“What good is the race of man? Monkeys, he thought, monkeys with a spot of poetry in them, cluttering and wasting a second-string planet near a third-string star. But sometimes they finish in style.”

The Year of the Jackpot (p. 644)
Short fiction, Off the Main Sequence (2005)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "What good is the race of man? Monkeys, he thought, monkeys with a spot of poetry in them, cluttering and wasting a seco…" by Robert A. Heinlein?
Robert A. Heinlein photo
Robert A. Heinlein 557
American science fiction author 1907–1988

Related quotes

Stephen Hawking photo

“We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.”

Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author

Der Spiegel (17 October 1988)

Eddie Izzard photo
Mark Twain photo

“What is Man? Man is a noisome bacillus whom Our Heavenly Father created because he was disappointed in the monkey.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Autobiographical Dictation (1906).
Variant: The only reason why God created man is because he was disappointed with the monkey.

“You are either the man in the white coat or you are the monkey. Susan sees herself as the monkey.”

Source: Summer of Love (1994), Chapter 4 “Foxy Lady” (p. 82)

J. J. Abrams photo

“Of course there is a monkey. There is always a monkey.”

S. (2013)

Doug Dorst photo

“Of course there is a monkey. There is always a monkey.”

Doug Dorst book S.

S. (2013)

Vincent Van Gogh photo

“Success is sometimes the outcome of a whole string of failures.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Source: Van Gogh

Mark Twain photo

“The only reason why God created man is because he was disappointed with the monkey.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Autobiographical Dictation (1906)

Related topics