Great writer.

Most of those things are learned by going out there and living your life, something that has become a rarity there days.

This quote should properly be attributed to one Lazarus Long, a main character in Robert A. Heinlein's universe.

The quotes of Lazarus Long can be found, in most of their entirety, in Heinlein's book 'Time Enough For Love'. It's a masterful tale of life, but don't dive in right there. There is something of an order to his books.

Absolutely read Heinlein. His lessons on freedom and liberty and libertarianism, told through the most fantastical tales, are some of the best.

And I recently found out there is a push to get Heinlein's books off the shelves of local book stores. I'll leave you to speculate on why that might be. You can still pretty easily find his collection on the high seas.

Many s/f authors use his quotes as epigraphs in their novels. ("The word you are looking for is epigraph. Oxford Dictionary defines the word as: A short quotation or saying at the beginning of a book or chapter, intended to suggest its theme.")

This is from the first chapter in The Endless Frontier by J.Pournelle:

"The Earth is just too small and fragile a basket for the human race to keep all its eggs in." - Robert A. Heinlein, July 20, 1976.

From the date of that quote, he must have been addressing an audience celebrating the 7th anniversary of the moon landing back when space exploration was a higher priority than stuffing nigger's mouths with EBT fast food. Back when teaching your son that he could be an astronaut when he grew up was a better idea than teaching him he could be a trans-girl.