Sunday, July 8, 2007

Heinlein

my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
Ulysses (Tennyson)


Belated Entry

100th aniversary of Robert A Heinleins birth was on the 7 - 7 - 2007

Thanks for the tales read and re-read I still can't resist buying Heinlein when I spy them around the place ;) They find a home here or I pass them on to new acquaintances

Worth a peek here ThespaceReview




















and here plus comments discussion
http://science.slashdot.org/article.




Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks.

..the meek shall inherit the earth, a 6 foot plot above them


One man's theology is another man's belly laugh.

Sex should be friendly. Otherwise, stick to mechanical toys; it's more sanitary.

How you behave toward cats here below determines your status in Heaven.



Whenever women have insisted on absolute equality with men, they have invariably wound up with the dirty end of the stick. What they are and what they can do makes them superior to men, and their proper tactic is to demand special privileges, all the traffic will bear. They should never settle merely for equality. For women, "equality" is a disaster.

Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense. (Hurting yourself is not sinful---just stupid.)

Cheops' Law: Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget

Small change can often be found under seat cushions.

Money is a powerful aphrodisiac ... but flowers work almost as well.

An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.

Do not handicap your children by making their lives easy.

Never try and teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig.

There is no conclusive evidence of life after death. But there is not evidence of any sort against it. Soon enough you will know. So why fret about it?


Most "scientists" are bottle washers and button sorters.

A generation which ignores history has no past--and no future.

A poet who reads his verse in public may have other nasty habits.

History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it.

No state has an inherent right to survive through conscript troops and, in the long run, no state ever has. Roman matrons used to say to their sons: "Come back with your shield, or on it." Later on, this custom declined. So did Rome.



Of all the strange "crimes" that human beings have legislated out of nothing, "blasphemy" is the most amazing---with "obscenity" and "indecent exposure" fighting it out for the second and third place.



It is better to copulate than never.

When 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.



Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.

Never appeal to a man's "better nature". He may not have one. Invoking his self-interest gives you more leverage.

You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be expected -- 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".

In a mature society, "civil servant" is semantically equal to "civil master".

When a place gets crowded enough to require ID's, social collapse is not far away. It is time to go elsewhere. The best thing about space travel is that it made it possible to go elsewhere.
A woman is not property, and husbands who think otherwise are living in a dreamworld.

The second best thing about space travel is that the distances involved make war very difficult, usually impractical, and almost always unnecessary. This is probably a loss for most people, since war is our races' most popular diversion, one which gives purpose and color to dull and stupid lives. But it is a great boon to the intelligent man who fights only when he must---never for sport.

Democracy is based upon the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How's that again? I missed something.
Autocracy is based upon the assumption that one man is wiser than a million men. Let's play that over again, too. Who decides?

What are the facts? Again and again and again---what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what "the stars fortell," 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!

Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can't help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.

People who go broke in a big way never miss any meals. It is the poor jerk who is shy a half slug who must tighten his belt.

A touchstone to determine the actual worth of an "intellectual" -- find out how he feels about astrology.

You live and you learn. Or you don't live long.

One man's "magic" is another man's engineering. "Super-natural" is a null word.

Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.

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