Robert A. Heinlein - Time Enough for Love (1973)

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A generation which ignores history has no past —and no future.

Robert A. Heinlein
Heroism' often consists in keeping your head in an emergency and doing the best you can with what you have instead of panicking and being shot in the tail. People who fight this way win more battles than do intentional heroes; a glory hound often throws away the lives of his mates as well as his own.

Robert A. Heinlein
One man's "magic" is another man's engineering. "Supernatural" is a null word.

Robert A. Heinlein
A woman is not property, and husbands who think otherwise are living in a dreamworld.

Robert A. Heinlein
If tempted by something that feels 'altruistic,' examine your motives and root out that self-deception. Then, if you still want to do it, wallow in it!

Robert A. Heinlein
A society that gets rid of all its troublemakers goes downhill.

Robert A. Heinlein
Money is the sincerest of all flattery. Women love to be flattered. So do men.

Robert A. Heinlein
Another ingredient in a happy marriage: Budget the luxuries first!

Robert A. Heinlein
Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How's that again? I missed something. Autocracy is based on the assumption that one man is wiser than a million men. Let's play that over again, too. Who decides?

Robert A. Heinlein
A brute kills for pleasure. A fool kills from hate.

Robert A. Heinlein
A fake fortuneteller can be tolerated. But an authentic soothsayer should be shot on sight. Cassandra did not get half the kicking around she deserved.

Robert A. Heinlein
Humans hardly ever learn from the experience of others. They learn - when they do, which isn't often - on their own, the hard way.

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
Does history record any case in which the majority was right?

Robert A. Heinlein
Courage is the complement of fear. A man who is fearless cannot be courageous. (He is also a fool).

Robert A. Heinlein
The difference between science and the fuzzy subjects is that science requires reasoning, while those other subjects merely require scholarship.

Robert A. Heinlein
Expertise in one field does not carry over into other fields. But experts often think so. The narrower their field of knowledge the more likely they are to think so.

Robert A. Heinlein
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

Robert A. Heinlein
A touchstone to determine the actual worth of an "intellectual" - find out how he feels about astrology.

Robert A. Heinlein
If you are part of a society that votes, then do so. There may be no candidates and no measures you want to vote for, but there are certain to be ones you want to vote against. In case of doubt, vote against.

Robert A. Heinlein
Any government will work if authority and responsibility are equal and coordinate. This does not insure good government, it simply insures that it will work. But such governments are rare — most people want to run things, but want no part of the blame. This used to be called the backseat driver syndrome.

Robert A. Heinlein
By the data to date, there is only one animal in the Galaxy dangerous to man — man himself. So he must supply his own indispensable competition. He has no enemy to help him.

Robert A. Heinlein
The more you love, the more you can love—and the more intensely you love. Nor is there any limit on how many you can love. If a person had time enough, he could love all of that majority who are decent and just.

Robert A. Heinlein
Pessimist by policy, optimist by temperament- it is possible to be both. How? By never taking an unnecessary chance and by minimizing the risks you can't avoid. This permits you to play out the game untroubled by the certainty of the outcome.

Robert A. Heinlein
Certainly the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you; if you don't bet you can't win.

Robert A. Heinlein