Robert A. Heinlein: Doing

Robert A. Heinlein was American science fiction author. Explore interesting quotes on doing.
Robert A. Heinlein: 1114 quotes68 likes

“Oh, we get along. She lets me have my own way, and later I find out I’ve done just what she wanted me to do.”

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. 130

“If at Last You Do Succeed, Never Try Again.”

Robert A. Heinlein book "—All You Zombies—"

"—All You Zombies—" (1958)

“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)

““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)

““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)

“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)

“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

“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

“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)

“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)

““Thanks, awfully,” said Thomas. “Now… uh… what do I owe you for this?”
Finney’s reaction made him feel as if he had uttered some indecency. “Don’t mention payment, my son! Money is wrong—it’s the means whereby man enslaves his brother.”
“I beg your pardon, sir,” Thomas apologized sincerely. “Nevertheless, I wish there were some way for me to do something for you.”
“That is another matter. Help your brother when you can, and help will come to you when you need it.””

Robert A. Heinlein book Sixth Column

Source: Sixth Column (1949; originally serialized in 1941), Chapter 2 (pp. 24-25)

“No philosophy that he had ever heard or read gave any reasonable purpose for man's existence, nor any rational clue to his proper conduct. Basking in the sunshine might be as good a thing to do with one's life as any other — but it was not for him and he knew it, even if he could not define how he knew it.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Methuselah's Children

Methuselah's Children (1958)

“I do not like weapons, Doctor; they are the last resort of faulty diplomacy.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Star Beast

Source: The Star Beast (1954), Chapter 9, “Customs and an Ugly Duckling” (p. 151)

“To be sure, some humans were always doing silly things—but at what point had prime damfoolishness become commonplace? When for example, had the zombie-like professional models become accepted ideals of American womanhood?”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Year of the Jackpot

The Year of the Jackpot (p. 628)
Short fiction, Off the Main Sequence (2005)

“Why do you like to play chess so well?”

Robert A. Heinlein book They

“Because it is the only thing in the world where I can see all the factors and understand all the rules.”
They (p. 55)
Short fiction, Off the Main Sequence (2005)

“What course of action do you favor?”

Robert A. Heinlein book Methuselah's Children

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

“Attend me. How do you prove that there are eggs in a bird’s nest? Don’t strain your gray matter: go climb the tree and find out. There is no other way.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Time for the Stars

Source: Time for the Stars (1956), Chapter 8, “Relativity” (p. 82)

“Parents probably don’t know that they are playing favorites even when they are doing it.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Time for the Stars

Source: Time for the Stars (1956), Chapter 5, “The Party of the Second Part” (p. 54)

“But I do not willingly involve us in nationalistic wars; the side of the angels is seldom self-evident.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Friday

Source: Friday (1982), Chapter 4 (p. 37)

“Anything that is moral for a group to do is moral for one person to do.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Podkayne of Mars

There must be a flaw in that, since I’ve always been taught that it is wrong to take the law in your own hands. But I can’t find the flaw and it sounds axiomatic, self-evident. Switch it around. If something is wrong for one person to do, can it possibly be made right by having a lot of people (a government) agree to do it together? Even unanimously?
If anything is wrong, it is wrong—and vox populi can’t change it.
Source: Podkayne of Mars (1963), Chapter 13 (p. 169)