{ "type": "book", "site": { "name": "Leafy Quotes", "language": "en", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com" }, "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.", "title": "Starship Troopers", "slug": "starship-troopers", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers", "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers.json", "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers.md", "author": { "name": "Robert A. Heinlein", "slug": "robert-a-heinlein", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein" }, "cover": "https://quivercdn.com/covers/ace/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers_978-04-4101-410-1.jpg", "quotes_count": 25, "quotes": [ { "id": "e1ba1669-d999-487a-8624-ab8497179980", "slug": "basic-truths-cannot", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/basic-truths-cannot", "text": "Basic truths cannot change and once a man of insight expresses one of them it is never necessary, no matter how much the world changes, to reformulate them. This is immutable, true everywhere, throughout all time, for all men and all nations.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "truth", "slug": "truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers#Lt._Col._Jean_V._Dubois_(Ret.)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:58" }, { "id": "dbd80a02-e534-4077-803c-07e35e3685b2", "slug": "if-it-has", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/if-it-has", "text": "If it has to be done, a man — a real man — shoots his own dog himself; he doesn't hire a proxy who may bungle it.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "responsibility", "slug": "responsibility", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility" }, { "name": "masculinity", "slug": "masculinity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/masculinity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers#Juan_Rico_(or_Johnnie_Rico)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:58" }, { "id": "884298e0-6b85-47f3-b7dc-6b8fee11d53e", "slug": "i-do-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/i-do-not", "text": "I do not understand objections to 'cruel and unusual' punishment. While a judge should be benevolent in purpose; his awards should cause the criminal to suffer, else there is no punishment - and pain is the basic mechanism built into us by millions of years of evolution which safeguards us by warning when something threatens our survival. Why should society refuse to use such a highly perfected survival mechanism?\"", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 115, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "punishment", "slug": "punishment", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/punishment" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers#Chapter_8", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:58" }, { "id": "8817810f-5ca6-4492-90cf-e843c24c3c84", "slug": "the-basis-of-all", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/the-basis-of-all", "text": "The basis of all morality is duty.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "morality", "slug": "morality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers#Lt._Col._Jean_V._Dubois_(Ret.)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:58" }, { "id": "86b0a298-ac71-4fec-9ba0-0b9c1c7f7d20", "slug": "service-men-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/service-men-are", "text": "Service men are not brighter than civilians. In many cases civilians are much more intelligent. That was the sliver of justification underlying the attempted coup d' etat just before the Treaty of New Delhi, the so-called 'Revolt of the Scientists': let the intelligent elite run things and you'll have utopia. It fell flat on its foolish face of course. Because the pursuit of science, despite its social benefits, is itself not a social virtue; its practitioners can be men so self-centered as to be lacking in social responsibility.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "science", "slug": "science", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science" }, { "name": "responsibility", "slug": "responsibility", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers#Chapter_12", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:58" }, { "id": "760b350c-d476-44ec-8d2d-d3ab4f392728", "slug": "i-have-never", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/i-have-never", "text": "I have never been able to see how a thirty-year-old moron can vote more wisely than a fifteen-year-old genius . . . but that was the age of the \"divine right of the common man.\" Never mind, they paid for their folly.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "democracy", "slug": "democracy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/democracy" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers#Chapter_12", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:58" }, { "id": "75da4934-e50c-4a72-a643-28c1e63aa106", "slug": "when-you-come", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/when-you-come", "text": "When you come right to it, it is easier to die than it is to use your head.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "thinking", "slug": "thinking", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers#Lt._Col._Jean_V._Dubois_(Ret.)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:58" }, { "id": "5745e3d7-4517-43c2-936c-297f40c70f1f", "slug": "peace-is-a-condition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/peace-is-a-condition", "text": "\"Peace\" is a condition in which no civilian pays any attention to military casualties which do not achieve page-one, lead-story prominence-unless that civilian is a close relative of one of the casualties. But, 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.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 82, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "peace", "slug": "peace", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/peace" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers#Chapter_10", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:58" }, { "id": "34a7b848-efc1-4dc6-8c3d-3f67977292dc", "slug": "to-vote-is-to-wield", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/to-vote-is-to-wield", "text": "To vote is to wield authority; it is the supreme authority from which all other authority derives—such as mine to make your lives miserable once a day. Force if you will!—the franchise is force, naked and raw, the Power of the Rods and the Ax. Whether it is exerted by ten men or by ten billion, political authority is force.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "democracy", "slug": "democracy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/democracy" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers#Chapter_12", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:58" }, { "id": "338e5527-4d6b-4e8f-8ede-1a49d84397ce", "slug": "to-permit-irresponsible", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/to-permit-irresponsible", "text": "To permit irresponsible authority is to sow disaster; to hold a man responsible for anything he does not control is to behave with blind idiocy. The unlimited democracies were unstable because their citizens were not responsible for the fashion in which they exerted their sovereign authority . . . other than through the tragic logic of history. The unique 'poll tax' that we must pay was unheard of. No attempt was made to determine whether a voter was socially responsible to the extent of his literally unlimited authority. If he voted the impossible, the disastrous possible happened instead—and responsibility was then forced on him willy-nilly and destroyed both him and his foundationless temple.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "responsibility", "slug": "responsibility", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility" }, { "name": "democracy", "slug": "democracy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/democracy" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers#Chapter_12", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:58" }, { "id": "1e5b3eac-539d-463c-a478-9c0b6dcde37a", "slug": "i-told-you", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/i-told-you", "text": "\"I told you that 'juvenile delinquent' is a contradiction in terms. 'Delinquent' means 'failing in duty.' But duty is an adult virtue—indeed a juvenile becomes an adult when, and only when, he acquires a knowledge of duty and embraces it as dearer than the self-love he was born with. There never was, there cannot be a 'juvenile delinquent.' But for every juvenile criminal there are always one or more adult delinquents—people of mature years who either do not know their duty, or who, knowing it, fail.\"", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 120, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "responsibility", "slug": "responsibility", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility" }, { "name": "youth", "slug": "youth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers#Chapter_8", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:58" }, { "id": "15befbca-fe0b-4679-8b4b-cab1a91f57b6", "slug": "man-is-what", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/man-is-what", "text": "Man is what he is, a wild animal with the will to survive, and (so far) the ability, against all competition. Unless one accepts that, anything one says about morals, war, politics—you name it—is nonsense. Correct morals arise from knowing what man is—not what do-gooders and well-meaning old Aunt Nellies would like him to be. The universe will let us know—later—whether or not Man has any \"right\" to expand through it. In the meantime the M.I. will be in there, on the bounce and swinging, on the side of our own race.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "morality", "slug": "morality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers#Chapter_12", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:58" }, { "id": "f0ed0ad4-c9ff-46b0-a3de-281cdf88dae6", "slug": "i-always-get", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/i-always-get", "text": "I always get the shakes before a drop. I've had the injections, of course, and hypnotic preparation, and it stands to reason that I can't really be afraid. The ship's psychiatrist has checked my brain waves and asked me silly questions while I was asleep and he tells me that it isn't fear, it isn't anything important — it's just like the trembling of an eager race horse in the starting gate. I couldn't say about that; I've never been a race horse. But the fact is: I'm scared silly, every time.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 1, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fear", "slug": "fear", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear" }, { "name": "courage", "slug": "courage", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/courage" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers#Chapter_1", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:57" }, { "id": "d2ee9f5b-8d9c-4ce5-bbc9-0fb72a065b43", "slug": "i-made-a-very", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/i-made-a-very", "text": "I made a very important discovery at Camp Currie. Happiness consists in getting enough sleep. Just that, nothing more. All the wealthy, unhappy people you've ever met take sleeping pills; Mobile Infantrymen don't need them. Give a cap trooper a bunk and time to sack out in it, and he's as happy as a worm in an apple—asleep.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 52, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "happiness", "slug": "happiness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness" }, { "name": "sleep", "slug": "sleep", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/sleep" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers#Chapter_4", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:57" }, { "id": "d039230b-68c0-4a87-a935-0d47e1aad038", "slug": "value-has-no-meaning", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/value-has-no-meaning", "text": "\"Value\" has no meaning other than in relationship to living beings. The value of a thing is always relative to a particular person, is completely personal and different in quantity for each living human — \"market value\" is a fiction, merely a rough guess at the average of personal values, all of which must be quantitatively different or trade would be impossible. … This very personal relationship, \"value\", has two factors for a human being: first, what he can do with a thing, its use to him… and second, what he must do to get it, its cost to him. There is an old song which asserts that \"the best things in life are free\". Not true! Utterly false! This was the tragic fallacy which brought on the decadence and collapse of the democracies of the twentieth century; those noble experiments failed because the people had been led to believe that they could simply vote for whatever they wanted… and get it, without toil, without sweat, without tears. … I fancy that the poet who wrote that song meant to imply that the best things in life must be purchased other than with money — which is true — just as the literal meaning of his words is false. The best things in life are beyond money; their price is agony and sweat and devotion . . . and the price demanded for the most precious of all things in life is life itself — ultimate cost for perfect value.\"", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 93, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "money", "slug": "money", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/money" }, { "name": "sacrifice", "slug": "sacrifice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/sacrifice" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers#Chapter_6", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:57" }, { "id": "b62be637-5bfd-464b-a323-3a900334b21b", "slug": "you-ive-just", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/you-ive-just", "text": "\"You! I've just awarded you the prize for the hundred-meter dash. Does it make you happy? […] No dodging, please. You have the prize — here, I'll write it out: 'Grand prize for the championship, one hundred-meter sprint.'\" He had actually come back to my seat and pinned it on my chest. \"There! Are you happy? You value it — or don't you?\" Mr. Dubois had looked surprised. \"It doesn't make you happy?\" \"You know darn well I placed fourth!\" \"Exactly! The prize for first place is worthless to you . . . because you haven't earned it. But you enjoy a modest satisfaction in placing fourth; you earned it.\"", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 93, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "success and failure", "slug": "success-and-failure", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/success-and-failure" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers#Chapter_6", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:57" }, { "id": "9ad2a4c5-86fa-4560-a3d8-813c8a6229bb", "slug": "i-was-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/i-was-not", "text": "\" … I was not making fun of you personally; I was heaping scorn on an inexcusably silly idea — a practice I shall always follow. Anyone who clings to the historically untrue and thoroughly immoral doctrine that violence never settles anything I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler could referee and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and their freedoms.\" He sighed. \"Another year, another class — and for me another failure. One can lead a child to knowledge but one cannot make him think.\" Suddenly he pointed his stump at me. \"You. What is the moral difference, if any, between the citizen and the civilian?\" \"The difference, I said carefully, \"lies in the field of civic virtue. A citizen accepts personal responsibility for the safety of the body politic of which he is a member, defending it, if need be, with his life. The civilian does not.\" \"The exact words of the book,\" he said scornfully. \"But do you understand it? Do you believe it?\"", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 26, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "violence", "slug": "violence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/violence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers#Chapter_2", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:57" }, { "id": "81177bb8-8831-4a55-9d06-c77128814a26", "slug": "correct-morality-can", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/correct-morality-can", "text": "Correct morality can only be derived from what man is — not from what do-gooders and well-meaning aunt Nellies would like him to be.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "morality", "slug": "morality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein#Starship_Troopers_(1959)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:57" }, { "id": "80002fca-2637-4974-813d-cd5a7025feef", "slug": "there-are-no-dangerous", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/there-are-no-dangerous", "text": "There are no dangerous weapons; there are only dangerous men.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 64, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "weapons", "slug": "weapons", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/weapons" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers#Chapter_5", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:57" }, { "id": "6c7f4145-482d-494e-803a-26f8b1baeaad", "slug": "if-you-wanted", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/if-you-wanted", "text": "\"If you wanted to teach a baby a lesson, would you cut its head off? Of course not. You'd paddle it. There can be circumstances when it's just as foolish to hit an enemy city with an H-bomb as it would be to spank a baby with an axe. War is not violence and killing, pure and simple; war is controlled violence, for a purpose. The purpose of war is to support your government's decisions by force. The purpose is never to kill the enemy just to be killing him...but to make him do what you want him to do. Not killing...but controlled and purposeful violence. But it's not your business or mine to decide the purpose of the control. It's never a soldier's business to decide when or where or how—or why—he fights; that belongs to the statesmen and the generals. The statesmen decide why and how much; the generals take it from there and tell us where and when and how. We supply the violence; other people—'older and wiser heads,' as they say—supply the control. Which is as it should be.\"", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 63, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers#Chapter_5", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:57" }, { "id": "5cc11a06-69de-4d7f-96c1-b2c829b0122f", "slug": "the-most-noble", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/the-most-noble", "text": "The most noble fate a man can endure is to place his own mortal body between his loved home and the war's desolation.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 91, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "sacrifice", "slug": "sacrifice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/sacrifice" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers#Chapter_6", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:57" }, { "id": "469a2e69-4cff-4b07-ba69-5b3a965832bf", "slug": "my-mother-said", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/my-mother-said", "text": "\"My mother said violence never solves anything.\" \"So?\" Mr. Dubois looked at her bleakly. \"I'm sure the city fathers of Carthage would be glad to know that.\"", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 25, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "violence", "slug": "violence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/violence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers#Chapter_2", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:57" }, { "id": "43d1a9f1-168c-4d24-9535-3dfed62b6988", "slug": "that-old-saw", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/that-old-saw", "text": "That old saw about \"to understand all is to forgive all\" is a lot of tripe. Some things, the more you understand the more you loathe them.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 111, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "forgiveness", "slug": "forgiveness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/forgiveness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers#Chapter_8", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:57" }, { "id": "338f2902-c978-4f60-8a4f-c0294a6d998c", "slug": "morals-all-correct", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/morals-all-correct", "text": "Morals — all correct moral laws — derive from the instinct to survive. Moral behavior is survival behavior above the individual level.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "morality", "slug": "morality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein#Starship_Troopers_(1959)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:57" }, { "id": "333e772a-e937-4969-b43a-e100934ba2f8", "slug": "ah-yes-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/ah-yes-life", "text": "\"Ah yes, [life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness]... Life? What 'right' to life has a man who is drowning in the Pacific? The ocean will not hearken to his cries. What 'right' to life has a man who must die to save his children? If he chooses to save his own life, does he do so as a matter of 'right'? If two men are starving and cannibalism is the only alternative to death, which man's right is 'unalienable'? And is it 'right'? As to liberty, the heroes who signed the great document pledged themselves to buy liberty with their lives. Liberty is never unalienable; it must be redeemed regularly with the blood of patriots or it always vanishes. Of all the so-called natural human rights that have ever been invented, liberty is least likely to be cheap and is never free of cost. The third 'right'?—the 'pursuit of happiness'? It is indeed unalienable but it is not a right; it is simply a universal condition which tyrants cannot take away nor patriots restore. Cast me into a dungeon, burn me at the stake, crown me king of kings, I can 'pursue happiness' as long as my brain lives—but neither gods nor saints, wise men nor subtle drugs, can ensure that I will catch it.\"", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 119, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "freedom", "slug": "freedom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom" }, { "name": "happiness", "slug": "happiness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers#Chapter_8", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:57" } ] }