Robert A. Heinlein Quotes: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

For pure ideas there are very few science fiction books ever written which are better than The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and while alone the quotes from this don't have the same weight there are a few great quotes that are worth recording.

TANSTAAFL (There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch)

One way or other, what you get, you pay for.

Genius is where you find it.

God fights on side of heaviest artillery.

The most basic human right, the right to bargain in a free marketplace.

Organization must be no larger than necessary — never recruit anyone merely because he wants to join. Nor seek to persuade for the pleasure of having another share your views.

Under what circumstances may the State justly place its welfare above that of a citizen? ... as I see, there are no circumstances under which State is justified in placing its welfare ahead of mine.

I believe in capital punishment under some circumstances ... with this difference. I would not ask a court; I would try, condemn, execute sentence myself, and accept full responsibility.

In terms of morals, there is no such thing as 'state.' Just men. Individuals. Each responsible for his own acts.

I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do" "You would not abide by a law that the majority felt was necessary?" "Tell me what law, dear lady, and I will tell you whether I will obey it."

Most money is simply bookkeeping.

More than six people cannot agree on anything, three is better — and one is perfect for a job that one can do. This is why parliamentary bodies all through history, when they accomplished anything, owed it to a few strong men who dominated the rest.

A managed democracy is a wonderful thing, Manuel, for the managers ... and its greatest strength is a 'free press' when 'free' is defined as 'responsible' and the managers define what is 'irresponsible.'

Mankind has not done well when saddling itself with governments.

You might even consider installing the candidates who receive the least number of votes; unpopular men may be just the sort to save you from a new tyranny.

The chronic sickness of representative government, the disgruntled minority which feels — correctly! — that it has been disenfranchised.

I note one proposal to make this Congress a two-house body. Excellent — the more impediments to legislation the better ... one house legislators, another whose single duty is to repeal laws. Let legislators pass laws only with a two-thirds majority ... while the repealers are able to cancel any law through a mere one-third minority.

But in writing your constitution let me invite attention to the wonderful virtues of the negative! Accentuate the negative! Let your document be studded with things the government is forever forbidden to do.

What I fear most are affirmative actions of sober and well-intentioned men, granting to government powers to do something that appears to need doing.

The power to tax, once conceded, has no limits.

Sometimes I think that government is an inescapable disease of human beings. But it may be possible to keep it small and starved and inoffensive — and can you think of a better way than by requiring the governors themselves to pay the costs of their antisocial hobby?

When faced with a problem you do not understand, do any part of it you do understand, then look at it again.

Seems to be a deep instinct in human beings for making everything compulsory that isn't forbidden.

I'm a rational anarchist. . . .A rational anarchist believes that concepts such as 'state' and 'society' and 'government' have no existence save as physically exemplified in the acts of self-responsible individuals. He believes that it is impossible to shift blame, share blame, distribute blame ... as blame, guilt, responsibility are matters taking place inside human beings singly and nowhere else. But being rational, he knows that not all individuals hold his evaluations, so he tries to live perfectly in an imperfect world ... aware that his effort will be less than perfect yet undismayed by self-knowledge of self-failure.

Must be a yearning deep in human heart to stop other people from doing as they please. Rules, laws--always for other fellow. A murky part of us, something we had before we came down out of the trees, and failed to shuck when we stood up. Because not one of those people said: "Please pass this so that I won't be able to do something I know I should stop." Nyet, tovarishchee, was always something they hated to see neighbors doing. Stop them "for their own good"--not because speaker claimed to be harmed by it.

Limiting the freedom of news 'just a little bit' is in the same category with the classic example 'a little bit pregnant.'

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.