Robert A. Heinlein

You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.

Maybe Jesus was right when he said that the meek shall inherit the earth — but they inherit very small plots, about six feet by three.

If it can't be expressed in figures, it is not science; it is opinion.

Respect for laws is a pragmatic matter. Women know this instinctively; that’s why they are all smugglers. Men often believe — or pretend — that the “Law” is something sacred, or at least a science — an unfounded assumption very convenient to governments.

Oh, I have strong opinions, but a thousand reasoned opinions are never equal to one case of diving in and finding out. Galileo proved that and it may be the only certainty we have.

Every so often some idiot tries to abolish marriage. Such attempts work as well as repealing the law of gravity, making pi equal to three point zero, or moving mountains by prayer.

Do not ask why; it was no more subject to rational explanation than is any other branch of theology.

“Common sense?”

“Son, that phrase is self-contradictory. ‘Sense’ is never ‘common.’”

A capsule description of most human “progress”: By the time you learn how, it’s too late.

Any priest or shaman must be presumed guilty until proved innocent.

“She loved them,” said Minerva.

“Yes, she did, dear, by the exact definition of love. Llita placed their welfare and happiness ahead of her own.”

Whores perform the same function as priests, Ira, but far more thoroughly.