet … but he feels the chill of the first frost. He knows what is in store for him. He knows-he knows! «But it was inevitable and each man learned to be resigned to it.» «Now you come along,» Ford went on bitterly. «You shame him in his weakness, you humble him before his children. He dares not plan for the future; you blithely undertake plans that will not mature for fifty years-for a hundred. No matter what success he has achieved, what excellence he has attained, you will catch up with him, pass him- outlive him. In his weakness you are kind to him. «Is it any wonder that he hates you?»
«Methuselah’s Children» by Robert A. Heinlein«‹It is contrary to our customs to permit scientific knowledge to be held as a monopoly for the few. When concealing such knowledge strikes at life itself, the action becomes treason to the race. As a citizen, I call on the Administration to act forcefully in this matter and I remind them that the situation is not one which could possibly have been foreseen by the wise men who drew up the Covenant and codified our basic customs. Any custom is man-made and is therefore a finite attempt to describe an infinity of relationships. It follows as the night from day that any custom necessarily has its exceptions. To be bound by them in the face of new—›» Lazarus pressed the hold button. «Had enough of that guy? «Yes, I had already heard it.» The stranger sighed. «I have rarely heard such complete lack of semantic rigor. It surprises me-Dr. Oscarsen has done sound work in the past.» «Reached his dotage,» Lazarus stated, as he told the machine to try again. «Wants what he wants when he wants it- and thinks that constitutes a natural law.»
«Methuselah’s Children» by Robert A. Heinlein«Well … 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.» She nodded thoughtfully. «I think you are right.» «Sure I’m right. It takes a hundred years or so to realize just how good life is.»
«Methuselah’s Children» by Robert A. HeinleinHardy took him to the bachelors’ pantry, operated the autochef for him, drew coffee for his watch mate and himself, and left. Lazarus consumed his «bite of breakfast» about three thousand calories of sizzling sausages, eggs, jam, hot breads, coffee with cream, and ancillary items, for he worked on the assumption of always topping off his reserve tanks because you never knew how far you might have to lift before you had another chance to refuel.
«Methuselah’s Children» by Robert A. HeinleinThe lounge was el-shaped and he was out of sight; he hung back and listened shamelessly. Eavesdropping had saved his skin on several occasions; it worried him not at all-he enjoyed it.
«Methuselah’s Children» by Robert A. HeinleinHis hair was slightly grizzled – unusual in that group – and his face looked space tanned. Mary Sperling had noticed him and had wondered who he was-his live face and gusty laugh had interested her.
«Methuselah’s Children» by Robert A. HeinleinInstead of worrying he spent the time making plans.
«Methuselah’s Children» by Robert A. HeinleinIf justice is measured out only when it is convenient, then the Covenant is not worth the parchment it is written on.
«Methuselah’s Children» by Robert A. HeinleinIn at least one respect Barstow was a wise man; he knew that another man could oppose him and not be a villain. Nevertheless he protested, «My people are being persecuted.» «Your people,» Ford said forcefully, «are a fraction of a tenth of one per cent of all the people … and I must find a solution for all! I’ve called on you to find out if you have any suggestions toward a solution for everyone. Do you?»
«Methuselah’s Children» by Robert A. HeinleinKing sighed. «Mister; I sometimes wonder why I got into this business. Well, are you willing to venture a best guess? Long time? Short time?»
«Uh … a long time, sir. Years.»
«So? Well, I’ve sweated it out in worse ships. Years, eh? Play any chess?»
«I have, sir.» Libby did not mention that he had given up the game long ago for lack of adequate competition.
«Methuselah’s Children» by Robert A. Heinlein
Starship Troopers
If you know the movie, forget it. It has almost nothing to do with the book. Because the book itself … just read it.
On the steps of the Federal Building we ran into Carmencita Ibanez, a classmate of ours and one of the nice things about being a member of a race with two sexes.
«Starship Troopers» by Robert A. Heinlein«I told you that juvenile delinquent is a contradiction in terms. Delinquent means failing in duty. But duty is an adult virtue – indeed a juvenile becomes an adult when, and only when, he acquires a knowledge of duty and embraces it as dearer than the self-love he was born with. There never was, there cannot be, a juvenile delinquent.»
Colonel Dubois in «Starship Troopers» by Robert A. HeinleinWhat is the moral difference, if any, between the soldier and the civilian?
The difference, lies in the field of civic virtue. A soldier accepts personal responsibility for the safety of the body politic of which he is a member, defending it, if need be, with his life. The civilian does not.
«Starship Troopers» by Robert A. Heinlein«So what difference is there between our voters and wielders of franchise in the past? Under our system every voter and officeholder is a man who has demonstrated through voluntary and difficult service that he places the welfare of the group ahead of personal advantage.»
Major Reid in «Starship Troopers» by Robert A. HeinleinUnder our system every voter and officeholder is a man who has demonstrated through voluntary and difficult service that he places the welfare of the group ahead of personal advantage. And that is the one practical difference. He may fail is wisdom, he may lapse in civic virtue. But his average performance is enormously better than that of any other class of rulers in history.
«Starship Troopers» by Robert A. HeinleinWar is not violence and killing, pure and simple; war is controlled violence, for a purpose. The purpose of war is to support your government’s decisions by force. The purpose is never to kill the enemy just to be killing him but to make him do what you want him to do. Not killing … but controlled and purposeful violence.
Sgt. Zim in «Starship Troopers» by Robert A. HeinleinMaybe some day they’ll get everything nice and tidy and we’ll have that thing we sing about, when «we ain’t gonna study war no more.» Maybe. Maybe the same day the leopard will take off his spots and get a job as a Jersey cow, too.
«Starship Troopers» by Robert A. Heinlein«My mother says that violence never settles anything.»
«So. I’m sure the city fathers of Carthage would be glad to know that. Why doesn’t your mother tell them so? Or why don’t you?»
«You’re making fun of me! Everybody knows that Carthage was destroyed!»
«You seemed to be unaware of it, since you do know it, wouldn’t you say that violence had settled their destinies rather thoroughly? However, I was not making fun on you personally; I was heaping scorn on an inexcusably silly idea – a practice I shall always follow. Anyone who clings to the historically untrue – and thoroughly immoral – doctrine that ‹violence never settles anything› I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and of the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breed that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms.»
«Starship Troopers» by Robert A. Heinlein«‹Value› has no meaning other than in relation to living beings. The value of a thing is always relative to a particular person, is completely personal and different in quantity for each living human – ‹market value› is a fiction, merely a rough guess at the average of personal values, all of which must be quantitatively different or trade would be impossible. This very personal relationship, ‹value›, has two factors for a human being: first, what he can do with a thing, its use to him … and second, what he must do to get it, its cost to him. There is an old song which asserts ‹the best things in life are free›. Not true! Utterly false! This was the tragic fallacy which brought on the decadence and collapse of the democracies of the twentieth century; those noble experiments failed because the people had been led to believe that they could simple vote for whatever they wanted … and get it, without toil, without sweat, without tears. Nothing of value is free. Even the breath of life is purchased at birth only through gasping effort and pain. If you boys and girls had to sweat for your toys the way a newly born baby has to struggle to live you would be happier … and much richer. As it is, with some of you, I pity the poverty of you wealth. You! I’ve just awarded you the prize for the hundred-meter dash. Does it make you happy?»
«You know darn well I placed fourth!»
«Exactly! The prize for the first place is worthless to you … because you haven’t earned it. But you enjoy a modest satisfaction in placing fourth; you earned it. I trust that some of the somnambulists here understood this little morality play. I fancy that the poet who wrote that song meant to imply that the best things in life must be purchased other than with money – which is true – just as the literal meaning of his words is false. The best things in life are beyond money; their price is agony and sweat and devotion … and the price demanded for the most precious of all things in life is life itself – ultimate cost for perfect value.»
«Starship Troopers» by Robert A. HeinleinHistory and Moral Philosophy works like a delayed-action bomb. You wake up in the middle of the night and think: Now what did he mean by that?
«Starship Troopers» by Robert A. Heinlein«There are no dangerous weapons; there are only dangerous men. We’re trying to teach you to be dangerous – to the enemy. Dangerous even without a knife. Deadly as long as you still have one hand or one foot and are still alive. If you don’t know what I mean, go read ‹Horatius at the Bridge› or ‹The Death of the Bon Homme Richard›; they’re both in the Camp library.»
«Starship Troopers» by Robert A. HeinleinSergeant Zim came out with the rations and he held mail call in the field – which was not an unexpected luxury. I’ll say this for the M.I.; they might chop off your food, water, sleep, or anything else, without warning, but they never held up a person’s mail a minute longer than circumstances required. That was yours, and they got it to you by the first transportation available and you could read it at your earliest break, even on maneuvers.
«Starship Troopers» by Robert A. HeinleinBut does Man have any «right» to spread through the universe? Man is what he is, a wild animal with the will to survive, and (so far) the ability, against all competition. Unless one accepts that, anything one says about morals, war, politics, you name it, is nonsense. Correct morals arise from knowing what man is, not what do-gooders and well-meaning old Aunt Nellies would like him to be. The Universe will let us know – later – whether or not Man has any «right» to expand through it.
«Starship Troopers» by Robert A. HeinleinThe M.I. take care of their own – no matter what.
Dillinger belonged to us, he was still on our rolls. Even though we didn’t want him, even though we should never have had him, even though we would have been happy to disclaim him, he was a member of our regiment. We couldn’t brush him off and let a sheriff a thousand miles away handle it. If it has to be done, a man – a real man – shoots his own dog himself; he doesn’t hire a proxy who may bungle it.
«Starship Troopers» by Robert A. HeinleinOf course, the Marxian definition of value is ridiculous. All the work one cares to add will not turn a mud pie into an apple tart; it remains a mud pie, value zero. By corollary, unskillful work can easily subtract value; an untalented cook can turn wholesome dough and fresh green apples, valuable already, into an inedible mess, value zero. Conversely, a great chef can fashion of those same materials a confection of greater value than a commonplace apple tart, with no more effort than an ordinary cook uses to prepare an ordinary sweet. These kitchen illustrations demolish the Marxian theory of value – the fallacy from which the entire magnificent fraud of communism derives – and to illustrate the truth of the common-sense definition as measured in terms of use.
«Starship Troopers» by Robert A. HeinleinAt O.C.S. we studied armies in history that were driven like galley slaves. But the M.I. is a free man; all that drives him comes from inside – that self-respect and need for the respect of his mates and his pride in being one of them called morale, or esprit de corps. The root of our morale is: «Everybody works, everybody fights.» An M.I. doesn’t pull strings to get a soft, safe job; there aren’t any. Oh, a trooper will get away with what he can, any private with enough savvy to mark time to music can think up reasons why he should not clean compartments or break out stores; this is a soldier’s ancient right. But all «soft, safe» jobs are filled by civilians; that goldbricking private climbs into his capsule certain that everybody, from general to private, is doing it with him. Light-years away and on a different day, or maybe an hour or so later – no matter. What does matter is that everybody drops. This is why he enters the capsule, even though he may not be conscious of it. If we ever deviate from this, the M.I. will go to pieces. And that holds us together is an idea – one that binds more strongly than steel but its magic power depends on keeping it intact. It is this «everybody fights» rule that lets the M.I. get by with so few officers.
«Starship Troopers» by Robert A. Heinlein
«The Moon is a Harsh Mistress»
The citizens of the lunar colonies want their freedom — and they are willing to fight for it — smartly. Oh, and also a artificial intelligence who attains consciousness.
TANSTAAFL*
*There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch
«The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress» by Robert A. HeinleinGospodin,» he said presently, «you used an odd word earlier — odd to me, I mean.»
«Call me ‘Mannie’ now that kids are gone. What word?»
«It was when you insisted that the, uh, young lady, Tish– that Tish must pay, too. ‘Tone-stapple,’ or something like it.»
«Oh, ‘tanstaafl.’ Means ‘There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.’ And isn’t,» I added, pointing to a FREE LUNCH sign across room, «or these drinks would cost half as much. Was reminding her that anything free costs twice as much in long run or turns out worthless.»
«The Moon is a Harsh Mistress» by Robert A. HeinleinI am free, no matter what rules surround me.
If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them;
if I find them too obnoxious, I break them.
I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.
«The Moon is a Harsh Mistress» by Robert A. Heinlein«… suppose you managed it. Solidarity. So solid not a tonne of grain is delivered to catapult head. Forget ice; it’s grain that makes Authority important and not just neutral agency it was set up to be. No grain. What happens?»
«Why, they have to negotiate a fair price, that’s what!»
«My dear, you and your comrades listen to each other too much.
«The Moon is a Harsh Mistress» by Robert A. HeinleinWhat Mike meant was: I’m nervous, too, and want your company–but no talking, please.
«The Moon is a Harsh Mistress» by Robert A. HeinleinThere is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.
«The Moon is a Harsh Mistress» by Robert A. Heinlein«Mannie, you’re married. Ja?»
«Da. It shows?»
«Quite. You’re nice to a woman but not eager and quite independent. So you’re married and long married. Children?»
«The Moon is a Harsh Mistress» by Robert A. HeinleinHe shook head. «Killing is not the way to handle a spy, not when he doesn’t know that you know that he is a spy.»
She blinked. «I must be dense.»
«No, dear lady. Instead you have a charming honesty.. . a weakness you must guard against. The thing to do with a spy is to let him breathe, encyst him with loyal comrades, and feed him harmless information to please his employers. These creatures will be taken into our organization. Don’t be shocked; they will be in very special cells. ‘Cages’ is a better word. But it would be the greatest waste to eliminate them–not only would each spy be replaced with someone new but also killing these traitors would tell the Warden that we have penetrated his secrets. Mike amigo mio, there should be in that file a dossier on me. Will you see?»
«The Moon is a Harsh Mistress» by Robert A. HeinleinI asked Prof how should have handled? «Always answer an unfriendly question with another question,» he told me. «Never ask him to clarify; he’ll put words in your mouth. This reporter– Was he skinny? Ribs showing?»
«No. Heavyset.»
«Not living on eighteen hundred calories a day, I take it, which is the subject of that order he cited. Had you known you could have asked him how long he had conformed to the ration and why he quit? Or asked him what he had for breakfast–and then looked unbelieving no matter what he answered. Or when you don’t know what a man is getting at, let your counter-question shift the subject to something you do want to talk about. Then, no matter what he answers, make your point and call on someone else.
Logic does not enter into it–just tactics.»
«The Moon is a Harsh Mistress» by Robert A. HeinleinBut Prof didn’t get excited; he went on smiling. «Manuel, do you really think that mob of retarded children can pass any laws?»
«You told them to. Urged them to.»
«My dear Manuel, I was simply putting all my nuts in one basket. I know those nuts; I’ve listened to them for years. I was very careful in selecting their committees; they all have built-in confusion, they will quarrel. The chairman I forced on them while letting them elect him is a ditherer who could not unravel a piece of string–thinks every subject needs ‘more study.’ I almost needn’t have bothered; more than six people cannot agree on anything, three is better–and one is perfect for a job that one can do. This is why parliamentary bodies all through history, when they accomplished anything, owed it to a few strong men who dominated the rest. Never fear, son, this Ad-Hoc Congress will do nothing … or if they pass something through sheer fatigue, it will be so loaded with contradictions that it will have to be thrown out. In the meantime they are out of our hair. Besides, there is something we need them for, later.»
«The Moon is a Harsh Mistress» by Robert A. HeinleinAre quite different. Take own case. I have honor to be member of one of oldest line marriages in Luna–and, in my prejudiced opinion, best. You asked about divorce.
Our family has never had one and would bet long odds never will. A line marriage increases in stability year after year, gains practice in art of getting along together, until notion of anybody leaving is unthinkable. Besides, takes unanimous decision of all wives to divorce a husband–could never happen. Senior wife would never let it get that far.»
Went on describing advantages–financial security, fine home life it gives children, fact that death of a spouse, while tragic, could never be tragedy it was in a temporary family, especially for children–children simply could not be orphaned. Suppose I waxed too enthusiastic–but my family is most important thing in my life. Without them I’m just one-armed mechanic who could be eliminated without causing a draft.
«Here’s why is stable,» I said. «Take my youngest wife, sixteen. Likely be in her eighties before is senior wife. Doesn’t mean all wives senior to her will die by then; unlikely in Luna, females seem to be immortal. But may all opt out of family management by then; by our family traditions they usually do, without younger wives putting pressure on them. So Ludmilla–»
«Ludmilla?»
«Russki name. From fairy tale. Milla will have over fifty years of good example before has to carry burden. She’s sensible to start with, not likely to make mistakes and if did, has other wives to steady her. Self-correcting, like a machine with proper negative feedback. A good line marriage is immortal; expect mine to outlast me at least a thousand years–and is why shan’t mind dying when time comes; best part of me will go on living.»
«The Moon is a Harsh Mistress» by Robert A. Heinlein
«I will Fear No Evil»
A rather old man lives another life — as a young woman. A bit esoteric, but still a very interesting story.
Boats and ships are female because they are beautiful, lovable, expensive-and unpredictable.»
«I Will Fear No Evil» by Robert A. Heinlein«Tell Hester if you wish, dear; it can’t matter now. Then at some later time, she would not be surprised if she found me doing what widows so often do.» (‹They don’t tell, they don’t yell, they rarely swell-and they’re grateful as hell.›)
«I Will Fear No Evil» by Robert A. HeinleinJoan Eunice slipped off her negligee, melted down onto the rug into meditation pose, soles upward on her thighs, palms upward in her lap. «It goes like this. Om Mani Padme Hum.» (Om Math Padme Hum. I should have taught Jake this long ago.)
«I know the phrase. ‘The Jewel in the Lotus.’ But what does it mean to you, Joan Eunice?»
Winifred had followed Joan’s example as quickly as she set it, was bare and in Lotus-and not blushing. She answered, «It means everything and nothing, Mr. Salomon. It is all the good things you know of-bravery and beauty and gentleness and not wanting what you can’t have and being happy with what you do have and trees swaying in the wind and fat little babies gurgling when you tickle their feet and anything that makes life good. Love. It always means love. But you don’t think about it, you don’t think at all, you don’t even try not to think. You chant the prayer and just be-until you find yourself floating, all warm and good and relaxed.»
«I Will Fear No Evil» by Robert A. Heinlein
«Time Enough for Love»
While Lazarus Long does appear in a few other stories, this book is solely about him. And he seems to like it. Oh, and his «Notebooks» got a book on their own, very much deserved.
The more you love, the more you can love – and the more intensely you love. Nor is there any limit on how many you can love. If a person had time enough, he could love all of the majority who are decent and just.
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinLittle girls, like butterflies, need no excuse.
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinThe greatest productive force is human selfishness.
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinWhen the ship lifts, all bills are paid. No regrets.
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinFreedom begins when you tell Mrs. Grundy to go fly a kite.
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinIn a mature society, «civil servant» is semantically equal to «civil master.»
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinBeing generous is inborn; being altruistic is a learned perversity. No resemblance —
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinIf you don’t like yourself, you can’t like other people.
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinPlace your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark.
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinMoney is truthful. If a man speaks of his honor, make him pay cash.
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinAvoid making irrevocable decisions while tired or hungry.
N.B.: Circumstances can force your hand. So think ahead.
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinAlways listen to experts. They’ll tell you what can’t be done, and why. Then do it.
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinYou can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don’t ever count on having both at once.
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinThou shalt remember the Eleventh Commandment1 and keep it Wholly.
1 The Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt not get caught.
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinCourage is the complement of fear. A man who is fearless cannot be courageous. (He is also a fool.)
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinThe difference between science and the fuzzy subjects is that science requires reasoning, while those other subjects merely require scholarship.
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinNever appeal to a man’s «better nature.» He may not have one. Invoking his self-interest gives you more leverage.
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinSin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other «sins» are invented nonsense. (Hurting yourself is not sinful – just stupid.)
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinIf you happen to be one of the fretful minority who can do creative work, never force and idea; you’ll abort it if you do. Be patient and you’ll give birth to it when the time is ripe. Learn to wait.
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinMen rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinExpertise in one field does not carry over into other fields. But experts often think so. The narrower their field of knowledge the more likely they are to think so.
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinDarling, a true lady takes off her dignity with her clothes and does her whorish best. At other times you can be as modest and dignified as your persona requires.
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinYour enemy is never a villian in his own eyes. Keep this in mind; it may offer a way to make him your friend. If not, you can kill him without hate – and quickly.
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinWhen the need arises – and it does – you must be able to shoot your own dog. Don’t farm it out, that doesn’t make it nicer, it makes it worse.
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinAnyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house.
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinSovereign ingredient for a happy marriage: Pay cash or do without. Interest charges not only eat up a household budget; awareness of debt eats up domestic felicity. Another ingredient for a happy marriage: Budget the luxuries first! And still another – See to it that she has her own desk – then keep your hands off it! And another – In a family argument, if it turns out you are right – apologize at once!
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinPessimist by policy, optimist by temperament – it is possible to be both. How? By never taking an unnecessary chance and by minimizing risks you can’t avoid. This permits you to play out the game happily, untroubled by the certainty of the outcome.
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinTouch is the most fundamental sense. A baby experiences it, all over, before he is born and long before he learns to use sight, hearing, or taste, and no human ever ceases to need it. Keep your children short on pocket money – but long on hugs.
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinA human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.
Specialization is for insects.
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinA whore should be judged by the same criteria as other professionals offering services for pay – such as dentists, lawyers, hairdressers, physicians, plumbers, etc. Is she professionally competent? Does she give good measure? Is she honest with her clients?
It is possible that the percentage of honest and competent whores is higher than that of plumbers and much higher than that of lawyers. And enormously higher than that of professors.
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinNever crowd youngsters about their private affairs – sex especially. When they are growing up, they are nerve ends all over, and resent (quite properly) any invasion of their privacy. Oh, sure, they’ll make mistakes – but that’s their business, not yours. (You made your own mistakes, did you not?)
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinThis sad little lizard told me that he was a brontosaurus on his mother’s side. I did not laugh; people who boast of ancestry often have little else to sustain them. Humoring them costs nothing and adds to happiness in a world in which happiness is always in short supply.
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinPolitical tags – such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth – are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from the highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinWhat are the facts? Again and again and again – what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what «the stars foretell,» avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable «verdict of history» – what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinThroughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded – here and there, now and then – are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty. This is known as «bad luck.»
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinAll societies are based on rules to protect pregnant women and young children. All else is surplusage, excrescence, adornment, luxury, or folly which can – and must – be dumped in emergency to preserve this prime function. As racial survival is the only universal morality, no other basic is possible. Attempts to formulate a «perfect society» on any foundation other than «Women and children first!» is not only witless, it is automatically genocidal. Nevertheless, starry-eyed idealists (all of them male) have tried endlessly – and no doubt will keep on trying.
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. HeinleinDora was untroubled by lack of privacy because her sweet lechery was utterly innocent, whereas mine -was scarred by the culture I grew up in-a culture psychotic throughout and especially on this subject. Dora did much to heal those scars. But I never achieved her angelic innocence.
I do not mean the innocence of childish ignorance; I mean the true innocence of an intelligent, informed, adult woman who has no evil in her. Dora was as tough as she was innocent, always aware that she was responsible for her own actions. She knew that «the tail goes with the hide, that you can’t be a little bit pregnant, that it is no kindness to hang a man slowly.» She could make a hard decision without dithering, then stand up to the consequences if it turned out that her judgment was faulty. She could apologize to a child, or to a mule. But that was rarely necessary; her self-honesty did not often lead her into faulty decisions.
Nor did she flagellate herself when she made a mistake. She corrected it as best she could, learned from it, did not lie awake over it.
Character in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. Heinlein
«The Number of the Beast»
Two pairs go on a trip though different worlds. How did someone put it: «Jack Kirwan wrote in the National Review that the novel is ‹about two men and two women in a time machine safari through this and other universes. But describing The Number of the Beast thus is like saying Moby Dick is about a one-legged guy trying to catch a fish›. He goes on to say that Heinlein celebrates the «competent person». http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Number_of_the_Beast_%28novel%29». Yeah.
«The cowards never started and the weaklings died on the way.»
«The Number of the Beast» by Robert A. HeinleinAnyone who «won» a family argument had in fact lost it.
«The Number of the Beast» by Robert A. Heinlein«Don’t be disappointed, Aunt Hilda. Pop has to work; it’s his nature. Me, too. Work is necessary to us. Without it, we’re lost.» «Well … yes. But working because you want to is the best sort of play.»
«The Number of the Beast» by Robert A. HeinleinI was no longer dependent on Jake’s clothes; my travel kit, always in my car, once I got at it, supplied necessities from passport to poncho.
«The Number of the Beast» by Robert A. HeinleinNever let the revenooers know anything. Pay cash, keep your lips closed, put nothing through banks that does not appear later in tax returns — pay taxes greater than your apparent standard of living and declare income accordingly. We had been audited three times since Mama died; each time the government returned a small «overpayment» — I was building a reputation of being stupid and honest.
«The Number of the Beast» by Robert A. HeinleinPart of the problem lay in the fact that Gay Deceiver was a one-man girl; her doors unlocked only to her master’s voice or to his thumbprint, or to a tapping code if he were shy both voice and right thumb; Zeb tended to plan ahead — «Outwitting Murphy’s Law,» he called it, «’Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.’»
(Grandma called it «The Butter-Side Down Rule.»)
«The Number of the Beast» by Robert A. HeinleinI felt silly adding «Brainy» — but there had been a row between Pop and him, and years earlier my best teacher had said, «Never neglect the so-called ‘trivial’ roots of an equation,» and had pointed out that two Nobel prizes had derived from «trivial» roots.
«The Number of the Beast» by Robert A. Heinlein«Why don’t you ever look beneath the surface, young man! I laugh because I dare not cry. This is a crazy world and the only way to enjoy it is to treat it as a joke. That doesn’t mean I don’t read and can’t think. I read everything from Giblett to Hoyle, from Sartre to Pauling. I read in the tub, I read on the john, I read in bed, I read when I eat alone, and I would read in my sleep if I could keep my eyes open. Deety, this is proof that Zebbie has never been in my bed: the books downstairs are display; the stuff I read is stacked in my bedroom.»
«The Number of the Beast» by Robert A. HeinleinIn the course of figuring what could be stowed in every nook and cranny and what that would do to Gay’s balance, I had discovered that my husband had a highly illegal laser cannon. I said nothing, merely included its mass and distance from optimum center of weight in my calculations. I sometimes wonder which of us is the outlaw: Zebadiah or I? Most males have an unhealthy tendency to obey laws. But that concealed L-cannon made me wonder.
«The Number of the Beast» by Robert A. HeinleinAt first opportunity we’ll get pants off all of us, too, without anything as childish as strip poker. Deety, I want us to be a solid family, and relaxed about it. So that skin doesn’t mean sex, it just means we are home, en famille.»
«The Number of the Beast» by Robert A. HeinleinAll of you — lifeboat rules! I expect fast action and no back talk. Estimated departure — five minutes! First everybody take a pee! Second, put on the clothes you’ll travel in. Jake, switch off, lock up — whatever you do to secure your house for long absence. Deety — follow Jake, make sure he hasn’t missed anything — then you, not Jake, switch out lights and close doors. Hilda, bundle what’s left of that Dutch lunch and fetch it — fast, not fussy. Check the refrigerator for solid foods — no liquids — and cram what you can into Gay’s refrigerator. Don’t dither over choices. Questions, anyone? Move!»
«The Number of the Beast» by Robert A. Heinlein«Listen, please! When I said, ‘I do,’ I resigned as Pop’s manager. When you said, ‘I do,’ the load landed on you. It has to be that way, Aunt Hilda. Pop won’t do it; he has other things to think about, things that take genius. Mama did it for years, then I learned how, and now it’s your job. Because it can’t be farmed out. Do you understand accountancy?» «Well, I understand it, I took a course in it. Have to understand it, or the government will skin you alive. But I don’t do it, I have accountants for that — and smart shysters to keep it inside the law.»
«The Number of the Beast» by Robert A. Heinlein«Rule One: No news broadcasts at meals, no newspapers. No shop talk, no business or financial matters, no discussion of ailments. No political discussion, no mention of taxes, or of foreign or domestic policy. Reading of fiction permitted en famille — not with guests present. Conversation limited to cheerful subjects –» «No scandal, no gossip?» demanded Aunt Hilda. «A matter of your judgment, dear. Cheerful gossip about friends and acquaintances, juicy scandal about people we do not like — fine! Now — do you wish to ratify, abolish, amend, or take under advisement?» «I ratify it unchanged. Who knows some juicy scandal about someone we don’t like?»
«The Number of the Beast» by Robert A. Heinlein«Approaching three klicks, Boss.»
«Thanks, Gay. Hold course and H-above-G Correction! Hold course and absolute altitude. Confirm and execute.»
«Roger Wilco, Zeb.» I had forgotten that the Grand Canyon lay ahead — or should. «Smart Girl» is smart, but she’s literal-minded. She would have held height-above-ground precisely and given us the wildest roller-coaster ride in history. She is very flexible but the «garbage-in-garbage-out» law applies. She had many extra fail-safes — because I make mistakes. Gay can’t; anything she does wrong is my mistake. Since I’ve been making mistakes all my life, I surrounded her with all the safeguards I could think of. But she had no program against wild rides — she was beefed up to accept them. Violent evasive tactics had saved our lives two weeks ago, and tonight as well. Being too close to a fireball can worry a man — to death.
«The Number of the Beast» by Robert A. Heinlein«No, sir. Pop got it for me — black market — when I started working nights. He said he would rather hire shysters to get me acquitted — or maybe probation — than to have to go down to the morgue to identify my body. Haven’t had to use it; in Logan I hardly need it. Zebadiah, Pop has gone to a great deal of trouble to get me the best possible training in selfdefense. He’s just as highly trained — that’s why I keep him out of fist fights. Because it would be a massacre. He and Mama decided this when I was a baby. Pop says cops and courts no longer protect citizens, so citizens must protect themselves.»
«The Number of the Beast» by Robert A. HeinleinI took endless pictures while Hilda sweated away. «Sharpie, doesn’t it worry you to work with bare hands? You might catch the Never-Get-Overs.» «Zebbie, if these critters could be killed by our bugs, they would have arrived here with no immunities and died quickly. They didn’t. Therefore it seems likely that we can’t by hurt by their bugs. Radically different biochemistries.» It sounded logical — but I could not forget Kettering’s Law: «Logic is an organized way of going wrong with confidence.»
«The Number of the Beast» by Robert A. Heinlein«as a fairish mechanic, an amateur electron pusher, and as a bloke who has herded unlikely junk through the sky, I never worry about theory as long as machinery does what it is supposed to do. I worry when a machine turns and bites me. That’s why I specialize in fail-safes and backups and triple redundancy. I try never to get a machine sore at me. There’s no theory for that but every engineer knows it.»
«The Number of the Beast» by Robert A. HeinleinI went through and closed after me two soundproof doors, then no longer had to keep quiet. Pop does not tolerate anything shoddy — if it doesn’t work properly, he fixes it. Pop’s B.S. was in mechanical engineering, his M.S. in physics, his Ph.D. in mathematics; there isn’t anything he can’t design and build. A second Leonardo da Vinci — or a Paul Dirac.
«The Number of the Beast» by Robert A. Heinlein
«To Sail beyond the Sunset»
A story about a relative of Lazarus Long (His mother? Not sure I remember it correctly). Still, a nice addition to Heinlein’s universe.
If a person wants to take his own life, it is his privilege.
Maureen Johnson in «To Sail Beyond the Sunset» by Robert A. HeinleinSo those books stayed in the clinic and I devoured them there, along with other books never seen in the parlour-not just medical books, but such outright subversion as the lectures of Colonel Robert Ingersoll and (best of all) the essays of Thomas Henry Huxley.
I’ll never forget the afternoon I read Professor Huxley’s essay on ‹The Gaderene Swine›.
«Father,» I said in deep excitement, «they’ve lied to us all along!»
«Probably,» he agreed. «What are you reading?»
I told him. «Well, you’ve read enough of it for today; Professor Huxley is strong medicine. Let’s talk for a while.»
«To Sail Beyond the Sunset» by Robert A. HeinleinOn two subjects the overwhelming majority of people regarded their own opinions as Absolute Truth, and sincerely believed that anyone who disagreed with them was immoral, outrageous, sinful, sacrilegious, offensive, intolerable, stupid, illogical, treasonable, actionalbe, against the public interest, ridiculous, and obscene. The two subjects were (of course) sex and religion. On sex and religion each American citizen knew the One Right Answer, by direct Revelation from God. In view of the wide diversity of opinion, most of them must necessarily have been mistaken. But on these two subjects they were not accessible to reason. «But you must respect another man’s religious beliefs!» For Heaven’s sake, why? Stupid is stupid — faith doesn’t make it smart.
«To Sail Beyond The Sunset» by Robert A. Heinlein
«Stranger in a Strange Land»
Probably one of the best books of Heinlein — a very intersting view on humans from a … well, someone not born in human culture. Has the best quotes on love, gifts, kisses, and human nature I have ever read. A bit esoteric, but still, eye-opening in a lot of ways. (Just don’t start your 60s counter-culture movement afterwards.)
Make sure you get the uncut version (look for the passage «This would account for his action in jetting to Australia and proposing marriage to Doctor Winifred Coburn, a horse-faced spinster semantician nine years his senior. The Carlsbad Archives pictured her with an expression of quiet good humor but otherwise lacking in attractiveness.» in the first chapter).
Goodness without wisdom always accomplished evil.
Valentine Michael Smith in «Stranger In A Strange Land» by Robert A. Heinlein‘People laugh because it hurts … because it’s the only thing that’ll make it stop hurting.’
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein‘Love’ is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.
Jubal Harshaw in «Stranger in a Strange Land» by Robert A. Heinlein«It took you long enough to answer your phone.»
«It’s my phone, Mr. Secretary. Sometimes I don’t answer it at all.»
Secretary General Douglas and Jubal Harshaw in «Stranger in a Strange Land» by Robert A. Heinlein«Mike dear, a present ought not to be very expensive – unless you are trying to get a girl to marry you, or something. Especially ‘something’.
But a present should show that you thought about it and considered that person’s tastes. Something he would enjoy but probably would not buy for himself.»
«Stranger In A Strange Land» by Robert A. HeinleinTHE CROW’S NEST by Ben Caxton
Everyone knows that jails and hospitals have one thing in common: they can be very hard to get out of. In some ways a prisoner is less cut off than a patient; a prisoner can sent for his lawyer, demand a Fair Witness, invoke habeas corpus and require the jailor to show case in open court. But it takes only a NO VISITORS sign, ordered by one of the medicine men of our peculiar tribe, to consign a hospital patient to oblivion more thoroughly than ever was the Man in the Iron Mask. [ …]
Ben Caxton in «Stranger in a Strange Land» by Robert A. Heinlein«Which reminds me – we will be interviewed, my client and I, over the networks later today – and I shall announce that we want public talks.» «What? You mustn’t give out interviews now – why, that’s contrary to the whole spirit of this discussion.» «I can’t see that it is. Are you suggesting that a citizen must have your permission to speak to the press?» «No, of course not, but-»
Jubal Harshaw and Secretary General Douglas in «Stranger In A Strange Land» by Robert A. HeinleinShe tossed one [peanut] to a medium sized monk[ey]; before he could eat it a much larger male was on him and not only stole his peanut but gave him a beating, then left. The little fellow made no attempt to pursue his tormentor; be squatted at the scene of the crime, pounded his knucks against the concrete floor, and chattered his helpless rage. Mike watched it solemnly. Suddenly the mistreated monkey rushed to the side of the cage, picked a monkey still smaller, bowled it over and gave it a drubbing worse than the one he had suffered-after which he seemed quite relaxed. The third monk crawled away, still whimpering, and found shelter in the arm of a female who had a still smaller one, a baby, on her back. The other monkeys paid no attention to any of it.
«Stranger in a Strange Land» by Robert A. Heinlein«Anne? What’s so special about the way that lad kisses?» Anne looked dreamy, then dimpled. «You should have tried it.» «I’m too old to change. But I’m interested in everything about the boy. Is this something different?» Anne pondered it. «Yes.» «How?» «Mike gives a kiss his whole attention.» «Oh, rats! I do myself. Or did.» Anne shook her head. «No. I’ve been kissed by men who did a very good job. But they don’t give kissing their whole attention. They can’t. No matter how hard they try parts of their minds are on something else. Missing the last bus – or their chances of making the gal – or their own techniques in kissing – or maybe worry about jobs, or money, or will husband or papa or the neighbors catch on. Mike doesn’t have technique … but when Mike kisses you he isn’t doing anything else. You’re his whole universe … and the moment is eternal because he doesn’t have any plans and isn’t going anywhere. Just kissing you.»
«Stranger in a Strange Land» by Robert A. HeinleinJubal said aggressively, ‘You aren’t Gill Berquist.’
‘What is your interest in Gilbert Berquist?’
Jubal answered with pained patience, ‘I wish to speak to him. See here, my good man, are you a public employee?’
The man hesitated. ‘Yes. You must -‘
‘I ‘must’ nothing! I am a citizen and my taxes help pay your wages. All morning I have been trying to make a simple phone call – and I have been passed from one butterfly-brained bovine to another, every one of them feeding out of the public trough. And now you. Give me your name, job title, and pay number. Then I’ll speak to Mr. Berquist.
‘You didn’t answer my question.’
‘Come, come! I don’t have to; I am a private citizen. You are not – and the question I asked any citizen may demand of any public servant. O’Kelly versus State of California 1972. I demand that you identify yourself – name, job, number.’
The man answered tonelessly, ‘You are Doctor Jubal Harshaw. You are calling from -‘
‘So that’s what took so long? That was stupid. My address can be obtained from any library post office, or telephone information. As to who I am, everyone knows. Everyone who can read. Can you read?’
‘Dr. Harshaw, I am a police officer and I require your cooperation. What is your reason -‘
‘Pooh, sir! I am a lawyer. A citizen is required to cooperate with police under certain conditions only. For example, during hot pursuit – in which case the police officer still be required to show credentials. Is this ‘hot pursuit’, sir? Are you about to dive through this blasted instrument? Second, a citizen may be required to cooperate within reasonable and lawful limits in the course of police investigation -‘
‘This is an investigation.’
‘Of what, sir? Before you may require my cooperation, you must identify yourself, satisfy me as to your bona-fides, state your purpose and – if I so require – cite the code and show that ‘reasonable necessity’ exists. You have done none of these. I wish to speak to Mr. Berquist.’
Stranger in a Strange Land
«Sixth Column»
The United States are overrun and a small group of people is resisting.
«You will remember that we established experimentally that the Ledbetter effect could be used as a sterilizing agent?»
«Yes, of course.»
«That is why we felt safe in predicting that we would help the sick. As a matter of fact we underestimated the potentialities of the method. I infected myself with anthrax earlier this week-»
«Sixth Column» by Robert A. Heinlein
«Job: A Comedy of Justice»
Heinlein’s take on the biblical story of Job.
My father used to tell me, «Alex, there is nothing wrong with being scared … as long as you don’t let it affect you until the danger is over. Being hysterical is okay, too … afterwards and in private. Tears are not unmanly … in the bathroom with the door locked. The difference between a coward and a brave man is mostly a matter of timing.»
Alex Hergensheimer in «Job: A Comedy of Justice» by Robert A. Heinlein«No, Your Majesty, I cannot make a fool of You. Only You can do that.»
«Job: A Comedy of Justice» by Robert A. Heinlein«A long and wicked life followed by five minutes of perfect grace gets you into Heaven. An equally long life of decent living and good works followed by one outburst Of taking the name o Lord in vain – then have a heart attack at that moment and be damned for eternity. Is that the system?»
I answered stiffly, «If you read the words of the Bible literally, that is the system. But the Lord moves in mysterious -»
«Not mysterious to Me, bud – I’ve known Him too long. It’s His world, His rules, His doing. His rules are exact and anyone can follow them and reap the reward. But ‘Just’ they are not.»
«Job: A Comedy of Justice» by Robert A. Heinlein«I don’t see how an article of clothing can be indecent, Alec. A person, yes. Are you saying that I am indecent?»
Job: A Comedy of Justice» by Robert A. HeinleinSybil looked disgusted. ‘A girl spends fifty years on her back, studying hard. Along comes some slottie who can make chicken and dumplings. It’s not fair.’
«Job: A Comedy of Justice» by Robert A. Heinlein
«Magic, Inc.»
A world in which magic is part of everyday life.
But he disagreed. According to him prohibition never does work in any field. He said that anything which can be supplied and which people want will he supplied – law or no law. To prohibit magic would simply be to turn over the field to the crooks and the black magicians.
«Magic Inc.» by Robert A. Heinlein«I see the drawbacks of magic as well as you do,» he went on, «but it is like firearms. Certainly guns made it possible for almost anyone to commit murder and get away with it. But once they were invented the damage was done. All you can do is to try to cope with it. Things like the Sullivan Act – they didn’t keep the crooks from carrying guns and using them; they simply took guns out of the hands of honest people.»
«Magic Inc.» by Robert A. HeinleinWhy do some people act as if making money offended their delicate minds? I am out for a legitimate profit, and not ashamed of it; the fact that people will pay money for my goods and services shows that my work is useful.
«Magic Inc.» by Robert A. Heinlein
«Citizen of the Galaxy»
Life on the other side of the stars.
The trader runs if she can, fights if she must. But when she fights, she fights to kill.
«Citizen of the Galaxy» by Robert A. HeinleinLife among the People had made the beggar boy conscious of money in a sense that alms never could — books must balance and debts must be paid.
«Citizen of the Galaxy» by Robert A. HeinleinBaslim wondered how one taught morals to a stray kitten? He did not consider discussing it in abstract ethical terms; there was nothing in the boy’s background, nothing in his present environment, to make it possible to communicate on such a level.
«Citizen of the Galaxy» by Robert A. HeinleinSometime during the night he seemed to hear Grandmother’s impatient voice: «- then think it over! If you don’t understand it, and the laws under which it will be executed, then don’t sign it! — no matter how much profit may appear to be in store. Too lazy and too eager can ruin a trader»
«Citizen of the Galaxy» by Robert A. Heinlein
«Time for the Stars»
Hmm, something about telepathic twins, early interstellar space travel, and the problems that entailed.
«Mmm … boys, being a staff rating, I’ve served with a lot of high brass. When you are right and a general is wrong, there is only one way to get him to change his mind. You shut up and don’t argue. You let the facts speak for themselves and give him time to figure out a logical reason for reversing himself.»
«Time for the Stars» by Robert A. Heinlein«The Long Range Foundation, eh? I’d almost rather you were from the government. If boondoggles like that were properly taxed, the government wouldn’t be squeezing head taxes out of its citizens.» This was not a fair statement, not a «flat-curve relationship,» as they call it in Beginning Mathematical Empiricism. Mr. McKeefe had told us to estimate the influence, if any, of LRF on the technology «yeast-form» growth curve; either I should have flunked the course or LRF had kept the curve from leveling off early in the 21st century-I mean to say, the «cultural inheritance,» the accumulation of knowledge and wealth that keeps us from being savages, had increased greatly as a result of the tax-free status of such non-profit research corporations. I didn’t dream up that opinion; there are figures to prove it. What would have happened if the tribal elders had forced Ugh to hunt with the rest of the tribe instead of staying home and whittling out the first wheel while the idea was bright in his mind?
«Time for the Stars» by Robert A. HeinleinThen I realized what the note meant … Mutiny. It’s the ugliest word in space. Any other disaster is better. One of the first things Uncle Steve had told me-told Pat and myself, way back when we were kids-was: «The Captain is right even when he is wrong.»
«Time for the Stars» by Robert A. Heinlein«Attend me. How do you prove that there are eggs in a bird’s nest? Don’t strain your gray matter: go climb the tree and find out. There is no other way. Now we are climbing the tree.»
«Time for the Stars» by Robert A. HeinleinIf Dusty will leave you alone, you let him alone. If he won’t … well, use your judgment, bearing in mind that you are responsible for your actions-but remember that I don’t expect any man to be a doormat. That’s all.
«Time for the Stars» by Robert A. Heinlein«A man pays his bills, keeps himself clean, respects other people, and keeps his word. He gets no credit for this; he has to do this much just to stay even with himself. A ticket to heaven comes higher.» He paused and added, «Especially he keeps his promises.»
«Time for the Stars» by Robert A. Heinlein
«We also walk dogs»
No sure what that story was about, but it did have this gem:
Dr Krathwohl was a part of the permanent staff of General Services. He had no assigned duties. The company found it worthwhile to support him in comfort while providing him with an unlimited drawing account for scientific journals and for attendance at the meetings which the learned hold from time to time. Dr Krathwohl lacked the single-minded drive of the research scientist; he was a dilettante by nature.
Occasionally they asked him a question. It paid.
«We Also Walk Dogs» by Robert A. Heinlein
«The Cat Who Walks Through Walls»
A competent man and a competent woman on a trip — with the ending of Heinlein’s universe.
My pappy done taught me to hold my cards close to my chest and never admit anything.
«The Cat Who Walks Through Walls» by Robert A. HeinleinWe followed the ancient precept: «Nakedness is often seen but never looked at.»
«The Cat Who Walks Through Walls» by Robert A. Heinlein«Crisis in Faith: The Modem World at the Crossroads.» The co-moderators were the president of the Humanist Society and the Dalai Lama. I wished them luck.
«The Cat Who Walks Through Walls» by Robert A. HeinleinI scrolled on down to the obituaries. I usually read the obituaries first as there is always the happy chance that one of them will make my day.
«The Cat Who Walks Through Walls» by Robert A. Heinlein«Dear Gwen, this is your fairly-faithful swain Richard speaking. Somehow we got our wires crossed. But we can straighten it out in the morning. Will you call me at my digs when you wake up? Love and kisses, Richard the Lion-Hearted.»
«The Cat Who Walks Through Walls» by Robert A. HeinleinMinerva, can you tell me how much longer I must have this paralysis? You are my physician, are you not?»
«No, Richard, I am not. I-»
«Sister is in charge of your happiness,» Teena interrupted. «That’s more important.»
«The Cat Who Walks Through Walls» by Robert A. Heinlein«I told you to disappear. Jubal, living with three women takes fortitude.» «I know. I did so, for many years. Fortitude plus angelic disposition. And a taste for lazy living. But a group marriage, such as our Long Family, combines the advantages of bachelorhood, monogamy, and polygamy, with the drawbacks of none.»
«The Cat Who Walks Through Walls» by Robert A. HeinleinI think Lazarus suffers from a compulsion to be the biggest frog in any pond. He expects to be the bride at every wedding, the corpse at every funeral … while pretending that he has no ambitions-just a barefoot country boy with straw in his hair and manure between his toes. If you think that I am not overly fond of Lazarus Long, I won’t argue.
«The Cat Who Walks Through Walls» by Robert A. HeinleinAt some hour when I was awake in the night, I switched off the alarm. But I woke up about my usual time, as my bladder can’t be switched off. So I got up, took care of it, refreshed for the day, decided that I wanted to live, slid into a coverall, went silently into the living room, and opened the buttery, considered my larder. A special guest called for a special breakfast.
I left the connecting door open so that I could keep an eye on Gwen. I think it was the aroma of coffee that woke her.
«The Cat Who Walks Through Walls» by Robert A. Heinlein«Because I wanted to sleep with you, wench, with no distractions. Because I am not yet bored with you. It’s not your brain, and not your spiritual qualities of which you almost don’t have any. I lust after your sweaty little body.»
«Oh, Richard!»
«Before we bathe? Or after?»
«Uh … both?»
«That’s my girl!»
«The Cat Who Walks Through Walls» by Robert A. HeinleinSo it was «freedom» as defined by Orwell and Kafka, «freedom» as granted by Stalin and Hitler, «freedom» to pace back and forth in your cage. I wondered if the coming interrogation would be assisted by mechanical or electrical devices or by drugs, and felt sick at my stomach. Back when I was on active duty and repeatedly faced with the possibility of capture while holding classified information, I always had a final friend, that «hollow tooth» or equivalent. I no longer wore such protection. I was scared.
«The Cat Who Walks Through Walls» by Robert A. HeinleinHaving dumped ninety percent of my packing onto Gwen I tackled the hardest ten percent: my business records and files.
Writers are pack rats, mostly, whereas professional military learn to travel light, again mostly. This dichotomy could have made me schizoid were it not for the most wonderful invention for writers since the eraser on the end of a pencil: electronic files.
I use Sony Megawafers, each good for half a million words, each two centimeters wide, three millimeters thick, with information packed so densely that it doesn’t bear thinking about. I sat down at the terminal, took off my prosthesis (peg leg, if you prefer), opened its top. Then I removed all my memory wafers from the terminal’s selector, fed them into the cylinder that is the «shinbone» of my prosthesis, closed it and put it back on.
I now had all the files necessary to my business: contracts, business letters, file copies of my copyrighted works, general correspondence, address files, notes for stories to be written, tax records, et cetera, and so forth, ad nauseam. Before the days of electronic filing these records would have been a tonne and a half of paper in half a tonne of steel, all occupying several cubic meters. Now they massed only a few grams and occupied space no larger than my middle finger-twenty million words of file storage. The wafers were totally encased in that «bone» and thereby safe from theft, loss, and damage. Who steals another man’s prosthesis? How can a cripple forget his artificial foot? He may take it off at night but it is the first thing he reaches for in getting out of bed.
Even a holdup man pays no attention to a prosthesis. In my case most people never know that I am wearing one. Just once have I been separated from it: An associate (not a friend) took mine away from me in locking me up overnight-we had had a difference of opinion over a business matter. But I managed to escape, hopping on one foot. Then I parted his hair with his fireplace poker and took my other foot, some papers, and my departure. The writing business, basically sedentary, does have its brisk moments.
«The Cat Who Walks Through Walls» by Robert A. Heinlein
No quotations but still interesting books:
- The Puppet Masters: Aliens invade earth by controlling humans. And a small group prepares to resist them.
- Space Family Stone: A family with two children travels space — might be interesting if you have gifted twins.
And yeah, there are other worthwhile books by him. 🙂
And dang, remembering these books — I miss the optimism. I think I have lost it somewhen. But it’s never too late to get it back.
