# Quote — Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough For Love

> All societies are based on rules to protect pregnant women and young children. All else is surplusage, excrescence, adornment, luxury, or folly, which can — and must — be dumped in emergency to preserve this prime function. As racial survival is the only universal morality, no other basic is possible. Attempts to formulate a "perfect society" on any foundation other than "Women and children first!" is not only witless, it is automatically genocidal. Nevertheless, starry-eyed idealists (all of them male) have tried endlessly — and no doubt will keep on trying.

- Author: [Robert A. Heinlein](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein.md)
- Book: [Time Enough For Love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/time-enough-for-love.md)
- Page: 242
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Time_Enough_for_Love#Quotes) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/time-enough-for-love/all-societies-are

## More from this book

> It is hard to shake off any taboos a child is indoctrinated with in his earliest years. Even if he learns later that they are nonsense.

p. 445 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/time-enough-for-love/it-is-hard.md)

> Natural laws have no pity.

p. 351 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/time-enough-for-love/natural-laws-have.md)

> Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can't help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, the execution is carried out automatically and without pity.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/time-enough-for-love/stupidity-cannot-be-cured.md)