The most important lesson in the writing trade is that any manuscript is improved if you cut away the fat.
Robert A. HeinleinRead
I also think there are prices too high to pay to save the United States. Conscription is one of them. Conscription is slavery, and I don't think that any people or nation has a right to save itself at the price of slavery for anyone, no matter what name it is called. We have had the draft for twenty years now; I think this is shameful. If a country can't save itself through the volunteer service of its own free people, then I say: Let the damned thing go down the drain!
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that forcing individuals into service is unacceptable, likening it to slavery, and questions the morality of such actions for national survival.
In this quote, Robert A. Heinlein highlights the moral implications of conscription, equating it to slavery. He argues that a nation should not resort to involuntary service to ensure its survival, as it undermines the freedom and autonomy of individuals. Heinlein believes that if a country cannot rely on the voluntary commitment of its citizens, it is better for it to fail than to impose such a burden on them. His strong stance reflects a deep commitment to individual rights and highlights the ethical considerations of governance and national defense.
Themes
ConscriptionSlaveryFreedomNationVoluntary Service
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a debate about military conscription policies in schools.
More from Robert A. Heinlein
All quotes →An armed society is a polite society.
Robert A. HeinleinRead
Democracy is a poor system of government at best; the only thing that can honestly be said in its favor is that it is eight times as good as any other method the human race has ever tried.
Robert A. HeinleinRead
Long human words (the longer the better) were easy, unmistakable, and rarely changed their meanings . . . but short words were slippery, unpredictable, changing their meanings without any pattern.
Robert A. HeinleinRead
Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things.
Robert A. HeinleinRead
When a place gets crowded enough to require ID's, social collapse is not far away. It is time to go elsewhere. The best thing about space travel is that it made it possible to go elsewhere.
Robert A. HeinleinRead
Similar quotes
I think that if people are instructed about anything, it should be about the nature of cruelty. And about why people behave so cruelly to each other. And what kind of satisfactions they derive from it. And why there is always a cost, and a price to be paid.
Richard RussoRead
I do not understand how you can associate abortion with an idea of hedonism or the good life.
Italo CalvinoRead
To create, I destroyed myself; I made myself external to such a degree within myself that within myself I do not exist except in an external fashion. I am the living setting in which several actors make entrances, putting on several different plays.
Fernando PessoaRead
The revival in religion will be a rhetorical problem - new persuasive words for defaced or degraded ones.
Thornton WilderRead
Who does not in some sort live to others, does not live much to himself.
Michel De MontaigneRead
The first thing to recognize not just about Afghanistan but about any poor undeveloped country is that as big as it looks on the map, it's much bigger when you're there.
Robert D. KaplanRead