The most important lesson in the writing trade is that any manuscript is improved if you cut away the fat.
Robert A. HeinleinRead
The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive.
Interpretation
Life is ultimately fleeting, and death is inevitable for everyone.
This quote suggests that the most profound truth about life is its finiteness; despite our efforts to live fully, we all meet the same end, which can be seen as ironic considering the various pursuits we undertake. The irony lies in the fact that amidst our struggles, achievements, and experiences, we forget that the ultimate conclusion is universal: death, making all our endeavors seem ephemeral.
In practice
During a graduation speech to emphasize the importance of making the most of life.
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.
You don't have to teach people how to be human. You have to teach them how to stop being inhuman.
Adults...struggle desperately with fiction, demanding constantly that it conform to the rules of everyday life. Adults foolishly demand to know how Superman can possibly fly, or how Batman can possibly run a multibillion-dollar business empire during the day and fight crime at night, when the answer is obvious even to the smallest child: because it's not real.
Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all - the apathy of human beings.
Despite our very recent appearance on the planet, humanity combines arrogance with increasing material demands, even as we become more numerous. Our toughness is a delusion. Have we the intelligence and discipline to vigilantly guard against our tendency to grow without limit?
Pursued by our origins... we all are.
The medical argument for animal testing doesn't stand up. Even if it did, I don't think we should kill other species. We think we're so much better; I'm not sure we are. I tell people, We've beaten into submission every animal on the face of the Earth, so we are the clear winners of whatever battle is going on between the species. Couldn't we be generous? I really do think it's time to get nice. No need to keep beating up on them. I think we've got to show that we're kind.
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