{
  "type": "quote",
  "site": {
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    "language": "en",
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  "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/to-permit-irresponsible",
  "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/to-permit-irresponsible.json",
  "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/to-permit-irresponsible.md",
  "id": "338e5527-4d6b-4e8f-8ede-1a49d84397ce",
  "slug": "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",
  "author": {
    "name": "Robert A. Heinlein",
    "slug": "robert-a-heinlein",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein"
  },
  "book": {
    "title": "Starship Troopers",
    "slug": "starship-troopers",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers"
  },
  "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",
  "more_from_book": [
    {
      "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,
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      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "truth",
          "slug": "truth",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth"
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      ],
      "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,
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      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "punishment",
          "slug": "punishment",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/punishment"
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      ],
      "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/"
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      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:58"
    }
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}