The most important lesson in the writing trade is that any manuscript is improved if you cut away the fat.
Robert A. HeinleinRead
Under our system every voter and officeholder is a man who has demonstrated through voluntary and difficult service that he places the welfare of the group ahead of personal advantage.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of selflessness and service to the community in both voters and leaders.
Heinlein articulates a vision for a political system where leadership is earned through a demonstrated commitment to the collective good. By valuing individuals who prioritize community welfare over personal gain, he suggests that true democracy thrives when its participants possess a sense of duty and sacrifice, thus creating a more just and equitable society.
Themes
ServiceCommunityLeadershipSelflessnessWelfarePolitics
In practice
Example use cases
During a campaign speech emphasizing civic responsibility.
More from Robert A. Heinlein
All quotes βAn 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
Some people speak and sing and walk and sit and sleep and silence their homesickness, for a long time, and to no avail. Some say that over time homesickness loses its specific content, that it starts to smolder and only then becomes all-consuming, because itβs no longer focused on a concrete home. I am one of the people who say that.
Herta MullerRead
Magic is a state of mind. It is often portrayed as very black and gothic, and that is because certain practitioners played that up for a sense of power and prestige. That is a disservice. Magic is very colorful. Of this, I am sure.
Alan MooreRead
To be white in America is to have the confidence to say, without a second thought: this space, this neighborhood, this city, this county, this country is mine.
Joy ReidRead
I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
...it's easier to hold to your principles 100% of the time than it is to hold to them 98% of the time.
Clayton ChristensenRead
There is a corollary to the conception of being too proud to fight. It is that the humble have to do most of the fighting.
Gilbert K. ChestertonRead