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Robert A. Heinlein Quotes - Page 13

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I remembered a time when my grandmother had asked me to explain television to her - the guts, not the funny pictures. There are things which cannot be taught in ten easy lessons, nor popularized for the masses; they

I remembered a time when my grandmother had asked me to explain television to her - the guts, not the funny pictures. There are things which cannot be taught in ten easy lessons, nor popularized for the masses; they take years of skull sweat. This be treason in an age when ignorance has come into its own and one man's opinion is as good as another's. But there it is. As Star says, the world is what it is - and doesn't forgive ignorance.

Robert A. Heinlein
Stars, Ignorance, Grandmother

Son, the phrase is self-contradictory; "sense" is never "common".

Robert A. Heinlein
Son, Self, Common Sense
Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Time Enough for Love”, p.38, Penguin

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
Aunt, Men, Morality
"Starship Troopers". Book by Robert A. Heinlein, 1959.

Roman matrons used to say to their sons: 'Come back with your shield or on it.' Later on, this custom declined. So did Rome... (but not before it created an Empire that changed the world -EM).

Robert A. Heinlein
Leadership, Courage, Son

Every time we killed a thousand Bugs at a cost of one M.I. it was a net victory for the Bugs. We were learning, expensively, just how efficient a total communism can be when used by a people actually adapted to it by evolution; the Bug commisars didn't care any more about expending soldiers than we cared about expending ammo. Perhaps we could have figured this out about the Bugs by noting the grief the Chinese Hegemony gave the Russo-Anglo-American Alliance; however the trouble with 'lessons from history' is that we usually read them best after falling flat on our chins.

Robert A. Heinlein
Grief, Fall, People

Finish what you start. Keep submitting until it sells.

Robert A. Heinlein
Writing, Sells

A family reunion is an effective form of birth control.

Robert A. Heinlein
Birth Control, Family Reunion, Genealogy

Marriage is a psychological condition, not a civil contract and a license. Once a marriage is dead, it is dead, and it begins to stink faster than a dead fish.

Robert A. Heinlein
Psychological, Stink, Faster

Consider the black widow spider. It's a timid little beastie, useful and, for my taste, the prettiest of the arachnids, with its shiny, patent-leather finish and its red hourglass trademark. But the poor thing has the fatal misfortune of possessing enormously too much power for its size. So everybody kills it on sight.

Robert A. Heinlein
Power, Sight, Black
Robert A. Heinlein (2014). “Stranger in a Strange Land”, p.230, Hachette UK

Every general prohibition creates its bootleggers.

Robert A. Heinlein
Prohibition
Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Time Enough for Love”, p.70, Penguin

Take big bites. Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.

Robert A. Heinlein
Bigs, Anything Worth Doing, Bites

Almost everything about a human creature is ridiculous, except its ability to suffer bravely and die gallantly for whatever it loves and believes in. The validity of that belief, the appropriateness of that love, is irrelevant; it is the bravery and the gallantry that count.

Robert A. Heinlein
Believe, Love Is, Bravery
Robert A. Heinlein (1985). “Job, a Comedy of Justice”, Del Rey

Sin is cruelty and injustice, all else is peccadillo.

Robert A. Heinlein
Injustice, Sin, Cruelty
Robert A. Heinlein (2007). “Glory Road”, p.144, Macmillan

The faith in which I was brought up assured me that I was better than other people; I was saved, they were damned.... Our hymns were loaded with arrogance - self-congratulation on how cozy we were with the Almighty and what a high opinion he had of us, what hell everybody else would catch come Judgment Day.

Robert A. Heinlein
Congratulations, Self, Hymns
Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Stranger in a Strange Land”, p.227, Penguin

Faith strikes me as intellectual laziness.

Robert A. Heinlein
Intellectual, Laziness, Strange
Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Stranger in a Strange Land”, p.179, Penguin

Between being 'right' and being kind, I know which way I vote.

Robert A. Heinlein
Way, Be Kind, Vote
Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “I Will Fear No Evil”, p.303, Penguin

Avoid making irrevocable decisions while tired or hungry.

Robert A. Heinlein
Tired, Decision, Hungry
Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Time Enough for Love”, p.227, Penguin

Of all the nonsense that twists the world, the concept of 'altruism' is the worst. People do what they want to, every time. If it pains them to make a choice - if the choice looks like a 'sacrifice' - you can be sure that it is no nobler than the discomfort caused by greediness... the necessity of deciding between two things you want when you can't have both.

Robert A. Heinlein
Pain, Sacrifice, Two
Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Stranger in a Strange Land”, p.241, Penguin

Limiting the freedom of news 'just a little bit' is in the same category with the classic example 'a little bit pregnant.

Robert A. Heinlein
Example, News, Littles
Robert A Heinlein (1966). “Moon Is Harsh Mistres”, Berkley

The nice thing about citing god as an authority is that you can prove anything you set out to prove.

Robert A. Heinlein
Nice, Religion, Citing
Robert A. Heinlein (2014). “Revolt in 2100”, p.57, Hachette UK

I think that science fiction has a distinct therapeutic value because all of it has as its primary postulate that the world does change. I cannot overemphasize the importance of that idea.

Robert A. Heinlein
Thinking, Ideas, World

My folks tried to make a preacher of me and missed by a narrow margin… I would have made a good one if I hadn’t fallen into the fatal folly of reading anything I could lay hands on. With just a touch more self confidence and a liberal helping of ignorance I could have been a famous evangelist.

Robert A. Heinlein
Reading, Ignorance, Self Confidence

The basic of all morality is duty, a concept with the same relation to group that self-interest has to individual.

Robert A. Heinlein
Self, Groups, Morality

Nursing does not diminish the beauty of a woman's breasts; it enhances their charm by making them look lived in and happy.

Robert A. Heinlein
Nursing, Breastfeeding, Doe
Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Time Enough for Love”, p.223, Penguin

I'm not trying to frighten you, but only a fool makes predictions based on ignorance; I am not that sort of fool.

Robert A. Heinlein
Ignorance, Trying, Fool
Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “I Will Fear No Evil”, p.136, Penguin

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