Robert A. Heinlein
American science-fiction author (1907 - 1988).
Being a fiction author, all Heinlein left
us is quotations from characters in his novels. There are
lots to choose from, here are a couple from Lazarus Long in
Time Enough for
Love:
"History does not record anywhere
or at any time a religion that has any rational basis.
Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand
up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most
people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and
seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with
it."
"Any priest or shaman must be
presumed guilty until proven innocent."
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The following is an introduction by
Robert Heinlein to Tenderfoot In
Space which originally appeared
in Boy's Life. Heinlein added this introduction to the
carbon copy before he sent it to the UCSC Archives.
"This was written a year before
Sputnik and is laid on the Venus earthbound astronomers
inferred before space probes. Two hours of rewriting - a
word here, a word there - could change it to a planet around
some other star. But to what purpose? Would The Tempest be
improved if Bohemia had a sea coast? If I ever publish that
collection of Boy Scout stories, this story will appear
unchanged.
Nixie is (of course) my own dog. But in 1919, when I was 12
and a Scout, he had to leave me - a streetcar hit him.
If this universe has any reasonable teleology whatever (a point on which I am unsure), then there is some provision for the Nixies in it."