The most important lesson in the writing trade is that any manuscript is improved if you cut away the fat.
Robert A. HeinleinRead
His older self had taught his younger self a language which the older self knew because the younger self, after being taught, grew up to be the older self and was, therefore, capable of teaching.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the cyclical nature of learning and self-growth over time.
In this quote, Robert A. Heinlein expresses the idea that our future selves are shaped by the knowledge and experiences we acquire in our youth. This highlights the interconnectedness of our past, present, and future, suggesting that the wisdom we gain at one stage of life is essential for our development and can later be passed down to our younger selves, creating a continuous loop of teaching and learning.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of mentorship.
The most important lesson in the writing trade is that any manuscript is improved if you cut away the fat.
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.
Only great souls know the grandeur there is in charity.
I am alone here in my own mind. There is no map and there is no road. It is one of a kind just as yours is.
If it had not been for the pernicious power of envy, men would not so have exalted vengeance above innocence and profit above justice... in these acts of revenge on others, men take it upon themselves to begin the process of repealing those general laws of humanity which are there to give a hope of salvation to all who are in distress.
Sometime I’ll lay down my wrath, As I lay my body down Between the ache of breath and breath, Golden slumber in the bone.
He fell in October 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: All quiet on the Western Front. He had fallen forward and lay on the earth as though sleeping. Turning him over one saw that he could not have suffered long; his face had an expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come.
Only literature could reveal the process of breaking the law - without which the law would have no end - independently of the necessity to create order.
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