HEINLEIN, ROBERT
American author
(1907-1988)
All of the following are taken from the sayings of Lazarus Long, a fictional character created by Heinlein.
• “One man’s theology is another man’s belly laugh.”
• “The profession of shaman has many advantages. It offers high status with a safe livelihood free of work in the dreary, sweaty sense. In most societies it offers legal privileges and immunities not granted to other men. But it is hard to see how a man who has been given a mandate from on High to spread tidings of joy to all mankind can be seriously interested in taking up a collection to pay his salary; it causes one to suspect the shaman is on the moral level of any other man. But it’s lovely work if you can stomach it!"
• “The second most preposterous notion is that copulation is inherently sinful.”
• “Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other ‘sins’ are invented nonsense. (Hurting yourself is not sinful ---just stupid.)”
• “There is no conclusive evidence of life after death. But there is no evidence of any sort against it.Soon enough you will know.So why fret about it?”
• “A touchstone to determine the actual worth of an ‘intellectual’ ---find out how he feels about astrology.”
• “What 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 the unknown future; facts are your single clue.Get the facts!”
• “Yield to temptation; it may not pass your way again.”
• “You can go wrong by being too skeptical as readily as by being too trusting.”
• “You live and learn. Or you don’t live long.”
• “The profession of shaman has many advantages. It offers high status with a safe livelihood free of work in the dreary, sweaty sense. In most societies it offers legal privileges and immunities not granted to other men. But it is hard to see how a man who has been given a mandate from on High to spread tidings of joy to all mankind can be seriously interested in taking up a collection to pay his salary; it causes one to suspect the shaman is on the moral level of any other man. But it’s lovely work if you can stomach it!"
• “The second most preposterous notion is that copulation is inherently sinful.”
• “Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other ‘sins’ are invented nonsense. (Hurting yourself is not sinful ---just stupid.)”
• “There is no conclusive evidence of life after death. But there is no evidence of any sort against it.Soon enough you will know.So why fret about it?”
• “A touchstone to determine the actual worth of an ‘intellectual’ ---find out how he feels about astrology.”
• “What 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 the unknown future; facts are your single clue.Get the facts!”• “Yield to temptation; it may not pass your way again.”
• “You can go wrong by being too skeptical as readily as by being too trusting.”
• “You live and learn. Or you don’t live long.”
1 comment:
As great as R.A.H.'s books were (and they all were), everyone should read his book "Take back your Government" his best non fiction book.
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