Quotes: Robert Heinlein's "Moon is a Harsh Mistress" (novel)

Heinlein is very good at providing sound bytes. I collect some from his novel "Moon is a Harsh Mistress" here.

1. "God fights on side of heaviest artillery."
2. "the most basic human right, the right to bargain in a free marketplace."
3. "As to basic structure, a revolution starts as a conspiracy - therefore structure is small, secret, and organized as to minimize damage by betrayal — since there always are betrayals. One solution is the cell system and so far nothing better has been invented ... I think that history shows that a cell of three is best — more than three can't agree on when to have dinner, much less when to strike." "When the number is as high as four, chances are even that one is a spy."
4. "Organization must be no larger than necessary — never recruit anyone merely because he wants to join. Nor seek to persuade for the pleasure of having another share your views."
5. Need for a separate propaganda organization: "there will be an educational organization but it must be separate; agitprop is no part of basic structure."
6. "If I were planning to take over Luna. I would start with us three. One would be opted as chairman. We wouldn't vote; choice would be obvious — or we aren't the right three. We would know the next nine people, three cells . . . but each cell would know only one of us."
7. "blokes down here have to have way to send message up three levels. Don't have to know who, just have to know where."
8. "under what circumstances may the State justly place its welfare above that of a citizen? ... as I see, there are no circumstances under which State is justified in placing its welfare ahead of mine."
9. "I believe in capital punishment under some circumstances ... with this difference. I would not ask a court; I would try, condemn, execute sentence myself, and accept full responsibility."
10. "In terms of morals, there is no such thing as 'state.' Just men. Individuals. Each responsible for his own acts."
11. Familiar governmentese: "Do this. Don't do that. Stay back of line. Where's tax receipt? Fill out form. Let's see license. Submit six copies. Exit only. No left turn. No right turn. Queue up to pay fine. Take back and get stamped. Drop dead — but first get permit."
12. "I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do" "You would not abide by a law that the majority felt was necessary?" "Tell me what law, dear lady, and I will tell you whether I will obey it."
13. "We will now overthrow the Authority". "How? Going to throw rocks at 'em?" "That remains to be worked out. This is the planning stage."
14. "Revolution is an art that I pursue rather than a goal I expect to achieve. Nor is this a source of dismay; a lost cause can be as spiritually satisfying as a victory."
15. Mike that is human but not quite, 7 years to go to 2082, at the time the revolutionary committe is formed: "Twenty-eighty-two is the year I expect food riots. Cannibalism should not occur for at least two years thereafter."
16. On selecting revolutionary cadres: "Easier to get people to hate than to get them to love."
17. "stickiest problems in conspiracy are communications and security, and ... they conflict — easier are communications, greater is risk to security; if security is tight, organization can be paralyzed by safety precautions."
18. "most money is simply bookkeeping."
19. "Bank of Hong Kong Luna notes were better money than official Authority scrip ... I suppose Hong Kong dollars weren't 'money' in some legal sense ... Money or not, Hong Kong Bank notes were backed by honest Chinee bankers instead of being fiat of bureaucracy. One hundred Hong Kong dollars was 31.1 grams of gold (old troy ounce) payable on demand at home office — and they did keep gold there".
20. On court system (Brody is a professional Judge): "If two people brought a quarrel to Brody and he could not get them to agree that his settlement was just, he would return fees".
21. On misinformation campaign of revolutionaries after a specific high handed action from government: "We emphasized that one of these dangerous males was only four years old, which was not true but very effective."
22. "Loonies in and out of Party had no interest in 'patriotic' work unless well paid."
23. "Hadn't realized 'Free Luna' was going to have taxes. Hadn't had any before and got along. You paid for what you got."
24. On zeal of lawmakers ("fornication" means extra-marital sex): "a long list she wanted made permanent laws — about private matters. No more plural marriage of any sort. No divorces. No 'fornication' ... No drinks stronger than 4% beer. Church services only on Saturdays and all else to stop that day ... long list of drugs to be prohibited and a shorter list dispensed only by licensed physicians ... make gambling illegal"
25. "Must be a yearning deep in human heart to stop other people from doing as they please. Rules, laws — always for other fellow ... was always something they hated to see neighbors doing. Stop them 'for their own good' — not because speaker claimed to be harmed by it."
26. "more than six people cannot agree on anything, three is better — and one is perfect for a job that one can do. This is why parliamentary bodies all through history, when they accomplished anything, owed it to a few strong men who dominated the rest."
27. I have known someone who used it as a very effective technique to get his way through in office - tire the members of committee with a long conference that runs to late evening: "pass something through sheer fatigue".
28. "A managed democracy is a wonderful thing, Manuel, for the managers ... and its greatest strength is a 'free press' when 'free' is defined as 'responsible' and the managers define what is 'irresponsible.'"
29. On origins of marriage formats & customs: "marriage customs always do, from economic necessities of the circumstances".
30. "Line marriage is the strongest possible device for conserving capital and insuring the welfare of children — the two basic societal functions for marriage everywhere".
31. "our strategy must be to antagonize them into striking the first blow, the classic 'Pearl Harbor' maneuver"
32. "Revolution is an amateur thing for almost everybody"
33. "mankind has not done well when saddling itself with governments"
34. On how to elect legislatures: "You might even consider installing the candidates who receive the least number of votes; unpopular men may be just the sort to save you from a new tyranny."
35. "the chronic sickness of representative government, the disgruntled minority which feels — correctly! — that it has been disenfranchised."
36. "I note one proposal to make this Congress a two-house body. Excellent — the more impediments to legislation the better ... one house legislators, another whose single duty is to repeal laws. Let legislators pass laws only with a two-thirds majority ... while the repealers are able to cancel any law through a mere one-third minority."
37. "But in writing your constitution let me invite attention to the wonderful virtues of the negative! Accentuate the negative! Let your document be studded with things the government is forever forbidden to do."
38. "What I fear most are affirmative actions of sober and well-intentioned men, granting to government powers to do something that appears to need doing."
39. "The power to tax, once conceded, has no limits"
40. "sometimes I think that government is an inescapable disease of human beings. But it may be possible to keep it small and starved and inoffensive — and can you think of a better way than by requiring the governors themselves to pay the costs of their antisocial hobby?"
41. "And that was biggest reason why we Loonies won: We fought."
42. "when faced with a problem you do not understand, do any part of it you do understand, then look at it again."
43. Old-fashioned way of transferring software from one computer to another where they are not connected with an electronic link: "simply had to be careful to read them correctly and punch them in without error. Made Junior print back for check before I gave him signal to execute."!
44. "Luna's future lies in her unique position at the top of a gravity well over a rich planet, and in her cheap power and plentiful real estate."
45. "You get only what you pay for".
46. "Seems to be a deep instinct in human beings for making everything compulsory that isn't forbidden."