Robert A. Heinlein: Trending quotes (page 22)

“I learned before you were born that when someone wants to see me in a hurry, the urgency is almost never mutual.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Number of the Beast

Source: The Number of the Beast (1980), Chapter XXIX : “—we place no faith in princes.”, p. 290

Learning

“There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute nor common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back, for their private benefit.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Life-Line

Life-Line (p. 25)
Short fiction, The Past Through Tomorrow (1967)

Law , History , Support , Change

“I've heard all the usual Sweetness and Light that kids get pushed at them—how they should always forgive, how there’s some good in the worst of us, etc. But when I see a black widow, I step on it; I don’t plead with it to be a good little spider and please stop poisoning people. A black widow spider can’t help it—but that’s the point.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Have Space Suit—Will Travel

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

People , Forgiveness , Light , Help

“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.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Beyond This Horizon

Source: Beyond This Horizon (1948; originally serialized in 1942), Chapter 9, “When we die, do we die all over?”, p. 97

Freedom , Fight , Personality

“Bill, why is it that some apparently-grown men never learn to do simple arithmetic?”

Robert A. Heinlein book Farmer in the Sky

Source: Farmer in the Sky (1950), Chapter 14, “Land of My Own” (p. 142)

Men , Learning

“Go ahead. Go right ahead. Don’t let me discourage you. Any objections from me would simply confirm your preconceptions.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Rolling Stones

Source: The Rolling Stones (1952), Chapter 14, “Flat Cats Factorial” (p. 187)

““What sort of a remark?”
“Just priestly mumbo-jumbo. Impressive and no real meaning. Can you do it?”
“I think so—I used to sell magazine subscriptions.””

Robert A. Heinlein book Sixth Column

Source: Sixth Column (1949; originally serialized in 1941), Chapter 10 (p. 127)

Thinking

““What course of action do you favor?”
“Me? Why, none. Mary, if there is any one thing I have learned in the past couple of centuries, it’s this: These things pass. Wars and depressions and Prophets and Covenants—they pass. The trick is to stay alive through them.””

Robert A. Heinlein

“Methuselah’s Children” Part 1, Chapter 1, p. 539
Short fiction, The Past Through Tomorrow (1967)

War , Learning , Past

“Beat the plowshares back into swords; the other was a maiden aunt’s fancy.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Puppet Masters

Source: The Puppet Masters (1951), Chapter 35 (p. 174)

“Premenstrual Syndrome: Just before their periods women behave the way men do all the time.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Cat Who Walks Through Walls

credited to Lowell Stone, M.D., born 2144; chapter 15, p. 185
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (1985)

Women , Men , Way , Time

“First they junked the concept of “justice.” Examined semantically “justice” has no referent—there is no observable phenomenon in the space-time-matter continuum to which one can point, and say, “This is justice.” Science can deal only with that which can be observed and measured. Justice is not such a matter; therefore it can never have the same meaning to one as to another; any “noises” said about it will only add to confusion.
But damage, physical or economic, can be pointed to and measured. Citizens were forbidden by the Covenant to damage another. Any act not leading to damage, physical or economic, to some particular person, they declared to be lawful.”

Robert A. Heinlein

“Coventry”, pp. 500-501; originally published in Astounding Science Fiction (July 1940)
Short fiction, The Past Through Tomorrow (1967)

Justice , Law , Science , Time

“High I. Q., good compatibility index, superior education—everything that makes a person pleasant and easy and interesting to have around.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Past Through Tomorrow

The Long Watch (p. 255)
The Past Through Tomorrow (1967)

Education , Personality

“People tend to fall into three psychological types, all differently motivated. There is the type, motivated by economic factors, money…And there is the type motivated by ‘face,’ or pride. This type is a spender, fighter, boaster, lover, sportsman, gambler; he has a will to power and an itch for glory. And there is the professional type, which claims to follow a code of ethics rather than simply seeking money or glory—priests and ministers, teachers, scientists, medical men, some artists and writers. The idea is that such a man believes that he is devoting his life to some purpose more important than his individual self. You follow me?”

Robert A. Heinlein book Space Cadet

Source: Space Cadet (1948), Chapter 9 “Long Haul”, p. 111

Life , Men , Money , People

“From my point of view, a great deal of openly expressed piety is insufferable conceit.”

Robert A. Heinlein book If This Goes On

If This Goes On— (p. 431)
Short fiction, The Past Through Tomorrow (1967)

““You have us going faster than light.”
“I thought the figures were a bit large.””

Robert A. Heinlein book The Rolling Stones

Source: The Rolling Stones (1952), Chapter 8, “The Mighty Room” (p. 100)

Light

“Natural selection—the dying out of the poorly equipped—goes on day in and day out, inexorable and automatic. It is as tireless, as inescapable, as entropy.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Beyond This Horizon

Source: Beyond This Horizon (1948; originally serialized in 1942), Chapter 14, “—and beat him when he sneezes”, p. 134

Nature

“We may eliminate death someday but I doubt if we’ll ever eliminate taxes.”

Robert A. Heinlein book I Will Fear No Evil

Source: I Will Fear No Evil (1970), Chapter 24, p. 406

Death

“A religion is sometime a source of happiness, and I would not deprive anyone of happiness. But it is a comfort appropriate for the weak, not for the strong. The great trouble with religion — any religion — is that a religionist, having accepted certain propositions by faith, cannot thereafter judge those propositions by evidence. One may bask at the warm fire of faith or choose to live in the bleak uncertainty of reason — but one cannot have both.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Friday

Friday (1983)

Faith , Religion , Strong , Happiness

““Going to dance at my wake?”
“I don’t dance,” the lawyer answered, “but you tempt me to learn.””

Robert A. Heinlein book I Will Fear No Evil

Source: I Will Fear No Evil (1970), Chapter 1, p. 13

Learning , Dance

“The next higher level is to work, fight, and sometimes die for your own immediate family. This is the level at which six pounds of mother cat can be so fierce that she'll drive off a police dog. It is the level at which a father takes a moonlighting job to keep his kids in college — and the level at which a mother or father dives into a flood to save a drowning child … and it is still moral behavior even when it fails.”

Robert A. Heinlein

The Pragmatics of Patriotism (1973)

Family , Dogs , Behavior , Cats