Pearls of wisdom from Lazarus Long

I've waited a while but I need to share these pearls with everyone


• There is no conclusive evidence of life after death. But there is no evidence of any sort against it. Soon enough you will know. So why fret about it?

• Never underestimate the power of human stupidity

• A committee is a life form with six or more legs and no brain.

• Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get.

• Waking a person unnecessarily should not be considered a capital crime. For a first offense, that is.

• Any government will work if authority and responsibility are equal and coordinate. This does not insure "good" government; it simply insures that it will work. But such governments are rare -- most people want to run things but want no part of the blame

• An elephant: A mouse built to government specifications.

• A poet who reads his verse in public may have other nasty habits.

• A generation which ignores history has no past -- and no future.

• Delusions are often functional. A mother's opinions about her children's beauty, intelligence, goodness, et cetera ad nauseam, keep her from drowning them at birth.

• Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house


(from Time Enough For Love, © 1973 Robert A. Heinlein)