“An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.”.
“Being intelligent is not a felony, but most societies evaluate it as at least a misdemeanor.”
About: Intelligence quotes.
“Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors and miss.”
“No storyteller has ever been able to dream up anything as fantastically unlikely as what really does happen in this mad Universe.”
“Courage is the complement of fear. A man who is fearless cannot be courageous.(He is also a fool.)”
“Money is a powerful aphrodisiac. But flowers work almost as well.”
About: Money quotes.
“Certainly the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you; if you don't bet, you can't win.”
LazarusVII
“If it can't be expressed in figures, it is not science; it is opinion.”
“If it can't be expressed in figures, it's not science it's opinion.”
“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.”
Lazarus Long quote
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
One man’s “magic” is another man’s engineering. “Supernatural” is a null word.
An armed society is a polite society.
-Beyond This Horizon
Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.
I’ve never understood how God could expect His creatures to pick the one true religion by faith—it strikes me as a sloppy way to run a universe.
-Jubal Harshaw, Stranger in a Strange Land
History does not record anywhere a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help.
Sin lies only in hurting others unnecessarily. All other “sins” are invented nonsense.
A monarch’s neck should always have a noose around it. It keeps him upright.
Taxes are not levied for the benefit of the taxed.
There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.
-Professor Bernardo de la Paz, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed 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.
The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.
-still searchin’
If you happen to be one of the fretful minority who can do creative work, never force an idea; you’ll abort it if you do. Be patient and you’ll give birth to it when the time is ripe. Learn to wait.
The supreme irony of life is that no one gets out of it alive.
Being intelligent is not a felony. But most societies evaluate it as at least a misdemeanor.
Learning isn’t a means to an end; it’s an end in and of itself.
-still searchin’
…brainpower is the scarcest commodity and the only one of real value.
-that also sounds like Lazarus
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
Courage is the complement of fear. A man who is fearless cannot be courageous. (He is also a fool.)
“Love” is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.
-Jubal Harshaw, Stranger in a Strange Land
First, what is it you want us to pay taxes for? Tell me what I get and perhaps I’ll buy it.
-Manuel O’Kelly, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
The most preposterous notion that H. sapiens has ever dreamed up is that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes, wants the saccharine adoration of His creatures, can be swayed by their prayers, and becomes petulant if He does not receive this flattery. Yet this absurd fantasy, withouT a shred of evidence to bolster it, pays all the expenses of the oldest, largest, and least productive industry in all history.
Does history record any case in which the majority was right?
