The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

“I'm a Fifth Internationalist, most of the Organization is. Oh, we don't rule out anyone going our way; it's a united front. We have Communists and Fourths and Ruddyites and Societians and Single-Taxers and you name it. But I'm no Marxist; we Fifths have a practical program. Private where private belongs, public where it's needed, and an admission that circumstances alter cases. Nothing doctrinaire.”

“Do this. Don't do that. Stay back in line. Where's tax receipt? Fill out form. Let's see license. Submit six copies. Exit only. No left turn. No right turn. Queue up and pay fine. Take back and get stamped. Drop dead — but first get permit.”

“Revolution is an art that I pursue rather than a goal I expect to achieve. Nor is this a source of dismay; a lost cause can be as spiritually satisfying as a victory.”

“I will accept any 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.”

“Sovereign," like "love," means anything you want it to mean; it's a word in dictionary between "sober" and "sozzled.”

“One way or other, what you get, you pay for.”

“This air isn't free, you pay for every breath.”

“First, what is it you want us to pay taxes for? Tell me what I get and perhaps I'll buy it.”

“In past history popularly elected governments have been no better and sometimes far worse than overt tyrannies.”

“Whatever you do, do not let the past be a straitjacket!”

“Comrades, I beg of you — do not resort to compulsory taxation. There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.”

“In writing your constitution let me invite attention to the wonderful virtue of the negative! Accentuate the negative! Let your document be studded with things the government is forever forbidden to do. No conscript armies... no interference however slight with freedom of press, or speech, or travel, or assembly, or of religion, or of instruction, or communication, or occupation... no involuntary taxation.”

“What I fear most are affirmative actions of sober and well-intentioned men, granting to government powers to do something that appears to need doing.”

“Seems to be a deep instinct in human beings for making everything compulsory that isn't forbidden.”

“Oratory is a null program.”

“Some logics get nervous breakdowns. Overloaded phone system behaves like frightened child. Mike did not have upsets, acquired sense of humor instead. Low one. If he were a man, you wouldn't dare stoop over. His idea of thigh-slapper would be to dump you out of bed — or put itch powder in pressure suit.”

“Excuse me, I did not mean to criticize your planet.”

“Women are scarce; aren't enough to go around — that makes them most valuable thing in Luna, more precious than ice or air, as men without women don't care whether they stay alive or not.”

“At one time kings were anointed by Deity, so the problem was to see to it that Deity chose the right candidate. In this age the myth is "the will of the people" ... but the problem changes only superficially.”

“You listening, Bog? Is a computer one of Your creatures?”

“But I was born free.”

“"Soul?" Does a dog have a soul? How about cockroach?”

“I spent time then soothing Mike down trying to make him happy, having figured out what troubled him — thing that makes puppies cry and causes people to suicide: loneliness. I don't know how a long a year is to a machine that thinks a million times faster than I do. But must be too long.”

“That we were slaves I had known all my life — and nothing could be done about it. True, we weren't bought and sold — but as long as Authority held monopoly over what we had to have and what we could sell to buy it, we were slaves.”

“As it says in Bible, God fights on side of heaviest artillery.”

“(Correction — are no homely women. Some more beautiful than others.)”

“Genius is where you find it.”