If I had found out anything, it was that they could print it faster than I could study it.
Robert A. HeinleinI'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. HeinleinBut, if there ever was a time in history when "peace" meant that there was no fighting going on, I have been unable to find out about it.
Robert A. HeinleinYou can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.
Robert A. HeinleinMoving parts in rubbing contact require lubrication to avoid excessive wear. Honorifics and formal politeness provide lubrication where people rub together. Often the very young, the untravelled, the naive, the sophisticated deplore these formalities as 'empty,' 'meaningless,' or 'dishonest,' and scorn to use them. No matter how 'pure' their motives, they thereby throw sand into machinery that does not work too well at best.
Robert A. HeinleinSecrecy is the keystone to all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy and censorship. When any government or church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, "This you may not read, this you must not know," the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man who has been hoodwinked in this fashion; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, whose mind is free. No, not the rack nor the atomic bomb, not anything. You can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him.
Robert A. Heinlein