Robert A. Heinlein Quotes page 3

“You can sway a thousand men by appealing to their prejudices quicker than you can convince one man by logic.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Past Through Tomorrow

“If This Goes On—” Chapter 10, p. 426
The Past Through Tomorrow (1967)
Source: Revolt in 2100/Methuselah's Children
Context: “Do you seriously expect to start a rebellion with picayune stuff like that?”
“It’s not picayune stuff, because it acts directly on their emotions, below the logical level. You can sway a thousand men by appealing to their prejudices quicker than you can convince one man by logic. It doesn’t have to be a prejudice about an important matter either.

“There is no safety this side of the grave”

“Goodness without wisdom always accomplishes evil.”

Source: Stranger in a Strange Land

“I know why we laugh. We laugh because it hurts, and it's the only thing to make it stop hurting.”

“My dear, I used to think I was serving humanity… and I pleasured in the thought. Then I discovered that humanity does not want to be served; on the contrary it resents any attempt to serve it. So now I do what pleases myself.”

Variant: I've found out why people laugh. They laugh because it hurts so much... because it's the only thing that'll make it stop hurting.
Source: Stranger in a Strange Land

“Geniuses and supergeniuses always make their own rules on sex as on everything else; they do not accept the monkey customs of their lessers.”

Source: Stranger in a Strange Land

Robert A. Heinlein book Friday

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

“It is impossible for anyone to be responsible for another person's behavior. The most you or any leader can do is to encourage each one to be responsible for himself.”

“The first principle of freedom is the right to go to hell in your own handbasket.”

“Butterflies are not insects,' Captain John Sterling said soberly. 'They are self-propelled flowers.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Cat Who Walks Through Walls

Source: The Cat Who Walks Through Walls

“Remember, though, your best weapon is between your ears and under your scalp—provided it’s loaded.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Tunnel in the Sky

Source: Tunnel in the Sky (1955), Chapter 1, “The Marching Hordes” (p. 14)

“One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortune of others.”

“A woman is not property, and husbands who think otherwise are living in a dreamworld.”

“Does history record any case in which the majority was right?”

Source: Time Enough for Love

“Do this. Don't do that. Stay back in line. Where's tax receipt? Fill out form. Let's see license. Submit six copies. Exit only. No left turn. No right turn. Queue up and pay fine. Take back and get stamped. Drop dead— but first get permit.”

“God created men to test the souls of women.”

Robert A. Heinlein Job: A Comedy of Justice

Source: Job: A Comedy of Justice

“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.”

“I came, I saw, she conquered."
The original Latin seems to have been garbled.”

Source: Time Enough for Love

“Democracy is a poor system of government at best; the only thing that can honestly be said in its favor is that it is eight times as good as any other method the human race has ever tried.”

Source: Time Enough for Love

“Cheops' Law: Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget.”

Source: Stranger in a Strange Land

“If a grasshopper tries to fight a lawnmower, one may admire his courage but not his judgement.”

Source: Time Enough for Love

Robert A. Heinlein book Farnham's Freehold

Source: Farnham's Freehold (1964), Chapter 16 (p. 235)

“I don't see why human people make such a heavy trip out of sex. It isn't anything complex, it is simply the best thing in life, even better than food.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Friday

Source: Friday

“Most neuroses and some psychoses can be traced to the unnecessary and unhealthy habit of daily wallowing in the troubles and sins of five billion strangers.”

“Don't explain computers to laymen. Simpler to explain sex to a virgin.”

Source: Stranger in a Strange Land

Robert A. Heinlein book The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

Source: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

“The slickest way in the world to lie is to tell the right amount of truth at the right time-and then shut up.”

“Animals can be driven crazy by placing too many in too small a pen. Homo sapiens is the only animal that voluntarily does this to himself.”

Variant: I do know that the slickest way to lie is to tell the right amount of truth--then shut up.
Source: Stranger in a Strange Land

“Never own more than you can carry in both hands at a dead run.”

Source: Time Enough for Love

“He's an honest politician--he stays bought.”

“My old man says when it's time to be counted, the important thing is to be man enough to stand up.”

Source: Stranger in a Strange Land

Robert A. Heinlein book Between Planets

Source: Between Planets

“Any group is weaker than a man alone unless they are perfectly trained to work together.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Starship Troopers

Source: Starship Troopers

“I'm always suspicious of disinterested interest.”

“To permit irresponsible authority is to sell disaster.”

Source: Stranger in a Strange Land

Robert A. Heinlein book Starship Troopers

Source: Starship Troopers

“Thou art god, I am god. All that groks is god.”

“A poet who reads his verse in public may have other nasty habits.”

Source: Stranger in a Strange Land

“Never tease an old dog; he might have one bite left.”

Source: Time Enough for Love

“Sense is never common.”

“Taxes are not levied for the benefit of the taxed.”

Source: Time Enough for Love

“Nothing uses up alcohol faster than political argument.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

Source: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

“Faith strikes me as intellectual laziness.”

“Logic is a way of saying that anything which didn't happen yesterday won't happen tomorrow.”

Source: Stranger in a Strange Land

Robert A. Heinlein book Glory Road

Glory Road (1963)
Context: Logic is a feeble reed, friend. "Logic" proved that airplanes can't fly and that H-bombs won't work and that stones don't fall out of the sky. Logic is a way of saying that anything which didn't happen yesterday won't happen tomorrow.

“No statement should be believed because it is made by an authority.”

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

“Don't ever become a pessimist, Ira; a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun--and neither can stop the march of events.”

Source: Stranger in a Strange Land

“Listen, son—most women are damn fools and children. But they’ve got more range than we’ve got. The brave ones are braver, the good ones are better—and the vile ones are viler.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Puppet Masters

Source: The Puppet Masters (1951), Chapter 11 (p. 65)

“There is no conclusive evidence of life after death. But there is no evidence of any sort against it. Soon enough you will know.”