Robert A. Heinlein

Quotes

• “But how, from the viewpoint of a Martian, did man differ from other animals? Would a race that could levitate and god kn...”
• “It’s not enough to be able to lie with a straight face; anybody with enough gall to raise on a busted flush can do that....”
• “Nothing could go wrong because nothing had...I meant "nothing would." No - Then I quit trying to phrase it, realizing th...”
• “The country and culture commonly known as "America" had had a badly split personality all through its history. Its overt...”
• “Here, by the grace of God and an inside straight, we have a personality untouched by the psychotic taboos of our tribe -...”
• “I know where I came from—but where did all you zombies come from?I felt a headache coming on, but a headache powder is o...”
• “Art is the process of evoking pity and terror, which is not abstract at all but very human. What the self-styled modern ...”
• “Consider the black widow spider. It's a timid little beastie, useful and, for my taste, the prettiest of the arachnids, ...”
• “You. What is the moral difference, ifany, between the soldier and the civilian?""The difference," I answered carefully, ...”
• “He became convinced that ordinary commercial financing could be done for a service charge plus an insurance fee amountin...”
• “Good!” the creature echoed. “Doctor Nelson will be along in a minute. Feel like breakfast?”All symbols were in Smith’s v...”
• “Any government will work if authority and responsibility are equal and coordinate. This does not insure “good” governmen...”
• “Richard, Bill has the socialist disease in its worst form; he thinks the world owes him a living. He told me sincerely -...”
• “I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do. I am free, no matter what rules surrou...”
• “The great trouble with religion - any religion - is that a religionist, having accepted certain propositions by faith, c...”
• “People simplify 'Apollonian' into 'mild', and 'calm', and 'cool'. But 'Apollonian' and 'Dionysian' are two sides of one ...”
• “Happiness consists in getting enough sleep. Just that, nothing more. All the wealthy, unhappy people you're ever met tak...”
• “I've never been able to understand 'faith' myself, nor to see how a just God could expect his creatures to pick the one ...”
• “For millennia philosophers and saints have tried to reason out a logical scheme for the universe... until Hilda came alo...”
• “Marrying Gretchen is a good idea, darling; I would enjoy bringing her up. Teaching her to shoot, helping her with her fi...”
• “Democracy can't work. Mathematicians, peasants, and animals, that's all there is-- so democracy, a theory based on the a...”
• “Oh, "Tanstaafl." Means "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch." And isn't,' I added, pointing to a FREE LUNCH sign a...”
• “Sick cultures show a complex of symptoms such as you have named...but a dying culture invariably exhibits personal ruden...”
• “There is no way that writers can be tamed and rendered civilized or even cured. The only solution known to science is to...”
• “Heinlein's Rules for Writers Rule One: You Must WriteRule Two: Finish What Your StartRule Three: You Must Refrain From R...”
• “Love" is a that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own...Jealousy is a disease, lov...”
• “He had learned that close-held secrets could often be cracked by going all the way to the top and there making himself u...”
• “- I'm so busy doing what I must do that I don't have time for what I ought to do... and I never get a chance to do what ...”
• “If you are part of a society that votes, then do so. There may be no candidates and no measures you want to vote for ......”
• “Liberty is never unalienable; it must be redeemed regularly with the blood of patriots or it always vanishes. Of all the...”
• “Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful...”
• “When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, This you may not read, this you m...”
• “Science fiction" means different things to different people. "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpt...”
• “Could dump two Chinee down in one of our maria and they would get rich selling rocks to each other while raising twelve ...”
• “My dear, I used to think I was serving humanity . . . and I pleasured in the thought. Then I discovered that humanity do...”
• “It is almost impossible to shake of one's earliest training. Duke, can you get it through your skull that had you been b...”
• “Every citizen is free to perform any act which does not hamper the equal freedom of another. No law shall forbid the per...”
• “Customs tell a man who he is, where he belongs, what he must do. Better illogical customs than none; men cannot live tog...”
• “I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I ...”
• “I'm not feisty. But when you're as small as I am and female if you don't stand up for your rights, you're sure to be pus...”
• “A dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A...”
• “His older self had taught his younger self a language which the older self knew because the younger self, after being ta...”
• “When a place gets crowded enough to require ID's, social collapse is not far away. It is time to go elsewhere. The best ...”
• “Harshaw had the arrogant humility of the man who has learned so much that he is aware of his own ignorance and he saw no...”
• “. . . they would rather sneer at us and be smug, because we 'fail' to see what they are driving at. If indeed they are d...”
• “All those religions--they contradict each other on every point but every one of them is filled with ways to help people ...”
• “All human behavior, all human motivations, all man’s hopes and fears, were heavily colored and largely controlled by man...”
• “When you vote, you are exercising political authority, you're using force. And force, my friends, is violence. The supre...”
• “Stupidity cannot be cured. Stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death. There is no appeal, and...”
• “Many older physicians had gone to their graves calling Pasteur a liar, a fool, or worse---and without examining evidence...”