7 Robert A. Heinlein Quotes on Wisdom

Robert A. Heinlein quotes on wisdom

24. Age is not an accomplishment, and youth is not a sin.

35. Democracy can't work. Mathematicians, peasants, and animals, that's all there is - so democracy, a theory based on the assumption that mathematicians and peasants are equal, can never work. Wisdom is not additive; its maximum is that of the wisest man in a given group.

75. Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How's that again? I missed something. Autocracy is based on the assumption that one man is wiser than a million men. Let's play that over again, too. Who decides?

88. Human beings hardly ever learn from the experience of others. They learn; when they do, which isn't often, on their own, the hard way.

100. It's amazing how much 'mature wisdom' resembles being too tired.

126. Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can't help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.

167. Wisdom includes not getting angry unnecessarily. The Law ignores trifles and the wise man does, too.