Robert A. Heinlein citations célèbres
Robert A. Heinlein: Citations en anglais
Source: Between Planets (1951), Chapter 3, “Hunted” (p. 38) - Secret Service officer to the main character during an interrogation.
“Cats have no sense of humor, they have terribly inflated egos, and they are very touchy.”
Source: The Door Into Summer (1957), Chapter 2
“The situation has multifarious ramifications not immediately apparent to the unassisted optic.”
Source: The Rolling Stones (1952), Chapter 13, “Caveat Vendor” (pp. 177-178)
“‘Magic,’” I stated, “is a symbol for any process not understood.”
Source: The Number of the Beast (1980), Chapter XVII : The world wobbled—, p. 151
“It is better to be a lively frump than a stylish corpse.”
Source: The Number of the Beast (1980), Chapter XXIII : “The farce is over.”, p. 212
Source: Farmer in the Sky (1950), Chapter 18, “Pioneer Party” (pp. 193-194)
Source: Sixth Column (1949; originally serialized in 1941), Chapter 9 (p. 108)
“Random numbers are to a computer what free will is to a human being.”
Source: The Number of the Beast (1980), Chapter XXI : —three seconds is a long time—, p. 180
“When a fact came along, he junked theories that failed to match.”
Source: Have Space Suit—Will Travel (1958), Chapter 12
Source: Sixth Column (1949; originally serialized in 1941), Chapter 2 (pp. 24-25)
“Fighting continued on a token basis, and the dead did not complain.”
Source: I Will Fear No Evil (1970), Chapter 12, p. 171
Source: Space Cadet (1948), Chapter 6 “Reading, and ’riting, and ’rithmetic—”, p. 71
Behaving on a still higher moral level were the astronauts who went to the Moon, for their actions tend toward the survival of the entire race of mankind. The door they opened leads to the hope that H. sapiens will survive indefinitely long, even longer than this solid planet on which we stand tonight. As a direct result of what they did, it is now possible that the human race will never die.
Many short-sighted fools think that going to the Moon was just a stunt. But the astronauts knew the meaning of what they were doing, as is shown by Neil Armstrong's first words in stepping down onto the soil of Luna: "One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."
The Pragmatics of Patriotism (1973)
“Marriage is not ownership and wives are not property.”
Source: The Puppet Masters (1951), Chapter 21 (p. 116)
“Yes, sir. I think I do.”
Source: Red Planet (1949), Chapter 2, “South Colony, Mars”, pp. 16-17
"The Discovery of the Future," Guest of Honor Speech, 3rd World Science Fiction Convention, Denver, Colorado (4 July 1941)
“And not very good poetry.”
Source: The Rolling Stones (1952), Chapter 14, “Flat Cats Factorial” (p. 182)
Source: Between Planets (1951), Chapter 17, “To Reset the Clock” (p. 173)
“The sort of guardian you can hire is worth about as much as the sort of wife you can buy.”
Source: Space Cadet (1948), Chapter 12 “P.R.S. Pathfinder”, p. 143
Source: To Sail Beyond the Sunset (1987), p. 370 (Ace 1988)
Source: Farmer in the Sky (1950), Chapter 9, “The Moons of Jupiter” (pp. 90-91)
This offhand mention has become the simplest (three words!) and often-quoted exposition of the wonders of a different world, where what would be novel today has become simply the way things work.
Source: Beyond This Horizon (1948; originally serialized in 1942), Chapter 1, “All of them should have been very happy—”, p. 5 and several other times
