Robert A. Heinlein Quotes

Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.

Man can be chained, but he cannot be domesticated.

Girls are simply wonderful. Just to stand on a corner and watch them going past is delightful. They don't walk. At least not what we do when we walk. I don't know how to describe it, but it's much more complex and utterly delightful. They don't move just their feet; everything moves and in different directions . . . and all of it graceful.

You have to give an editor something to change, or he gets fretful. After he pees in it, he likes the flavor better, so he buys it.

The basic of all morality is duty, a concept with the same relation to group that self-interest has to individual.

Why do some people act as if making money offended their delicate minds? I am out for a legitimate profit, and not ashamed of it; the fact that people will pay money for my goods and services shows that my work is useful.

A pacifist male is a contradiction in terms. Most self-described "pacifists" are not pacific; they simply assume false colors. When the wind changes, they hoist the Jolly Roger.

How anybody expects a man to stay in business with every two-bit wowser in the country claiming a veto over what we can say and can't say and what we can show and what we can't show - it's enough to make you throw up. The whole principle is wrong; it's like demanding that grown men live on skim milk because the baby can't eat steak.

Nor would anybody suspect. If was one thing all people took for granted, was conviction that if you feed honest figures into a computer, honest figures come out. Never doubted it myself till I met a computer with a sense of humor.

Certain types of loudmouthism should be a capital offense among decent people.

Government! Three fourths parasitic and the other fourth Stupid fumbling.

Butterflies are self propelled flowers.

Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily.

Man is not a rational animal, he is a rationalizing animal.

In Wilson's scale of evaluations breakfast rated just after life itself and ahead of the chance of immortality.

Nothing of value is free. Even the breath of life is purchased at birth only through gasping effort and pain.

Never try to have the last word. You might get it.

Never crowd youngsters about their private affairs - sex especially.

It's up to the artist to use language that can be understood, not hide it in some private code... obscurity is usually the refuge of incompetence.

You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.

If a country can't save itself through the volunteer service of its own free people, then I say : Let the damned thing go down the drain!

Nobody ever wins a lawsuit but the lawyers.

I've found out why people laugh. They laugh because it hurts- because it's the only thing that'll make it stop hurting... I had been told that a 'funny' thing is a thing of goodness. It isn't... The goodness is in the laughing. I grok it is a bravery- and a sharing- against pain and sorrow and defeat.

There ain't no such thing as a free lunch." A Libertarian Movement slogan - The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, 1907.

The extremely tiny fraction who think regularly, accurately, creatively, and without self-delusion - in the long run, these are the only people who count.

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 ... but there are certain to be ones you want to vote against. In case of doubt, vote against. By this rule you will rarely go wrong.

We each have a moral obligation to conserve and preserve beauty in this world; there is none to waste.

In ascending order the qualities of Patriotism are: 1. To work, fight, or die for your own survival. 2. To work, fight, or die for your immediate family. 3. To work, fight, or die for a group, extended family, tribe, or clan. 4. To work, fight, or die for a group too large for all the individuals to know each other. 5. To work, fight, or die for a way of life.

A boy who gets a C- in 'Appreciation of Television' can't be all bad.

It's a man's business to be what he is, and to be it in style.

There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.

The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.

Always cut the cards...and smile when you lose.

That old saw about the early bird just proves that the worm should have stayed in bed.

It's a long story. Want a refill?" "No, let's start the steak. Where's the button?" "Right here." "Well, push it." "Me? You offered to cook." "Ben Caxton, I will lie here and starve before I will get up to push a button six inches from your finger" "As you wish." He pressed the button. "But don't forget who cooked dinner.

Age does not bring wisdom... but it does give perspective... and the saddest sight of all is to see, far behind you, temptations you've resisted.

There is no such thing as luck; there is only adequate or inadequate preparation to cope with a statistical universe.

His older self had taught his younger self a language which the older self knew because the younger self, after being taught, grew up to be the older self and was, therefore, capable of teaching.

Darling, a true lady takes off her dignity with her clothes and does her whorish best. At other times you can be as modest and dignified as your persona requires.

Pain is the basic mechanism built into us by millions of years of evolution which safeguards us by warning when something threatens our survival.

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.

High Frontier places a bullet-proof vest on our bare chest. High Frontier is as non-aggressive as a bullet-proof vest. There is no way to kill anyone with High Frontier - all that High Frontier can do is to keep others from killing us.

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

Life is short, but the years are long.

When you're rich, you don't have friends; you just have endless acquaintances.

Revolution is an art that I pursue rather than a goal I expect to achieve. Nor is this a source of dismay; a lost cause can be as spiritually satisfying as a victory.

It is possible that the percentage of honest and competent whores is higher than that of plumbers and much higher than that of lawyers. And enormously higher than that of professors.

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. The first way to lie artistically is to tell the truth — but not all of it. The second way involves telling the truth, too, but is harder: Tell the exact truth and maybe all of it…but tell it so unconvincingly that your listener is sure you are lying.