Robert A. Heinlein: Trending quotes (page 16)

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“He seeks order, not truth. Suppose truth defies order, will he accept it? Will you? I think not.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Life-Line

Life-Line (p. 16)
Short fiction, The Past Through Tomorrow (1967)

Truth , Thinking

“Widows are far better than brides. They don't tell, they won't yell, they don't swell, they rarely smell, and they're grateful as hell.”

Robert A. Heinlein book To Sail Beyond the Sunset

Source: To Sail Beyond the Sunset (1987), p. 305 (1988 Ace reprint; ISBN 9780441748600)

Hell

““The Great Egg must love human beings, he made a lot of them.”
“Same argument applies to oysters, only more so.””

Robert A. Heinlein book Beyond This Horizon

Source: Beyond This Horizon (1948; originally serialized in 1942), Chapter 13, “No more privacy than a guppy in an aquarium”, p. 127

Love

“The death rate is the same for us as for anybody … one person, one death, sooner or later.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Tunnel in the Sky

Tunnel in the Sky (1955), Captain Helen Walker, Ch. 2

Death , Personality

“His bow to me must have been calculated on a slide rule; it suggested that I was about to be Supreme Minister but was not quite there yet, that I was his senior but nevertheless a civilian — then subtract five degrees for the fact that he wore the Emperor’s aiguillette on his right shoulder.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Double Star

Double Star (1956)

“They made the predictable fuss about taking a cat into a room and an autobellhop is not responsive to bribes—hardly an improvement. But the assistant manager had more flexibility in his synapses; He listened to reason as long as it was crisp and rustled.”

Robert A. Heinlein

Source: The Door Into Summer (1957), Chapter 12

Cats

“Women seem to have almost unlimited capacity for forgiveness. (Since it is usually a man who needs forgiveness, this must be a racial survival trait.)”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Cat Who Walks Through Walls

Richard Ames; chapter 16, p. 200
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (1985)

Women , Forgiveness

“A man who bets on greed and dishonesty won’t be wrong too often.”

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

““Sharpie, you’ve got a one-track mind.”
“It’s the main track. Reproduction is the main track; the methods and mores of sexual copulation are the central feature of all higher developments of life.”
“You’re ignoring money and television.”
“Piffle! All human activities including scientific research are either mating dances and care of the young, or the dismal sublimations of born losers in the only game in town.””

Robert A. Heinlein book The Number of the Beast

Source: The Number of the Beast (1980), Chapter XI : “—citizens must protect themselves.”, p. 100

Life , Money , Game , Dance

“No philosopher allows his opinions to be swayed by facts—he would be kicked out of his guild. Theologians, the lot of them.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Number of the Beast

Source: The Number of the Beast (1980), Chapter VI : Are men and women one race?, p. 54

““Peewee!” I said sharply. “You're not listening.”
“What were you doing talking,” she answered reasonably, “when I wasn’t listening?””

Robert A. Heinlein book Have Space Suit—Will Travel

Source: Have Space Suit—Will Travel (1958), Chapter 10

“I hadn’t learned much in high school; I had majored in girls.”

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. 81

School , Girl , Learning

“Since when did a mathematician need any tools but his own head? Pythagoras had done well enough with a stick and a stretch of sand.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Beyond This Horizon

Source: Beyond This Horizon (1948; originally serialized in 1942), Chapter 4, “Boy meets Girl”, p. 45

“I began to sense faintly that secrecy is the keystone of all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy…censorship. When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, “This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know,” the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything—you can’t conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him.”

Robert A. Heinlein book If This Goes On

If This Goes On— (p. 401)
Short fiction, The Past Through Tomorrow (1967)

Motivation , Sense , Reading

“The answer to any question starting, "Why don't they—" is almost always, "Money."”

Robert A. Heinlein

Shooting Destination Moon (1950)

Money , Question

“The capacity of the human mind for swallowing nonsense and spewing it forth in violent and repressive action has never yet been plumbed.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Revolt in 2100

Revolt in 2100 (1953), postscript

“I don’t believe in luck, Sam. Luck is a tag given by the mediocre to account for the accomplishments of genius.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Puppet Masters

Source: The Puppet Masters (1951), Chapter 30 (p. 158)

“Matt, you are suffering from a disease of youth—you expect moral problems to have nice, neat, black-and-white answers.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Space Cadet

Source: Space Cadet (1948), Chapter 10 “Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?”, p. 126

Youth , Disease , Problem , Suffering

“I carried out my purpose: War and Peace, The Idiot, The Brothers Karamazov, Anna Karenina, and so forth. Would you believe it? Something is gained in translation; the originals are even more depressing and soporific than translations. I’m not sure what purpose Russian fiction has, but it can’t be entertainment.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Number of the Beast

Source: The Number of the Beast (1980), Chapter XIX : Something is gained in translation—, p. 166

War , Peace