Robert A. Heinlein vs. Ai Weiwei
Read 20 entries attributed to Robert A. Heinlein alongside 20 attributed to Ai Weiwei. Compare the wording and topic labels.
This page places 20 entries attributed to Robert A. Heinlein alongside 20 attributed to Ai Weiwei. Each selection is ordered by stored importance score. These are selections from QuoteLineage, not complete accounts of either author's work.
Topic labels present in both displayed selections: happiness, life, freedom, philosophy, humor, mind, truth, time, human nature. Shared labels do not by themselves demonstrate agreement, disagreement, or influence between the authors.
Attributed to Robert A. Heinlein, entry #1008: "Jealousy is a disease, love is a healthy condition. The immature mind often mistakes one for the other, or assumes that the greater the love, the greater the jealousy - in fact, t…"
Attributed to Ai Weiwei, entry #136781: "I think my stance and my way of life is my most important art."
Side-by-Side Comparison
Robert A. Heinlein
1907 – 1988
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction author, engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific accuracy in his fiction and was thus a pioneer of the subgenre of hard science fiction. His published works, both fiction and non-fiction, express admiration for competence and emphasize the value of critical thinking.
"Jealousy is a disease, love is a healthy condition. The immature mind often mistakes one for the other, or assumes that the greater the love, the greater the…"
#love"Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own."
#happiness"May you live as long as you wish and love as long as you live."
#life"“People tend to fall into three psychological types, all differently motivated. There is the type, motivated by economic factors, money...And there is the ty…"
#education"I really am a good listener because you never can tell when you will pick up something useful—and all in the world any woman has to do to be considered “char…"
#friendship"Luck is a bonus that follows careful planning—it’s never free."
#freedom"He gave up and went back to loafing, found that he could sleep all right in the afternoons but that the practice kept him awake at night."
#work"When you haven’t data, guessing is illogical."
#philosophy"Since when did a mathematician need any tools but his own head? Pythagoras had done well enough with a stick and a stretch of sand."
#humor"Never underestimate the power of human stupidity."
#power"Don, have you been dealing with a booklegger?"
#books"“The trouble with you youngsters,” Joe said, “is that if you can’t understand a thing right off, you think it can’t be true. The trouble with your elders is,…"
#mind"Apparently she believes she is safe. Evil is essentially stupid, Joe; despite her brilliance, she believes what she wishes to believe. Or it may be that she …"
#death"Pacifism is a shifty doctrine under which a man accepts the benefits of the social group without being willing to pay - and claims a halo for his dishonesty"
#truth"Pop, who maintained that a wise man could not be insulted, since truth could not insult and untruth was not worthy of notice."
#wisdom"As Thorby learned to use his mind, he found that he liked to; he developed an insatiable appetite for the printed page."
#knowledge"The future is better than the past. Despite the crepehangers, romanticists, and anti-intellectuals, the world steadily grows better because the human mind, a…"
#time"Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat."
#humor"Horses can manufacture more horses and that is one trick that tractors have never learned."
#knowledge"As for population, every major shortcoming of our native planet could be traced to one cause: too many people, not enough planet."
#Human NatureAi Weiwei
1957
Ai Weiwei is a Chinese contemporary artist, documentarian, and activist. Ai grew up in the far northwest of China, where he lived under harsh conditions due to his father's exile. As an activist, he has been openly critical of the Chinese government and its stance on democracy and human rights.
"I think my stance and my way of life is my most important art."
#life"Only with the Internet can a peasant I have never met hear my voice and I can learn what’s on his mind. A fairy tale has come true."
#truth"Beijing is two cities. One is of power and of money. People don’t care who their neighbors are; they don’t trust you. The other city is one of desperation. I…"
#money"The 2008 Olympics has created an illusion of China to the public and to the outside world. It is so fantastic, so unreal, that the entire meaning of the game…"
#philosophy"Contemporary art and the Party are an impossible situation. It’s like oil and water—they can never mix."
#art"I often ask myself if I am afraid of being detained again. I love freedom as much as anybody else, maybe more than most. But it is a tragedy to live your lif…"
#freedom"Anyone who cares about truth should avoid not politics, but Olympic lies."
#truth"People have said, if you leave, you may never come back. Or they may not even let you leave. So this is always a cost you may have to pay. But I don’t want t…"
#art"To me, to be political means you associate your work with a larger number of people’s living conditions, and that includes both mental and physical condition…"
#life"The art always wins. Anything can happen to me, but the art will stay."
#art"Twitter is the people’s tool, the tool of the ordinary people, people who have no other resources."
#Human Nature"Tradition is only a readymade. It’s for us to make a new gesture—to use it as a reference, more as a starting point than conclusion. Of course, there are ver…"
#art"It’s hard to recover. You become not so innocent. You become, in a way, more sophisticated, which I think you shouldn’t. We should all have more simple happi…"
#happiness"A small act is worth a million thoughts."
#mind"Chairman Mao was the first in the world to use Twitter. All his quotations are within 140 words."
#humor"The think of artists as prostitutes. And in reality it’s true: in the Communist system artists just represent what the power structure seeks them to represen…"
#truth"I have no sense of why I lost my freedom and if you do not know how you lost something, how can you protect it?"
#freedom"They don’t believe in liberty. They don’t believe in China before the Communists. There is only one simple, clear task: to protect their control, to maintain…"
#freedom"Life is never guaranteed to be safe, so we better use it while we are still in good condition."
#life"If a nation cannot face its past, it has no future."
#time