Robert A. Heinlein: Trending quotes (page 23)

“Don, have you been dealing with a booklegger?”

Robert A. Heinlein book Between Planets

Source: Between Planets (1951), Chapter 1, “New Mexico” (p. 10) - Mr. Reeves, asking the main character why he was in possession of a forbidden book discussing interplanetary politics.

“A second sun blazed white and swelled visibly as he watched. What on Earth would have been—so many times had been—a climbing mushroom cloud was here in open space a perfect geometrical sphere, growing unbelievably. It swelled still larger, dropping from limelight white to to silvery violet, became blotched with purple, red and flame. And still it grew, until it blanked out the earth beyond it.
At the time it had been transformed into a radioactive cosmic cloud Circum-Terra had been passing over, or opposite, the North Atlantic; the swollen incandescent cloud was visible to most of the habitable portions of the globe, a burning symbol in the sky.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Between Planets

Source: Between Planets (1951), Chapter 6, “The Sign in the Sky” (p. 75)

Time , Sun , Perfection

“It was so darn quiet you could hear your hair grow.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Farmer in the Sky

Source: Farmer in the Sky (1950), Chapter 13, “Johnny Appleseed” (p. 131)

“We lived like that “Happy Family“ you sometimes see in traveling zoos: a lion caged with a lamb. It is a startling exhibit but the lamb has to be replaced frequently.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Have Space Suit—Will Travel

Source: Have Space Suit—Will Travel (1958), Chapter 7

Family , Travel , Happiness

“This Universe never did make sense; I suspect that it was built on government contract.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Number of the Beast

Source: The Number of the Beast (1980), Chapter II : “This Universe never did make sense—”, p. 16

Sense , Universe

“Man is not a rational animal; he is a rationalizing animal.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Tunnel in the Sky

Source: Tunnel in the Sky (1955), Chapter 2, “The Fifth Way” (p. 42)

Animals

“I am forced to conclude that being right has little to do with holding a woman’s affections.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Number of the Beast

Source: The Number of the Beast (1980), Chapter XXVI : The Keys to the City, p. 243

“History is never surprising—after it happens.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Logic of Empire

Logic of Empire (p. 333)
Short fiction, The Past Through Tomorrow (1967)

History

“Hamilton took a deep breath, let it out, then said, “Listen to me. I don’t know much about women, and sometimes it seems like I didn’t know anything about them. But I’m sure of this—she won’t let a little thing like you taking a pot shot at her stand in the way if you ever had any chance with her at all. She’ll forgive you.”
“You don’t really mean that, do you?” Monroe-Alpha’s face was still tragic, but he clutched at the hope.
“Certainly I do. Women will forgive anything.” With a flash of insight he added, “Otherwise the race would have died out long ago.””

Robert A. Heinlein book Beyond This Horizon

Source: Beyond This Horizon (1948; originally serialized in 1942), Chapter 10, “—the only game in town”, pp. 108-109

Women , Hope , Way , Forgiveness

“There was nothing under her clothes but girl and assorted items of lethal hardware.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Puppet Masters

Source: The Puppet Masters (1951), Chapter 4 (p. 28)

Girl , Clothes

“The Old Man’s unique gift was the ability to reason logically with unfamiliar, hard-to-believe facts as easily with the commonplace. Not much, eh? Most minds stall dead when faced with facts which conflict with basic beliefs; “I-just-can’t-believe-it” is all one word to highbrows and dimwits alike.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Puppet Masters

Source: The Puppet Masters (1951), Chapter 3 (p. 20)

Dead

“The point is, your request for a lawyer comes about two hundred years too late to be meaningful. The verbalisms lag behind the facts. Nevertheless, you shall have a lawyer—or a lollipop, whichever you prefer, after I am through questioning you. If I were you, I’d take the lollipop. More nourishing.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Between Planets

Source: Between Planets (1951), Chapter 3, “Hunted” (p. 38) - Secret Service officer to the main character during an interrogation.

Question

“There is one thing no head of a country can know, and that is: how good is his intelligence system? He finds out only by having it fail him.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Puppet Masters

Source: The Puppet Masters (1951), Chapter 1 (p. 7)

Intelligence , Country

“Cats have no sense of humor, they have terribly inflated egos, and they are very touchy.”

Robert A. Heinlein

Source: The Door Into Summer (1957), Chapter 2

Cats , Sense

“Must be a yearning deep in human heart to stop other people from doing as they please. Rules, laws — always for other fellow. A murky part of us, something we had before we came down out of trees, and failed to shuck when we stood up. Because not one of those people said: Please pass this so that I won't be able to do something I know I should stop. Nyet, tovarishchee, was always something they hated to see neighbors doing. Stop them for their own good.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966)

Hate , People , Law , Tree

“Acronym for "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch." The origin of this phrase is often misattributed to Heinlein or Milton Friedman, but it actually dates back to at least the 1930s. Heinlein's contribution was to make the acronym for it.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966)

“The situation has multifarious ramifications not immediately apparent to the unassisted optic.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Rolling Stones

Source: The Rolling Stones (1952), Chapter 13, “Caveat Vendor” (pp. 177-178)

“‘Magic,’” I stated, “is a symbol for any process not understood.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Number of the Beast

Source: The Number of the Beast (1980), Chapter XVII : The world wobbled—, p. 151

“It is better to be a lively frump than a stylish corpse.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Number of the Beast

Source: The Number of the Beast (1980), Chapter XXIII : “The farce is over.”, p. 212

“I said, “What do you think about it, Paul?”
The boss smiled gently. “I don’t. I haven’t enough data.””

Robert A. Heinlein book Farmer in the Sky

Source: Farmer in the Sky (1950), Chapter 18, “Pioneer Party” (pp. 193-194)

Smile , Thinking