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Robert A. Heinlein: 1114 quotes68 likes

“Everybody has a skeleton in the closet; the thing is to keep ’em there and not at the feast.”

Source: Starman Jones (1953), Chapter 10, “Garson’s Planet” (p. 109)

“Like searching at midnight in a dark cellar for a black cat that isn’t there.”

Source: Starman Jones (1953), Chapter 11, “Through the Cargo Hatch” (p. 115)

“Mercifully, we stay our hand. Earth’s cities will not be bombed. The free citizens of Venus Republic have no wish to slaughter their cousins still on Terra. Our only purpose is to establish our own independence, to manage our own affairs, to throw off the crushing yoke of absentee ownership and taxation without representation which has bleed us poor.
In doing so, in so taking our stand as free men, we call on all oppressed and impoverished nations everywhere to follow our lead, accept our help. Look up into the sky! Swimming there above you is the very station from which I now address you. The fat and stupid rulers of the Federation have made of Circum-Terra an overseer’s whip. The threat of this military base in the sky has protected their empire from the just wrath of their victims for more then five score years.
We now crush it.
In a matter of minutes this scandal in the clean skies, this pistol pointed at the heads of men everywhere on your planet, will cease to exist. Step out of doors, watch the sky. Watch a new sun blaze briefly, and know that its light is the light of Liberty inviting all of Earth to free itself.
Subject peoples of Earth, we free men of the free Republic of Venus salute you with that sign!”

Robert A. Heinlein book Between Planets

Source: Between Planets (1951), Chapter 6, “The Sign in the Sky” (p. 74) - Speech given before the destruction of the nuclear-armed satellite Circum-Terra.

“Aside from a cold appreciation of my own genius I felt that I was a modest man.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Double Star

Double Star (1956)

“I knew that the stupidest students, the silliest professors, and the worst bull courses are concentrated in schools of education.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Number of the Beast

Source: The Number of the Beast (1980), Chapter IX : Most males have an unhealthy tendency to obey laws., p. 82

“One can’t expect logic from males; they think with their testicles and act from their emotions.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Number of the Beast

Source: The Number of the Beast (1980), Chapter XXXIX : Random Numbers, p. 385

“He decided to stay in his space suit; explosive decompression didn’t appeal to him. Come to think about it, death from old age was his choice.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Long Watch

The Long Watch (p. 214)
Short fiction, The Past Through Tomorrow (1967)

“In the army it takes an eight-man working party to help a brass hat blow his nose.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Puppet Masters

Source: The Puppet Masters (1951), Chapter 30 (p. 153)

“You aren't really there at all. There isn't anybody but me — Jane — here alone in the dark.
I miss you dreadfully!”

Robert A. Heinlein book "—All You Zombies—"

"—All You Zombies—" (1958)

“The matter was still "Top Secret" and the subject of cabinet debates at the time of the Scranton Riot. Don't ask me why it was top secret, or even restricted; our government has gotten the habit of classifying anything as secret which the all-wise statesmen and bureaucrats decide we are not big enough boys and girls to know, a Mother-Knows-Best-Dear policy. I've read that there used to be a time when a taxpayer could demand the facts on anything and get them. I don't know; it sounds Utopian.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Puppet Masters

Source: The Puppet Masters (1951), Chapter 24 (p. 127)

“Mr. Stone was satisfied, being sure in his heart that any person skilled with mathematical tools could learn anything else he needed to know, with or without a master.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Rolling Stones

Source: The Rolling Stones (1952), Chapter 4, “Aspects of Domestic Engineering” (p. 61)

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

Robert A. Heinlein

Source: The Door Into Summer (1957), Chapter 1

“These savages and their false gods! I grow weary of them. Yet they are necessary; the priests and the gods of slaves always fight on the side of the Masters. It is a rule of nature.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Sixth Column

Source: Sixth Column (1949; originally serialized in 1941), Chapter 5 (p. 62)

““Can I trust you, my friend?”
“If you can’t, then what is my assurance worth?””

Robert A. Heinlein book Beyond This Horizon

Source: Beyond This Horizon (1948; originally serialized in 1942), Chapter 4, “Boy meets Girl”, p. 48

“I found out a long time ago that you have to take some chances in this life. Otherwise you are just a vegetable, headed for the soup pot.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Red Planet

Source: Red Planet (1949), Chapter 10, “We’re Boxed In!”, p. 145

“I was too busy to oblige them by dying just now.”

Robert A. Heinlein book If This Goes On

If This Goes On— (p. 412)
Short fiction, The Past Through Tomorrow (1967)

“People don’t really want change, any change at all — and xenophobia is very deep-rooted. But we progress, as we must — if we are to go out to the stars.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Double Star

Double Star (1956)

“All normal human beings have soi-disant mixed-up glands. The race is divided into two parts: those who know this and those who do not.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Friday

Source: Friday (1983), Ch. XXI, p. 214

““Look, Chief—is it really necessary to kill everybody here? I don’t relish it.”
“Don’t get chicken, son,” admonished Ardmore with an edge in his voice. “This is war—and war is no joke. There is no such thing as a humane war.””

Robert A. Heinlein book Sixth Column

Source: Sixth Column (1949; originally serialized in 1941), Chapter 10 (p. 129)

“Wisdom includes not getting angry unnecessarily. The Law ignores trifles and the wise man does, too.”

Robert A. Heinlein Job: A Comedy of Justice

Job: A Comedy of Justice (1984)