Food for Thought

The morals and beliefs I hold did not come from my upbringing at all. I was not raised in a very nurturing environment, let alone one with any type of spiritual guidance. I inherited my basic moral compass and beliefs from the external world, and I molded them as I saw fit through my real life experiences. I think this is why I enjoyed Philosophy in school. It opened up a whole world of thoughts and beliefs from which I could pick and choose.

One of my greatest influences were from books written by Robert A. Heinlein. I do not believe myself to be an atheist, as he most certainly was, but his basic outlook on life and people speak true to me. Listed below are some quotes taken from his literary works. Some of them are comedic, but strike a chord of truth just the same.

"A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity."

"An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life."

"Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat."

"Being right too soon is socially unacceptable."

"By cultivating the beautiful we scatter the seeds of heavenly flowers, as by doing good we cultivate those that belong to humanity."

"Don't ever become a pessimist... a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun, and neither can stop the march of events."

"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."

"I don't see how an article of clothing can be indecent. A person, yes."

"I never learned from a man who agreed with me."

"'Love' is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own... Jealousy is a disease, love is a healthy condition. The immature mind often mistakes one for the other, or assumes that the greater the love, the greater the jealousy."

"May you live as long as you wish and love as long as you live."

"Never insult anyone by accident."

"Never underestimate the power of human stupidity."

"No statement should be believed because it is made by an authority."

"One could write a history of science in reverse by assembling the solemn pronouncements of highest authority about what could not be done and could never happen."

"One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortune of others."

"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 supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive."

"The universe never did make sense; I suspect it was built on government contract."

"To be matter-of-fact about the world is to blunder into fantasy - and dull fantasy at that, as the real world is strange and wonderful."

"When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know, the end result is tyranny and oppression no matter how holy the motives."

"Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea."

"You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once."

"Sin lies only in hurting others unnecessarily. All other 'sins' are invented nonsense."

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, con 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."

"Courage is the complement of fear. A man who is fearless cannot be courageous. (He is also a fool.)"

"Does history record any case in which the majority was right?"

"In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it."

"Of course the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you -- if you don't play, you can't win."

"One might define adulthood as the age at which a person learns he must die to accept his sentence undismayed."

I love engaging in thought-provoking dialogue so if any of these have an effect, I would appreciate any comments.