Robert A. Heinlein Quotes

If a grasshopper tries to fight a lawnmower, one may admire his courage but not his judgement.

Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.

You can sway a thousand men by appealing to their prejudices quicker than you can convince one man by logic.

Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.

Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.

I never learned from a man who agreed with me.

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

Don't ever become a pessimist... a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun, and neither can stop the march of events.

May you live as long as you wish and love as long as you live.

It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.

One man's theology is another man's belly laugh.

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

One should not attend even the end of the world without a good breakfast.

Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat.

In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it.

Democracy is four wolves and a sheep voting on dinner.

There is no such thing as luck; there is only adequate or inadequate preparation to cope with a statistical universe.

Men are more sentimental than women. It blurs their thinking.

There are no dangerous weapons; there are only dangerous men.

One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortune of others.

Remember though, your best weapon is between your ears and under your scalp -provided it's loaded.

Ability is a wonderful thing, but its value is greatly enhanced by dependability. Ability implies repeatability and accountability.

Tilting at windmills hurts you more than the windmills.

Don't handicap your children by making their lives easy.

Once you get to earth orbit, you're halfway to anywhere in the solar system.

You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity.

Butterflies are self propelled flowers.

Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.

Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors... and miss.

Have you ever noticed how much they look like orchids? lovely!

A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity.

I don't see how an article of clothing can be indecent. A person, yes.

Ninety percent of all human wisdom is the ability to mind your own business.

There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.

A child's life is like a piece of paper on which every person leaves a mark.

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.

Reason is poor propaganda when opposed by the yammering, unceasing lies of shrewd and evil and self-serving men.

The lessons of history teach us - if the lessons of history teach us anything - that nobody learns the lessons that history teaches us.

Pacifism is a shifty doctrine under which a man accepts the benefits of the social group without being willing to pay; and claims a halo for his dishonesty.

If a country can't save itself through the volunteer service of its own free people, then I say : Let the damned thing go down the drain!

Being right too soon is socially unacceptable.

The United States has become a place where entertainers and professional athletes are mistaken for people of importance.

Love your country, but never trust its government.

Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done.

A dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than is a riot.

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

Democracy can survive anything except Democrats

Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny

Courage is the complement of fear. A man who is fearless cannot be courageous. [He is also a fool.]

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