Robert A. Heinlein: Man

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

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

Robert A. Heinlein book Farnham's Freehold

Source: Farnham's Freehold

“Correct morality can only be derived from what man is — not from what do-gooders and well-meaning aunt Nellies would like him to be.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Starship Troopers

Starship Troopers (1959)

“All human behavior, all human motivations, all man’s hopes and fears, were heavily colored and largely controlled by mankind’s tragic and oddly beautiful pattern of reproduction.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Stranger in a Strange Land

Source: Stranger in a Strange Land

“I woke up in bed with a man and a cat. The man was a stranger; the cat was not”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Cat Who Walks Through Walls

Source: The Cat Who Walks Through Walls

“Precedent is merely the assumption that somebody else, in the past with less information, nevertheless knows better than the man on the spot.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Space Cadet

Source: Space Cadet (1948), Chapter 15 “Pie With a Fork”, p. 180

“My old man claimed that the more complicated the law the more opportunity for scoundrels.”

Robert A. Heinlein

Source: The Door Into Summer (1957), Chapter 5

“Never encourage a man to cook breakfast; it causes him to wonder if women are necessary. If you always get his breakfast and don’t raise controversial issues until after his second cup of coffee, you can get away with murder the rest of the time. They don’t notice other odors when they smell bacon.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Number of the Beast

Source: The Number of the Beast (1980), Chapter V : “—a wedding ring is not a ring in my nose—”, p. 41

“Aside from a cold appreciation of my own genius I felt that I was a modest man.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Double Star

Double Star (1956)

“In the army it takes an eight-man working party to help a brass hat blow his nose.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Puppet Masters

Source: The Puppet Masters (1951), Chapter 30 (p. 153)

“If you would know a man, observe how he treats a cat.”

Robert A. Heinlein

Source: The Door Into Summer (1957), Chapter 1

“Wisdom includes not getting angry unnecessarily. The Law ignores trifles and the wise man does, too.”

Robert A. Heinlein Job: A Comedy of Justice

Job: A Comedy of Justice (1984)

“Of course the intellectual class did not notice this for many decades, as an intellectual is a highly educated man who can't do arithmetic with his shoes on, and is proud of the lack.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Cat Who Walks Through Walls

Source: The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (1985), p. 564

“Women seem to have almost unlimited capacity for forgiveness. (Since it is usually a man who needs forgiveness, this must be a racial survival trait.)”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Cat Who Walks Through Walls

Richard Ames; chapter 16, p. 200
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (1985)

“A man who bets on greed and dishonesty won’t be wrong too often.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Number of the Beast

Source: The Number of the Beast (1980), Chapter IX : Most males have an unhealthy tendency to obey laws., p. 82

“I began to sense faintly that secrecy is the keystone of all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy…censorship. When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, “This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know,” the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything—you can’t conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him.”

Robert A. Heinlein book If This Goes On

If This Goes On— (p. 401)
Short fiction, The Past Through Tomorrow (1967)

“A man who marries at my age isn’t taking a wife, he’s indenturing a nurse.”

Robert A. Heinlein book I Will Fear No Evil

Source: I Will Fear No Evil (1970), Chapter 14, p. 224

““If there was anything, anything more at all, after this crazy mix-up we call living, I could feel that there might be some point to the whole frantic business, even if I did not know and could not know the full answer while I was alive.”
“And suppose there was not? Suppose that when a man’s body disintegrates, he himself disappears absolutely. I’m bound to say I find it a probable hypothesis.”
“Well— It wouldn’t be cheerful knowledge, but it would be better than not knowing. You could plan your life rationally, at least. A man might even be able to get a certain amount of satisfaction in planning things better for the future, after he’s gone. A vicarious pleasure in the anticipation.””

Robert A. Heinlein book Beyond This Horizon

Source: Beyond This Horizon (1948; originally serialized in 1942), Chapter 10, “—the only game in town”, p. 105

“Man needs freedom, but few men are so strong as to be happy with complete freedom. A man needs to be part of a group, with accepted and respected relationships. Some men join foreign legions for adventure; still more swear on a bit of paper in order to acquire a framework of duties and obligations, customs and taboos, a time to work and a time to loaf, a comrade to dispute with and a sergeant to hate—in short, to belong.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Between Planets

Source: Between Planets (1951), Chapter 7, “The Detour” (p. 83)

“Pacifism is a shifty doctrine under which a man accepts the benefits of the social group without being willing to pay - and claims a halo for his dishonesty”

Robert A. Heinlein book Double Star

Double Star (1956)

““Scheer, are you any good at counterfeiting?”
“I’ve never tried it, sir.”
“No time like the present. Every man needs an alternative profession.””

Robert A. Heinlein book Sixth Column

Source: Sixth Column (1949; originally serialized in 1941), Chapter 6 (p. 72)