It's a man's business to be what he is, and to be it in style. Robert A. Heinlein More Quotes by Robert A. Heinlein More Quotes From Robert A. Heinlein Our behavior is different. How often have you seen a headline like this?--TWO DIE ATTEMPTING RESCUE OF DROWNING CHILD. If a man gets lost in the mountains, hundreds will search and often two or three searchers are killed. But the next time somebody gets lost just as many volunteers turn out. Poor arithmetic, but very human. It runs through all our folklore, all human religions, all our literature--a racial conviction that when one human needs rescue, others should not count the price. Robert A. Heinlein running men children People simplify 'Apollonian' into 'mild', and 'calm', and 'cool'. But 'Apollonian' and 'Dionysian' are two sides of one coin--a nun kneeling in her cell, holding perfectly still, can be in ecstacy more frenzied than any priestess of Pan Priapus celebrating the vernal equinox. Robert A. Heinlein two-sides cells people I think that science fiction has a distinct therapeutic value because all of it has as its primary postulate that the world does change. I cannot overemphasize the importance of that idea. Robert A. Heinlein world ideas thinking The ethics of sex is a thorny problem. Each of us is forced to grope for a solution he can live with - in the face of preposterous, unworkable, and evil code of so-called 'Morals.' Most of us know the code is wrong, almost everybody breaks it. But we pay Danegeld by feeling guilty and giving lip service. Willy-nilly, the code rides us, dead and stinking, an albatross around the neck. Robert A. Heinlein evil giving sex I've found out why people laugh. They laugh because it hurts so much . . . because it's the only thing that'll make it stop hurting. Robert A. Heinlein hurt laughing life There are a dozen different ways of delivering destruction in impersonal wholesale, via ships or missiles of one sort or another, catastrophes so widespread, so unselective that the war is over because that nation or planet has ceased to exist. What we do is entirely different. We make war as personal as a punch in the nose. We can be selective, applying precisely the required amount of pressure at the specified point at a designated time. We've never been told to go down and kill or capture all left-handed redheads in a particular area, but if they tell us to, we can. We will. Robert A. Heinlein down-and war way Never own more than you can carry in both hands at a dead run. Robert A. Heinlein running hands Victory in defeat, there is none higher. She didn't give up, Ben; she's still trying to lift that stone after it has crushed her. She's a father working while cancer eats away his insides, to bring home one more pay check. She's a twelve-year-old trying to mother her brothers and sisters because mama had to go to Heaven. She's a switchboard operator sticking to her post while smoke chokes her and fire cuts off her escape. She's all the unsung heroes who couldn't make it but never quit. Robert A. Heinlein giving-up brother mother You have to give an editor something to change, or he gets fretful. After he pees in it, he likes the flavor better, so he buys it. Robert A. Heinlein flavor editors giving Don't explain computers to laymen. Simpler to explain sex to a virgin. Robert A. Heinlein computer technology sex Geniuses and supergeniuses always make their own rules about sex as on everything else; they do not accept the monkey customs of their lessers. Robert A. Heinlein monkeys genius sex The Stone trembled and threw herself outward bound, toward Saturn. In her train followed hundreds and thousands and hundreds of thousands of thousands of restless, rolling Stones . . . to Saturn . . . to Uranus, to Pluto . . . rolling on out to the stars . . . outward bound to the ends of the Universe. Robert A. Heinlein rolling stars stones Darling, 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. Robert A. Heinlein clothes doe sex Roman matrons used to say to their sons: 'Come back with your shield or on it.' Later on, this custom declined. So did Rome... (but not before it created an Empire that changed the world -EM). Robert A. Heinlein leadership courage son Butterflies are not insects,' Captain John Sterling said soberly. 'They are self-propelled flowers. Robert A. Heinlein butterfly flower self 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. Robert A. Heinlein lawyer honest education The correct way to punctuate a sentence that states: "Of course it is none of my business, but -- " is to place a period after the word "but." Don't use excessive force in supplying such a moron with a period. Cutting his throat is only a momentary pleasure and is bound to get you talked about. Robert A. Heinlein cutting use way The shamans are forever yacking about their snake oil miracles. I prefer the real McCoy, a pregnant woman. Robert A. Heinlein snakes oil real But I contend that the disgusting behavior of many of their alleged 'holy men' relieves us of any intellectual obligation to take the stuff seriously. No amount of sanctimonious rationalization can make such behavior anything but pathological. Robert A. Heinlein intellectual men religion I see the beauty of Mike's attempt to devise an ideal ethic and applaud his recognition that such must start by junking the present sexual code and starting fresh. Most philosophers haven't the courage for this; they swallow the basics of the present code--monogamy, family pattern, continence, body taboos, conventional restrictions on intercourse, and so forth--then fiddle with details...even such piffle as discussing whether the female breast is an obscene sight! (p.365) Robert A. Heinlein details female sight
