If I were able to do needlepoint, my home would be adorned with many of these quotes.

Mr. Heinlein and Mr. Long are back in the forefront of my gray matter. Not sure why but I know the "solution". Library!

Some of my favorite obvervations by the (fictional?) Lazarus Long are:

By the data to date, there is only one animal in the Galaxy dangerous to man--man himself. So he must supply his own indispensable competition. He has no enemy to help him.

Men are more sentimental than women. It blurs their thinking.

Certainly the game is rigged. Don’t let that stop you; if you don’t bet, you can’t win.

Any priest or shaman must be presumed guilty until proved innocent.

Always listen to experts. They’ll tell you what can’t be done and why. Then do it!

Quotable writing from Heinlein. This short book is full of some "deep" thoughts from one of the masters of science fiction.

I enjoyed re-reading this book. It went quickly. Agreed with most of what is in it, too. Not all, but most.

SO I am a sucker for Heinlein's work I admit it but this one intrigued me. Now the wiki page pretty much sums this book up - its short - mainly because it was made up from articles and comments made in other publications which were attributed to Lazarus Long rather in the same fictitious vein as the Book Of Counted Sorrows by Dean Koontz. So some industrious person has collected them all in to one book - or in this case an e-book since the Bean paperback was unavailable. They are an interesting mix of comments and observations however like all these books of quotes from fictitious characters - you never know how much is really in the style of the character and how much is reflected by the author who is just using the character as a mouth piece for their views, I guess we will never know. So an interesting book - some things to take away and think about and other most certainly to be left to the pages of historical science fiction.

Make no mistake-- I love Heinlein, I adore Heinlein, I think the man is a god in the genre but a spastically snarling part of me loathes Lazarus Long. Lazarus Long, the man who lives forever, the man with a brain I envy, the man with many women... I cannot stand him. Starship Troopers and the thirty-second bomb I salute; Stranger in a Strange Land I shed an ironically pathetic tear with; and so goes with most of his work, preachiness and all. (That man had Good Ideas.) Let us be armed, let us be participants in alternative lifestyles, let us be free. When it comes down to it, any work of Heinlein is a pamphlet shouting "Freedom! Independence! Learning!" over the tinny Coldplay piping in over the air conditioner or the stylized pseudo-science that is CSI. As much as I despise the man, let me hold up Lazarus Long as a paragon of a lost society.

Good, short, pungent, flavorful

I first read the notebooks as part of "Time enough for Love." It was good to see where Rah stands. Again.

3.5 stars. A short collection of funny quotes from Heinlein’s immortal character Lazarus Long with some nice calligraphy as well.

One of my favorite writers.

A selection of quotes from one of Heinlein’s most famous characters. The profound ones are few, the humorous ones even more sparse. Most just sound good, but are just pithy and lacking substance.

The Notebooks of Lazarus Long is one of those thrown-together little books looking for impulse purchases on the front counter of a bookstore. It has found a new life as an e-book.

It compiles a random set of remarks by Lazarus Long, who, one suspects, is Robert Heinlein’s wish-fulfilling alter-ego. David Hartwell’s introduction tells us something about Lazarus, but I wish the selections were individually sourced and dated.

Long, who, Hartwell tells us, fathered billions of offspring, has a lot to say about sex. Of course, this bit could be about engineering: “Moving parts in rubbing contact require lubrication to avoid excessive wear.” Here is one that Oscar Wilde would have liked: “Yield to temptation; it may not pass your way again.”

Sometimes, Long’s quips about money sound like they might have come from Poor Richard’s Almanac: “Anything free is worth what you pay for it.” Sometimes, he echoes George Ade’s “In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash”: “Money is truthful. If a man speaks of his honor, make him pay cash.” All too often, he channels his inner Ayn Rand: “The greatest productive force is human selfishness.”

He offers us this version of John Campbell’s ideal of the competent man: “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

And finally, “Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of—but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.” Indeed.

This is required reading for any fan of Heinlein, the Future History series, and the character of Lazarus Long. All sorts of bit sof wisdom and quotes from a variety of books, including a lot from "Time Enough for Love", which is one of my favorites. Very amusing, and tells you a lot about the author.

It's the calligraphy that made me buy this back in 1986. I was still dabbling in the art myself, and seeing the examples using quotes by Heinlein's character sealed the deal.

Now, decades later, I still haul it out to smile softly at some of the pithy sayings. Is there true wisdom in here? No, not really, but some good sayings nonetheless that encourage me to think for myself. And save me the burden of re-reading the novels.