# Quote — Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers

> "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."

- Author: [Robert A. Heinlein](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein.md)
- Book: [Starship Troopers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers.md)
- Page: 93
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers#Chapter_6) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/value-has-no-meaning

## More from this book

> There was no god but the Lieutenant and SGT Jelal was his prophet.

p. 140 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/there-was-no-god.md)

> 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.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/basic-truths-cannot.md)

> In a mixed ship, the last thing a trooper hears before a drop (maybe the last word he ever hears) is a woman's voice, wishing him luck. If you don't think this is important, you've probably resigned from the human race.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/starship-troopers/in-a-mixed.md)