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Posted on 10/12/2002 11:20:11 PM PDT by redrock
"I am not going to talk about religious beliefs but about matters so obvious that it has gone out of style to mention them. I believe in my neighbors. I know their faults, and I know that their virtues far outweigh their faults. "Take Father Michael down our road a piece. I'm not of his creed, but I know that goodness and charity and lovingkindness shine in his daily actions. I believe in Father Mike. If I'm in trouble, I'll go to him."
"My next-door neighbor is a veterinary doctor. Doc will get out of bed after a hard day to help a stray cat. No fee--no prospect of a fee--I believe in Doc.
"I believe in my townspeople. You can know on any door in our town saying, 'I'm hungry,' and you will be fed. Our town is no exception. I've found the same ready charity everywhere. But for the one who says, 'To heck with you - I got mine,' there are a hundred, a thousand who will say, "Sure, pal, sit down."
"I know that despite all warnings against hitchhikers I can step up to the highway, thumb for a ride and in a few minutes a car or a truck will stop and someone will say, 'Climb in Mac - how far you going?'
"I believe in my fellow citizens. Our headlines are splashed with crime yet for every criminal there are 10,000 honest, decent, kindly men. If it were not so, no child would live to grow up. Business could not go on from day to day. Decency is not news. It is buried in the obituaries, but is a force stronger than crime. I believe in the patient gallentry of nurses and the tedious sacrifices of teachers. I believe in the unseen and unending fight against desperate odds that goes on quietly in almost every home in the land.
"I believe in the honest craft of workmen. Take a look around you. There never were enough bosses to check up on all that work. From Independence Hall to the Grand Coulee Dam, these things were built level and square by craftsmen who were honest in their bones.
"I believe that almost all politicians are honest. . .there are hundreds of politicians, low paid or not paid at all, doing their level best without thanks or glory to make our system work. If this were not true we would never have gotten past the 13 colonies.
"I believe in Rodger Young. You and I are free today because of endless unnamed heroes from Valley Forge to the Yalu River. I believe in -- I am proud to belong to -- the United States. Despite shortcomings from lynchings to bad faith in high places, our nation has had the most decent and kindly internal practices and foreign policies to be found anywhere in history.
"And finally, I believe in my whole race. Yellow, white, black, red, brown. In the honesty, courage, intelligence, durability, and goodness of the overwhelming majority of my brothers and sisters everywhere on this planet. I am proud to be a human being. I believe that we have come this far by the skin of our teeth. That we always make it just by the skin of our teeth, but that we will always make it. Survive. Endure. I believe that this hairless embryo with the aching, oversize brain case and the
opposable thumb, this animal barely up from the apes will endure. Will endure longer than his home planet -- will spread out to the stars and beyond, carrying with him his honesty and his insatiable curiosity, his unlimited courage and his noble essential decency."This I believe with all my heart."
Robert A. Heinlein wrote this item in 1952. His wife, Virginia Heinlein, chose to read it when she accepted NASA's Distinguished Public Service Medal on October 6, 1988, on the Grand Master's behalf (it was a posthumous award).
Heinlein.
Ditto that!
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One brilliant writer on a brilliant-squared writer, both creators of some of the most evocative liberty-loving characters ever put in print. Neil's Win Bear (The Probability Broach) will endure along with Bob's Manuel O'Kelly Davis (The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress) for as long as mankind keeps the upright position.
I am one of the latter.
My parents exposed me to Robert Heinlein when I was just a child and he quickly became the guiding force of my belief system. I have a complete collection of his works on my bookshelves. The following excerpts from Robert Heinlein's Notebook of Lazarus Long and my included rants explain my philosophies.
Any priest or shaman must be presumed guilty until proven innocent. -- Lazarus Long
History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it. -- Lazarus Long
There is no conclusive evidence of life after death. But there is no evidence of any sort against it. Soon enough you will know. So why fret about it? -- Lazarus Long
One man's theology is another man's belly laugh. -- Lazarus Long
Televangelists: The Pro Wrestlers of religion. -- Lazarus Long
The most preposterous motion that H. sapiens has ever dreamed up it that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes, wants the saccharine adoration of His creatures, can be swayed by prayers, and becomes petulant if He does not receive this flattery. Yet this absurd fantasy, without a shred of evidence to bolster it, pays all the expenses of the oldest, largest and least productive industry in all history. -- Lazarus Long
"God split himself into a myriad parts so that he might have friends". This may not be true, but it sounds good -- and is no sillier than any other theology. -- Lazarus Long
God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent---it says so right here on the label. If you have a mind capable of believing all three of these divine attributes simultaneously, I have a wonderful bargain for you. No checks, please. Cash and in small bills. -- Lazarus Long
We always let water over the bridge lie where Jesus flang it; you know that. -- Lazarus Long Freedom begins when you tell Mrs Grundy to go fly a kite.-- Lazarus Long
In other words mind your own business, if that doesn’t satisfy you, get a hobby.
What are the facts? Again and again and again --- what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what "the stars foretell", avoid opinion, Care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable "verdict of history" --- what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always in to an unknown future; facts are your only chance. Get the facts! -- Lazarus Long
A generation which ignores history has no past and no future. -- Lazarus Long
If you ain't makin' waves, you ain't kickin' hard enough! -- Lazarus Long
Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house. -- Lazarus Long
"If you are part of a society that votes, then do so. There may be no candidate and no measures you want to vote for... but there are certain to be ones you want to vote against. In case of doubt, vote against. By this rule you rarely go wrong.
"If this is too blind for your taste, consult some well-meaning fool (there is always one around) and ask his advice. Then vote the other way. This enables you to be a good citizen (if such is your wish) without spending the enormous amount of time on it that truly intelligent exercise of franchise requires." -- Lazarus Long
You live and learn. Or you don't live long. -- Lazarus Long
Of all the strange "crimes" that human beings have legislated out of nothing, "blasphemy" is the most amazing---with "obscenity" and "indecent exposure" fighting it out for the second and third place. -- Lazarus Long
The plural of spouse is spice. -- Lazarus Long
A woman is not property, and husbands who think otherwise are living in a dreamworld. -- Lazarus Long
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity -- Lazarus Long
Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors, and miss. -- Lazarus Long
To stay young requires the unceasing ability to unlearn old falsehoods. -- Lazarus Long
Political tags -- such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth -- are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort. -- Lazarus Long
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. -- Lazarus Long
Get a shot off fast. This upsets him long enough to let you make your second shot perfect. -- Lazarus Long
Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes. Keep this in mind, it may offer a way to make him your friend. If not, you can kill him without hate, and quickly. -- Lazarus Long
An armed society is a polite society.
A brute kills for pleasure. A fool kills from hate. -- Lazarus Long
It may be better to be a live jackal than a dead lion, but it is better still to be a live lion. And usually easier. -- Lazarus Long
Place your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark. -- Lazarus Long
The meek shall inherit the earth, a 6 foot plot above them. -- Lazarus Long
I agree - some of his later work was written as by a woman from a woman's viewpoint.
Heinlein had a sense for the practice of plot construction, characterization, and stylistic control that is almost never acknowledged. Present-day literati would be embarrassed by comparison to most competent genre writers, for genre writers still remember that their duty is to entertain, not to play with themselves in public. Heinlein was the greatest of them all.
No argument that he had his bad days, nor that these became more frequent after he passed his peak. But one cannot read a stunner like "They," a little gem like Double Star or a masterpiece like The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress without being overwhelmed by Heinlein's storyteller's gifts.
I'm a writer myself. I've been a Heinlein fan for forty years as of next Tuesday. After such a long acquaintance, it would be reasonable to expect that I'd find little new in his works when I went back to them. Reasonable, but incorrect. They are a treasure trove that defies exhaustion. By their stylistic elegance alone, they can keep me mesmerized indefinitely.
Like the great Poul Anderson, also recently taken from us, Robert A. Heinlein will be missed by more, not fewer, appreciative, intelligent readers as he recedes into the past -- and for more and richer reasons.
Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit the Palace Of Reason: http://palaceofreason.com
While loving most of Heinleins stuff, it took me years to finally get through Number of the Beast -too much saccharine dialog & fairly hard to follow without understanding references to previous books. I would like to have his ship, "Gay Deceiver" complete with dimensional storage.
I just finished re-reading Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Don't ask how many times.
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