Robert A. Heinlein Quotes

A friend who offers help without asking for explanations is a treasure beyond price

Finish what you start. Keep submitting until it sells.

A girl's name ending in 'a' - that always suggests a 'C' cup.

Don't tell me violence doesn't solve anything. Look at Carthage.

Have you ever known me to be rude to a lady?" "I have seen you be intentionally rude to a woman. I have never seen you be rude to a lady.

Government! Three-fourths parasitic and the rest stupid fumbling - oh, Harshaw concluded that man, a social animal, could not avoid government, any more than an individual could escape bondage to his bowels. But simply because an evil was inescapable was no reason to term it "good." He wished that government would wander off and get lost! (96)

Spacemen die if they stay in one place.

Long human words (the longer the better) were easy, unmistakable, and rarely changed their meanings . . . but short words were slippery, unpredictable, changing their meanings without any pattern.

Talking with a Martian is like talking with an echo. You don't get argument but you don't get results.

Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

There is no safety this side of the grave

No matter where or what, there are makers, takers, and fakers.

I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them.

Butterflies are not insects,' Captain John Sterling said soberly. 'They are self-propelled flowers.

Of all the strange 'crimes' that human beings have legislated out of nothing, 'blasphemy' is the most amazing -- with 'obscenity' and 'indecent exposure' fighting it out for second and third place.

When the need arises - and it does - you must be able to shoot your own dog. Don't farm it out — that doesn't make it nicer, it makes it worse.

One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortune of others.

If you wanted to teach a baby a lesson, would you cut its head off?

I never learned from a man who agreed with me.

Since when was an emotional argument won by logic?

Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation.

If you would know a man, observe how he treats a cat.

I woke up in bed with a man and a cat. The man was a stranger; the cat was not

Its very variety, subtlety, and utterly irrational, idiomatic complexity makes it possible to say things in English which simply cannot be said in any other language.

A community where everyone is a ruthless murderer, with handy access to death-dealing devices, is a very polite community.

When one teaches, two learn.

Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.

I remembered a time when my grandmother had asked me to explain television to her - the guts, not the funny pictures. There are things which cannot be taught in ten easy lessons, nor popularized for the masses; they take years of skull sweat. This be treason in an age when ignorance has come into its own and one man's opinion is as good as another's. But there it is. As Star says, the world is what it is - and doesn't forgive ignorance.

Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes.

The intelligent fights only when he must and never for sport.

Don't handicap your children by making their lives easy.

The second best thing about space travel is that the distances involved make war very difficult, usually impractical, and almost always unnecessary. This is probably a loss for most people, since war is our race's most popular diversion, one which gives purpose and color to dull and stupid lives. But it is a great boon to the intelligent man who fights only when he must-never for sport.

Take care of the cojones and the frijoles will take care of themselves. Try to have getaway money - but don't be fanatic about it.

Geniuses and supergeniuses always make their own rules about sex as on everything else; they do not accept the monkey customs of their lessers.

Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors... and miss.

A monarch's neck should always have a noose around it. It keeps him upright.

Stupidity is the only natural capital offense.

The police of a state should never be stronger or better armed than the citizenry. An armed citizenry, willing to fight, is the foundation of civil freedom. That's a personal evaluation, of course.

The less respect an older person deserves the more certain he is to demand it from anyone younger.

On the steps of the Federal Building we ran into Carmencita Ibanez, a classmate of ours and one of the nice things about being a member of a race with two sexes.

In terms of morals there is no such thing as ‘state.’ Just men. Individuals. Each responsible for his own acts.

Yield to temptation. It may not pass your way again.

Anything free is worth what you pay for it.

Moving parts in rubbing contact require lubrication to avoid excessive wear. Honorifics and formal politeness provide lubrication where people rub together. Often the very young, the untravelled, the naive, the sophisticated deplore these formalities as 'empty,' 'meaningless,' or 'dishonest,' and scorn to use them. No matter how 'pure' their motives, they thereby throw sand into machinery that does not work too well at best.

Nothing uses up alcohol faster than political argument.

All my enemies are self-appointed.

Damnit! Nationalism should stop at the stratosphere!

Sovereign," like "love," means anything you want it to mean; it's a word in dictionary between "sober" and "sozzled.