Robert A. Heinlein Quotes

One might define adulthood as the age at which a person learns that he must die ...and accepts his sentence undismayed.

You got the impression that he never needed to sleep - just ten-thousand-mile checkups and dust him off occasionally.

Television leaves no external scars.

With eternity to draw on there could be no reason for hurrying - 'hurry' was not a concept in Martian.

From the strictest humanitarian viewpoint, any attempt to stop the processes by which over crowded cities purge themselves is not a kindness.

Hit it! You have to hit it harder than that. Electrons are timid little things but notional; you have to let them know who’s boss.

Some people insist that 'mediocre' is better than 'best.' They delight in clipping wings because they themselves can't fly. They despise brains because they have none.

Be wary of strong drink, it can make you shoot at the tax collector...and miss.

Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get.

A desire not to butt into other people's business is at least eighty percent of all human wisdom.

Başkalarının işine burnunu sokmamak insanın sahip olabileceği bilgeliğin yüzde seksenidir... kalan yüzde yirmi de pek önemli değildir zaten.

Bir kaplanın sırtında yolculuk etmenin en önemli kuralı, kulaklarını asla bırakmamaktır.

Almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.

The only religious opinion I feel sure of is this: self-awareness is not just a bunch of amino acids bumping together.

The Mother Thing makes our world.

More depended on the student than on the school.

When you read about chemistry and physics, you want to do them too.

I had never been much interested in Pluto, too many facts and too much isolation.

Freedom is a hard habit to break.

Yes, sir, there are things to see and do on the French Riviera without spending money.

A thing can be fine on paper but utterly crummy in the field.

Because the world has gone nutty and art always paints the spirit of its times

Library science was the foundation of all sciences.

One might almost define intelligence as the level at which an aware organism demands, 'What's in it for me?

If God meant for people to fly, He would have given them brains.

I see your point. It irks you to see anyone at all who is able to work permitted to live without working. But why do you consider work a virtue?

I know why we laugh. We laugh because it hurts, and it's the only thing to make it stop hurting.

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 pushed around by big, hairy, smelly men with delusions about male superiority.

Customs, morals--is there a difference?

One man’s “magic” is another man’s engineering. “Supernatural” is a null word.

Do you know your Bible?''Uh, not very well.''It merits study, it contains very practical advice for most emergencies.

…the greatest danger to man in space was man himself.

Property is not the natural and obvious and inevitable concept that most people think it is.

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 point in 'measurements' when he did not know what he was measuring.

The Bible is such a gargantuan collection of conflicting values that anyone can "prove" anything from it.

I'm too much old-timer to be rude to a woman no matter what - they have so much of what we have none of.

I waited. Women talk when they want to. Or don't.

Many older physicians had gone to their graves calling Pasteur a liar, a fool, or worse---and without examining evidence which their “common sense” told them was impossible.

But one way or another competing and weeding takes place . . . or a race goes downhill.

You can't believe what a lovely planet we have until you see her from outside.

. . . they would rather sneer at us and be smug, because we 'fail' to see what they are driving at. If indeed they are driving at anything--obscurity is usually the refuge of incompetence.

How is a sincere criminal, trying hard, going to get ahead in his profession if his victim fails to cooperate?

Many problems can be solved by a man not frightened by them.

…majority rule gives the ruthless strong man plenty of elbow room to oppress his fellows.

God split himself into a myriad parts that he might have friends. This may not be true, but it sounds good—and is no sillier than any other theology.

History has the relation to truth that theology has to religion — ie., none to speak of

All those religions--they contradict each other on every point but every one of them is filled with ways to help people to be brave enough to laugh even though they know they are dying.

Anything which is physically possible can be made financially possible, if the people of a state desire it.

Were you born stupid, Heinrich, or did you have to study?

Never try to out-stubborn a cat.