Bruce Murphy > Bruce's Quotes

“I have been to the speed of God, sir...and I discommend it.”
― John Ringo, A Hymn Before Battle

“Peace through superior firepower.”
― John Ringo, A Hymn Before Battle

“nuke em till they glow and then shoot 'em in the dark”
― John Ringo, Gust Front

“Shall I show him in or tell him to go find a short and unpleasant route to hell?”
― John Ringo, There Will Be Dragons

“You really should do some research for a change instead of just listening to the voices in your head.”
― John Ringo

“The America of my time line is a laboratory example of what can happen to democracies, what has eventually happened to all perfect democracies throughout all histories. A perfect democracy, a ‘warm body’ democracy in which every adult may vote and all votes count equally, has no internal feedback for self-correction. It depends solely on the wisdom and self-restraint of citizens… which is opposed by the folly and lack of self-restraint of other citizens. What is supposed to happen in a democracy is that each sovereign citizen will always vote in the public interest for the safety and welfare of all. But what does happen is that he votes his own self-interest as he sees it… which for the majority translates as ‘Bread and Circuses.’

‘Bread and Circuses’ is the cancer of democracy, the fatal disease for which there is no cure. Democracy often works beautifully at first. But once a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader—the barbarians enter Rome.”
― Robert A. Heinlein

“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 into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!”
― Robert Heinlein

“Secrecy begets tyranny.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

“Geniuses and supergeniuses always make their own rules about sex as on everything else; they do not accept the monkey customs of their lessers.”
― Robert A. Heinlein

“Stupidity cannot be cured. Stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death. There is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.”
― Robert Heinlein

“One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortune of others.”
― Robert A. Heinlein

“Faith strikes me as intellectual laziness.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

“An armed society is a polite society.”
― Robert A. Heinlein

“Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense. (Hurting yourself is not sinful -- just stupid.)”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

“People who go broke in a big way never miss any meals. It is the poor jerk who is shy a half slug who must tighten his belt.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

“when faced with a problem you do not understand, do any part of it you do understand, then look at it again.”
― Robert Heinlein

“- I'm so busy doing what I must do that I don't have time for what I ought to do... and I never get a chance to do what I want to do!
- Son, that's universal. The way to keep that recipe from killing you is occasionally to do what you want to do anyhow.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Citizen of the Galaxy

“A community where everyone is a ruthless murderer, with handy access to death-dealing devices, is a very polite community.”
― Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

“Still rarer is the man who thinks habitually, who applies reason, rather than habit pattern, to all his activity. Unless he masques himself, his is a dangerous life; he is regarded as queer, untrustworthy, subversive of public morals; he is a pink monkey among brown monkeys -- a fatal mistake. Unless the pink monkey can dye himself brown before he is caught.

The brown monkey's instinct to kill is correct; such men are dangerous to all monkey customs.

Rarest of all is the man who can and does reason at all times, quickly, accurately, inclusively, despite hope or fear or bodily distress, without egocentric bias or thalmic disturbance, with correct memory, with clear distinction between fact, assumption, and non-fact.”
― Robert A. Heinlein