(?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)
Robert A. Heinlein

“Both for practical reasons and for mathematically verifiable moral reasons, authority and responsibility must be equal - else a balancing takes place as surely as current flows between points of unequal potential. To permit irresponsible authority is to sow disaster; to hold a man responsible for anything he does not control is to behave with blind idiocy. The unlimited democracies were unstable because their citizens were not responsible for the fashion in which they exerted their sovereign authority... other than through the tragic logic of history... No attempt was made to determine whether a voter was socially responsible to the extent of his literally unlimited authority. If he voted the impossible, the disastrous possible happened instead - and responsibility was then forced on him willy-nilly and destroyed both him and his foundationless temple.”

Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers
Read more quotes from Robert A. Heinlein


Share this quote:
Share on Twitter

Friends Who Liked This Quote

To see what your friends thought of this quote, please sign up!

38 likes
All Members Who Liked This Quote



This Quote Is From

Starship Troopers Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
243,664 ratings, average rating, 8,593 reviews

Browse By Tag