Robert A. Heinlein citations célèbres
Robert A. Heinlein: Citations en anglais
“Happiness consists in getting enough sleep. Just that, nothing more.”
Source: Starship Troopers
“Life is short, but the years are long.”
Part of the secret "call and response" codewords by which members of the long-lived Howard Families can identify others:
: Life is short.
But the years are long.
Not while the evil days come not.
Methuselah's Children (1958)
“Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.”
Time Enough for Love (1973)
“Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.”
Source: Time Enough for Love
“A generation which ignores history has no past —and no future.”
Source: Time Enough for Love (1973)
“Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.”
"Jubal Harshaw" in the first edition (1961); the later 1991 "Uncut" edition didn't have this line, because it was one Heinlein had added when he went through and trimmed the originally submitted manuscript on which the "Uncut" edition is based. Heinlein also later used a variant of this in The Cat Who Walks Through Walls where he has Xia quote Harshaw: "Dr. Harshaw says that 'the word "love" designates a subjective condition in which the welfare and happiness of another person are essential to one's own happiness.'"
Source: Stranger in a Strange Land (1961; 1991)
“Do not handicap your children by making their lives easy.”
Time Enough for Love (1973)
“Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.”
Source: Time Enough for Love (1973)
Gwen Novak (Hazel Stone); chapter 18, p. 230
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (1985)
Contexte: The hardest part about gaining any new idea is sweeping out the false idea occupying that niche. As long as that niche is occupied, evidence and proof and logical demonstration get nowhere. But once the niche is emptied of the wrong idea that has been filling it — once you can honestly say, "I don't know", then it becomes possible to get at the truth.
“Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it.”
Source: Time Enough for Love
“A society that gets rid of all its troublemakers goes downhill.”
Source: Time Enough for Love
“You live and learn. Or you don't live long.”
Source: Time Enough for Love (1973)
“Certainly the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you; if you don't bet you can't win.”
Source: Time Enough for Love
“Work is not an end in itself; there must always be time enough for love.”
Source: Time Enough for Love
“Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things.”
Time Enough for Love (1973)
Variante: Progress doesn't come from early risers — progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things.
“If a thing's worth doing, it's worth overdoing. (Lazarus Long)”
Variante: Take big bites. Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.
Source: Time Enough for Love
“A brute kills for pleasure. A fool kills from hate.”
Time Enough for Love (1973)
““Die trying” is the proudest human thing.”
Source: Have Space Suit—Will Travel (1958), Chapter 11
“Age is not an accomplishment, and youth is not a sin.”
Methuselah's Children (1958)
Source: Have Space Suit—Will Travel (1958), Chapter 2
“When I don’t understand, I have an unbearable itch to know why.”
Source: Have Space Suit—Will Travel (1958), Chapter 7
“Television leaves no external scars.”
Source: Have Space Suit—Will Travel (1958), Chapter 3
