Robert A. Heinlein - Life Quotes

27 Sourced Quotes

View all Robert A. Heinlein Quotes
I have never been able to see life as anything but a vast complicated practical joke, and it's better to laugh than cry.

Robert A. Heinlein
I did the only really brave thing I have ever done in my life: I inched forward.

Robert A. Heinlein
Each man is his own prisoner, in solitary confinement for life.

Robert A. Heinlein
If there was anything, anything more at all, after this crazy mix-up we call living, I could feel that there might be some point to the whole frantic business, even if I did not know and could not know the full answer while I was alive.
And suppose there was not? Suppose that when a man's body disintegrates, he himself disappears absolutely. I'm bound to say I find it a probable hypothesis.
Well— It wouldn't be cheerful knowledge, but it would be better than not knowing. You could plan your life rationally, at least. A man might even be able to get a certain amount of satisfaction in planning things better for the future, after he's gone. A vicarious pleasure in the anticipation.

Robert A. Heinlein
In Wilson's scale of evaluations breakfast rated just after life itself and ahead of the chance of immortality.

Robert A. Heinlein
Well, in the first place an armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life. For me, politeness is a sine qua non of civilization. That's a personal evaluation only. But gunfighting has a strong biological use. We do not have enough things to kill off the weak and the stupid these days. But to stay alive as an armed citizen a man has to be either quick with his wits or with his hands, preferably both. It's a good thing.

Robert A. Heinlein
I don't see why human people make such a heavy trip out of sex. It isn't anything complex, it is simply the best thing in life, even better than food.

Robert A. Heinlein
Learn to say No—and to be rude about it when necessary. Otherwise you will not have time to carry out your duty, or to do your own work, and certainly no time for love and happiness. The termites will nibble away your life and leave none of it for you.

Robert A. Heinlein
Nothing of value is free. Even the breath of life is purchased at birth only through gasping effort and pain.

Robert A. Heinlein
The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive.

Robert A. Heinlein
He posed me a question which I must answer correctly—else he will not co-operate.
Huh? What was the question?
I'll ask you. Martha, what is the meaning of life?
What! Why, what a stupid question!
He did not ask it stupidly.
It's a psychopathic question, unlimited, unanswerable, and, in all probability, sense free.

Robert A. Heinlein
A committee is the only known form of life with a hundred bellies and no brain.

Robert A. Heinlein
There comes a time in the life of every human when he or she must decide to risk "his life, his fortune, and his sacred honor" on an outcome dubious. Those who fail the challenge are merely overgrown children, can never be anything else.

Robert A. Heinlein
There is no conclusive evidence of life after death. But there is no evidence of any sort against it. Soon enough you will know. So why fret about it?

Robert A. Heinlein
A committee is a life form with six or more legs and no brain.

Robert A. Heinlein
Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few.

Robert A. Heinlein
A long and wicked life followed by five minutes of perfect grace gets you into Heaven. An equally long life of decent living and good works followed by one outburst of taking the name of the lord in vain- then have a heart attack at that moment and be damned for eternity. Is that the system?

Robert A. Heinlein
Sharpie, you've got a one-track mind.
It's the main track. Reproduction is the main track; the methods and mores of sexual copulation are the central feature of all higher developments of life.
You're ignoring money and television.
Piffle! All human activities including scientific research are either mating dances and care of the young, or the dismal sublimations of born losers in the only game in town.

Robert A. Heinlein
Just now I'm writing a series of oh-so-respectful articles about the private life of the Prophet and his acolytes and attending priests, how many servants they have, how much it costs to run the Palace, all about the fancy ceremonies and rituals, and such junk. All of it perfectly true, of course, and told with unctuous approval. But I lay it on a shade too thick. The emphasis is on the jewels and the solid gold trappings and how much it all costs, and I keep telling the yokels what a privilege it is for them to be permitted to pay for such frippery and how flattered they should feel that God's representative on earth lets them take care of him.

Robert A. Heinlein
Yes, Boss?' Dorcas, the last twenty or thirty years I've been a worthless, no-good parasite.' She yawned again. 'Everybody knows that.' Nevermind the flattery. There comes a time in every man's life when he has to stop being sensible—a time to stand up and be counted—strike a blow for liberty—smite the wicked.' Ummm...' So quit yawning, the time has come.' She glanced down. 'Maybe I had better get dressed.

Robert A. Heinlein
No philosophy that he had ever heard or read gave any reasonable purpose for man's existence, nor any rational clue to his proper conduct. Basking in the sunshine might be as good a thing to do with one's life as any other — but it was not for him and he knew it, even if he could not define how he knew it.

Robert A. Heinlein
Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks.

Robert A. Heinlein
As I once heard Andrew—that's my disappearing brother—say: 'Life consist in accommodating oneself to the Universe.' Although the rest of our family has never taken that view. We believe if forcing the Universe to accommodate itself to us. It's all a question of which one is to be master.

Robert A. Heinlein
At least once every human should have to run for his life, to teach him that milk does not come from supermarkets, that safety does not come from policemen, that news is not something that happens to other people. He might learn how his ancestors lived and that he himself is no different—in the crunch his life depends on his agility, alertness, and personal resourcefulness.

Robert A. Heinlein
People tend to fall into three psychological types, all differently motivated. There is the type, motivated by economic factors, money... And there is the type motivated by 'face,' or pride. This type is a spender, fighter, boaster, lover, sportsman, gambler; he has a will to power and an itch for glory. And there is the professional type, which claims to follow a code of ethics rather than simply seeking money or glory—priests and ministers, teachers, scientists, medical men, some artists and writers. The idea is that such a man believes that he is devoting his life to some purpose more important than his individual self. You follow me?

Robert A. Heinlein
Protoplasm is protean; any simple protoplasm can become any complex form of life under mutation and selection.

Robert A. Heinlein
I have spent too much of my life opening doors for cats—I once calculated that, since the dawn of civilization, nine hundred and seventy-eight man-centuries have been used up that way. I could show you figures.

Robert A. Heinlein