Robert A. Heinlein Quotes

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“An armed society is a polite society.”

“One man’s “magic” is another man’s engineering. “Supernatural” is a null word.”

“A managed democracy is a wonderful thing… for the managers… and its greatest strength is a 'free press' when 'free' is defined as 'responsible' and the managers define what is 'irresponsible'.”

“In the twentieth century, nowhere on Earth was sex so vigorously suppressed as in America---and nowhere else was there such a deep interest in it.”

“Social responsibility above the level of family, or at most of tribe, requires imagination-- devotion, loyalty, all the higher virtues -- which a man must develop himself; if he has them forced down him, he will vomit them out.”

“Do-gooding is like treating hemophilia - the real cure is to let hemophiliacs bleed to death… before they breed more hemophiliacs.”

“One should not attend even the end of the world without a good breakfast.”

“Everybody lies about sex.”

“Nothing of value is free. Even the breath of life is purchased at birth only through gasping effort and pain.”

“Long human words (the longer the better) were easy, unmistakable, and rarely changed their meanings… but short words were slippery, unpredictable, changing their meanings without any pattern.”

“Who is more real? Homer or Ulysses? Shakespeare or Hamlet? Burroughs or Tarzan?”

“A slave cannot be freed, save he do it himself. Nor can you enslave a free man; the very most you can do is kill him!”

“Citizenship is an attitude, a state of mind, an emotional conviction that the whole is greater than the part… and that the part should be humbly proud to sacrifice itself that the whole may live.”

“Limiting the freedom of news 'just a little bit' is in the same category with the classic example 'a little bit pregnant.”

“Everything is theoretically impossible, until it’s done. One could write a history of science in reverse by assembling the solemn pronouncements of highest authority about what could not be done and could never happen.”

“There is no way that writers can be tamed and rendered civilized. Or even cured.”

“Churches thrive on martyrdom and persecution.”

“When you vote, you are exercising political authority, you're using force. And force, my friends, is violence. The supreme authority from which all other authorities are derived.”

“Random chance was not a sufficient explanation of the Universe---in fact, random chance was not sufficient to explain random chance; the pot could not hold itself.”

“Darling, a true lady takes off her dignity with her clothes and does her whorish best. At other times you can be as modest and dignified as your persona requires.”

“It's a man's business to be what he is, and to be it in style.”

“One might define adulthood as the age at which a person learns that he must die… and accepts his sentence undismayed.”

“I never learned from a man who agreed with me.”

“I was not offended, my love. An insult is like a drink; it affects one only if accepted. And pride is too heavy baggage for my journey…”

“His older self had taught his younger self a language which the older self knew because the younger self, after being taught, grew up to be the older self and was, therefore, capable of teaching.”

“The drive for power is even less logical than the sex urge… and stronger.”

“Money problems can always be solved by a man not frightened by them.”

“Women talk when they want to. Or don't.”

“Under our system every voter and officeholder is a man who has demonstrated through voluntary and difficult service that he places the welfare of the group ahead of personal advantage.”

“Little girls, like butterflies, need no excuse”

“He's as weird as snake's suspenders but sweet as a stolen kiss, too.”

“Madam, the commonest weakness of our race is our ability to rationalize our most selfish purposes.”

“when faced with a problem you do not understand, do any part of it you do understand, then look at it again.”

“When a place gets crowded enough to require ID’s, social collapse is not far away. It is time to go elsewhere. The best thing about space travel is that it made it possible to go elsewhere.”

“Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done.”

“We came here for a small, informal meeting. We find you've turned it into a circus. Well, if you're going to have a circus, you've got to have elephants.”

“The 3-legged stool of understanding is held up by history, languages, and mathematics. Equipped with those three you can learn anything you want to learn. But if you lack any one of them you are just another ignorant peasant with dung on your boots.”

“… a book need never die and should not be killed; books were the immortal part of man.”

“Cast me into a dungeon;, burn me at the state, crown me king of kings, I can 'pursue happiness' as long as my brain lives -- but neither gods nor saints, wise men nor subtle drugs, can insure that I will catch it.”

“In terms of morals there is no such thing as ‘state.’ Just men. Individuals. Each responsible for his own acts.”

“Christ was crucified for preaching without a police permit”

“Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and their freedoms”

“Revolution is an art that I pursue rather than a goal I expect to achieve. Nor is this a source of dismay; a lost cause can be as spiritually satisfying as a victory.”

“Damnit! Nationalism should stop at the stratosphere!”

“Have you ever known me to be rude to a lady?" "I have seen you be intentionally rude to a woman. I have never seen you be rude to a lady.”

“I usually read the obituaries first as there is always the happy chance that one of them will make my day.”

“If you wanted to teach a baby a lesson, would you cut its head off?”

“Every general prohibition creates its bootleggers.”

“His was not a small mind bothered by logic and consistency.”