I will accept the rules that you feel necessary to your freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Heinlein defines freedom as internal moral responsibility regardless of external rules.
- In plain terms
- True freedom comes from owning your actions, not just following rules.
- What can you take from it?
- Freedom is internal responsibility.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Can you be free under tyranny?
- What is true responsibility?
Another view
Ignoring rules can have severe external consequences.
More from Robert A. Heinlein
A rational anarchist believes that concepts, such as 'state' and 'society' and 'government' have no existence save as physically exemplified in the acts of sel…
Permalink to quote #36 Must be a yearning deep in human heart to stop other people from doing as they please. Rules, laws - always for other fellow. A murky part of us, something we …
Permalink to quote #38 Democracy can't work. Mathematicians, peasants, and animals, that's all there is - so democracy, a theory based on the assumption that mathematicians and peasa…
Permalink to quote #35
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