Robert A. Heinlein Quotes

502 Sourced Quotes

Take care of the cojones and the frijoles will take care of themselves. Try to have getaway money - but don't be fanatic about it.

Robert A. Heinlein
Brainpower is the scarcest commodity and the only one of real value.

Robert A. Heinlein
Spacemen - men who work in space, pilots and jetmen and astrogators and such - are men who like a few million miles of elbow room.

Robert A. Heinlein
If men were the automatons that behaviorists claim they are, the behaviorist psychologists could not have invented the amazing nonsense called 'behaviorist psychology.'

Robert A. Heinlein
But what is the purpose of your survey? he asked. "Does it need a purpose? I tell you, I just made it up." "But your numbers are too few to be significant. You can't fair a curve with so little data. Besides, your conditions are uncontrolled. Your results don't mean anything."

Robert A. Heinlein
The second best thing about space travel is that the distances involved make war very difficult, usually impractical, and almost always unnecessary. This is probably a loss for most people, since war is our race's most popular diversion, one which gives purpose and color to dull and stupid lives. But it is a great boon to the intelligent man who fights only when he must-never for sport.

Robert A. Heinlein
God split himself into a myriad parts that he might have friends. This may not be true, but it sounds good, and is no sillier than any other theology.

Robert A. Heinlein
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
In handling a stinging insect, move very slowly.

Robert A. Heinlein
Oh, I have strong opinions, but a thousand reasoned opinions are never equal to one case of diving in and finding out.

Robert A. Heinlein
Some things, the more you understand the more you loathe them.

Robert A. Heinlein
A fact doesn't have to be understood to be true. Sure, any reasonable mind wants explanations, but it's silly to reject facts that don't fit your philosophy.

Robert A. Heinlein
Permit me to say, speaking from experience, all theories are empty.

Robert A. Heinlein
Revolutions are not won by enlisting the masses. Revolution is a science for the few who are competent to practice it. It depends on correct organisation and above all, on communications.

Robert A. Heinlein
Luck is a tag given by the mediocre to account for the accomplishments of genius.

Robert A. Heinlein
Physics doesn't have to have any use. It just is.

Robert A. Heinlein
In a family argument, if it turns out you are right, apologize at once.

Robert A. Heinlein
If I had found out anything, it was that they could print it faster than I could study it.

Robert A. Heinlein
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
Please don't invent a debt that does not exist, or next you will be trying to feel gratitude - and that is the treacherous first step toward complete moral degradation.

Robert A. Heinlein
As it says in Bible, God fights on side of heaviest artillery.

Robert A. Heinlein
A fact has no "why." There it stands, self demonstrating.

Robert A. Heinlein