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The commonest weakness of our race is our ability to rationalize our most selfish purposes.
Robert A. Heinlein
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Robert A. Heinlein
Age: 80 †
Born: 1907
Born: July 7
Died: 1988
Died: May 8
Essayist
Literary Critic
Naval Officer
Novelist
Prosaist
Science Fiction Writer
Science Writer
Screenwriter
Stonemason
Writer
Butler
Missouri
Robert Anson Heinlein
Anson MacDonald
Lyle Monroe
John Riverside
Caleb Saunders
Simon York
Purpose
Commonest
Rationalize
Purposes
Selfish
Weakness
Race
Ability
More quotes by Robert A. Heinlein
Gratitude: An imaginary emotion that rewards an imaginary behavior, altruism. Both imaginaries are false faces for selfishness, which is a real and honest emotion.
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Abstract knowledge is always useful, sooner or later.
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Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done.
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All cats are not gray after midnight.
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'Savage' describes a cultural condition, not a degree of intelligence.
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Democracy 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.
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Democracy is a poor system of government at best the only thing that can honestly be said in its favor is that it is eight times as good as any other method the human race has ever tried.
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A family reunion is an effective form of birth control.
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An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.
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It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creeds into law if it acquires the political power to do so, and will follow it by suppressing opposition, subverting all education to seize early the minds of the young, and by killing, locking up, or driving underground all heretics.
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Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few.
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That old saw about the early bird just proves that the worm should have stayed in bed.
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Any government will work if authority and responsibility are equal and coordinate. This does not insure “good” government, it simply insures that it will work. But such governments are rare — most people want to run things, but want no part of the blame. This used to be called the “backseat driver” syndrome.
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Self awareness is NOT just a bunch of amino acids bumping together.
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It is better to copulate than never.
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I don't see how an article of clothing can be indecent. A person, yes.
Robert A. Heinlein
Faith strikes me as intellectual laziness, but I don't argue with it - especially as I am rarely in a position to prove that it is mistaken. Negative proof is usually impossible.
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A boy who gets a C- in 'Appreciation of Television' can't be all bad.
Robert A. Heinlein
