I would be happy to offer a detailed comparison of Asimov and Heinlein's writings later this evening when I have had a chance to pull some of their books and make comparisons.
But first, I would like to acquaint the members of this honored tribunal with some of Bob Heinlein's pithy quotes for your amusement and edification.
The following items are excised from the journal of Lazarus Long in Time Enough for Love:
"By the data to date, there is only one animal in the Galaxy dangerous to man, man himself. So he must supply
his own indispensable competition. He has no enemy to help him."
"Any priest or shaman must be presumed guilty until proved innocent."
"Men are more sentimental than women. It blurs their thinking."
"Get a shot off fast. This upsets him long enough to let you make your second shot perfect."
"Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it."
"If it can't be expressed in figures, it is not science; it is opinion."
And from Johhny Rico in the novel, "Starship Troopers," (the substantive message of which which was purposefully defaced for the shameful movie of that title):
"Peace is a condition in which no civilian pays any attention to military casualties which do not achieve page-one, lead-story-- 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."
And another character, Mr. BuBois, in Starship Troopers said this, "The basis of all morality is duty, a concept with the same relation to group that self-interest has to individual. Nobody preached duty to these kids in a way they could understand--that is, with a spanking. But the society they were in told them endlessly about their 'rights.' The result of which should have been predictable, since a human being has no natural rights of any nature."
And again from Mr. DuBois in Starship Troopers,
"Ah, yes, the 'unalienable rights.' Each year someone quotes that magnificent poetry. 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 if he is 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."
And then from various other characters there are the following:
There ain't no such thing as a free lunch,"TANSTAAFL"
"I pray for one last landing On the globe that gave me birth; Let me rest my eyes on the fleecy skies And the cool, green hills of Earth." (This poem was read by Hein lein over NASA's feed as Armstrong began his approach to the moon.)
"I'll give you an exact definition(of the word love). When the happiness of another person becomes as essential to yourself as your own, then the state of love exists."
"Never attempt to teach a pig to sing. It is a waste of time and it annoys the pig."
"A desire not to butt into other peoples business is at least 80% of all human wisdom."
"Government! Three-fourths parasitic and the rest stupid fumbling- Oh, Harshaw conceded that man, a social animal, could no more avoid government than an individual could escape the necessity of bowel movements. But simply because an evil was necessary was no reason to term it "good." He wished that government would wander off and get lost!"
"Of all the nonsense that twists the world, the concept of 'altruism' is the worst. People do what they want to, every time. If it pains them, to make a choice- if the 'choice' looks like a 'sacrifice' -- you can be sure that it is no nobler than the discomfort caused by greediness... the necessity of having to decide between two things you want when you can't have both. The ordinary bloke suffers every time he chooses between spending a buck on beer or tucking it away for his kids, between getting up to go to work and losing his job. But he always chooses that which hurts least or pleasures most. The scoundrel and the saint make the same choices...."
"The Ten Commandments are for lame brains. The first five are solely for the benefit of the priests and the powers that be; the second five are half truths, neither complete nor adequate."
"Happiness lies in being privileged to work hard for long hours in doing whatever you think is worth doing.
One man may find happiness in supporting a wife and children. And another may find it in robbing banks. Still another may labor mightily for years in pursuing pure research with no discernible results.
Note the individual and subjective nature of each case. No two are alike and there is no reason to expect them to be. Each man or woman must find for himself or herself that occupation in which hard work and long hours make him or her happy. Contrariwise, if you are looking for shorter hours and longer vacations and early retirement, you are in the wrong job. Perhaps you need to take up bank robbing. Or geeking in a sideshow. Or even politics."
"How you behave towards cats here below determines you status in Heaven."
"Always yield to temptation, It may never pass your way again."
"He's an honest politician, he stays bought."
"A government-supported artist is an incompetent whore."
"When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout." (My own personal motto.)
"...from the ignoramuses we get for recruits I've reached the conclusion that this new-fangled 'functional educational' has abolished studying in favor of developing their cute little personalities."
"...Think about it. Politics is just a name for the way we get things done... without fighting. We dicker and compromise and everybody thinks he has received a raw deal, but somehow after a tedious amount of talk we come up with some jury-rigged way to do it without getting anybody's head bashed in. That's politics. The only other way to settle a dispute is by bashing a few heads in... and that is what happens when one or both sides is no longer willing to dicker. That's why I say politics is good even when it is bad... because the only alternative is force -- and somebody gets hurt."
"Don't use that word (fantastic) to a lawyer; straining at gnats and swallowing camels is a required course in law school... In the fifteenth century the Pope deeded the Western Hemisphere to Portugal and Spain, and nobody cared that the real estate was occupied by people with their owns laws, customs, and property rights. His grant was effective, too -- Look at a map and notice where Spanish is spoken an Portuguese is spoken."
"I don't like to be called 'Doctor'... When they began handing out doctorates for comparative folk-dancing and advanced fly fishing, I became too stinkin' proud to use the title. I won't touch watered whiskey and I take no pride in watered-down degrees."
"Human bipolarity was both binding force and driving energy for all human behavior, from sonnets to nuclear equations. If any being thinks that human psychologists have exaggerated this, let it search Terran patent offices, libraries, and art galleries for the creations of eunuchs."
"The first way to lie artistically is to tell the truth--but not all of it. The second way involves telling the truth, too, but is harder: Tell the exact truth and maybe all of it . . but tell it so unconvincingly that your listener is sure you are lying."
"Don't ever become a pessimist, Ira; a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun--and neither can stop the march of events."
"What are the marks of a sick culture? It is a bad sign when the people of a country stop identifying themselves with the county and start identifying with a group. A racial group. Or a religion. Or a language. Anything, as long as it isn't the whole population."
"Most people can't think, most of the remainder won't think, the small fraction who do think mostly can't do it very well. The extremely tiny fraction who think regularly, accurately, creatively, and without self-delusion- in the long run these are the only people who count..."
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