Dated
"There is an old song which asserts that 'the best things in life are free.' Not true! Utterly false! This was the tragic fallacy which brought on the decadence and collapse of the democracies of the twentieth century; those noble experiments failed because the people had been led to believe that they could simply vote for whatever they wanted... and get it, without toil, without sweat, without tears
"Nothing of value is free. Even the breath of life is purchased at birth only through gasping effort and pain." [Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers]The above quote, one of the most significant statements of Heinlein’s personal convictions from one of his most influential novels, contains both a great truth and a misleading implication. That’s not a criticism of the conviction, mind you; the old boy sometimes stumbled on his way to his destination, as do we all...but he almost always arrived where he intended, whereas many of us do not.
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