An armed society is a polite society.
Robert A. HeinleinRead
The most important lesson in the writing trade is that any manuscript is improved if you cut away the fat.
Interpretation
Less is often more in writing; eliminating unnecessary parts can enhance clarity and impact.
This quote emphasizes the importance of conciseness in writing. Heinlein suggests that every piece of writing can benefit from editing and trimming excess content, ultimately leading to stronger, clearer communication. By focusing on what is essential, writers can create more engaging and effective manuscripts.
In practice
A writerβs workshop focusing on the importance of editing their stories.
An armed society is a polite society.
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.
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.
Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things.
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.
A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity.
I preferred the simplest vocabulary.
When we invest in women and girls, we are investing in the people who invest in everyone else.
The 'futures' and 'careers' for which American students now prepare are for the most part intellectual and moral wastelands. This chrome-plated consumers' paradise would have us grow up to be well-behaved children. But an important minority of men and women coming to the front today have shown they will die rather than be standardized, replaceable, and irrelevant.
At every step the child should be allowed to meet the real experience of life; the thorns should never be plucked from his roses.
There's only one thing that can kill the movies, and that's education.
There's a lot of talk these days about giving children self-esteem. It's not something you can give; it's something they have to build. Coach Graham worked in a no-coddling zone. Self-esteem? He knew there was really only one way to teach kids how to develop it: You give them something they can't do, they work hard until they find they can do it, and you just keep repeating the process.
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