Top 500 Robert A. Heinlein Quotes (2024 Update)
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101. “If you don’t like yourself, you can’t like other people. – Lazarus Long.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

102. “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

103. “A pacifist male is a contradiction in terms. Most self-described “pacifists” are not pacific; they simply assume false colors. When the wind changes, they hoist the Jolly Roger.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

104. “Luck is a tag given by the mediocre to account for the accomplishments of genius.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

105. “To assess the intelligence of a committee, divide the IQ of its stupidest member by the number of members.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

106. “The price of freedom is the willingness to do sudden battle anywhere, any time and with utter recklessness.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

107. “One man’s theology is another man’s belly laugh.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

108. “Free will is a golden thread running through the frozen matrix of fixed events.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

109. “Never frighten a little man. He’ll kill you.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

110. “Women are amazing creatures-sweet, soft, gentle, and far more savage than we are.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

111. “The police of a state should never be stronger or better armed than the citizenry. An armed citizenry, willing to fight, is the foundation of civil freedom. That’s a personal evaluation, of course.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

112. “Its very variety, subtlety, and utterly irrational, idiomatic complexity makes it possible to say things in English which simply cannot be said in any other language.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

113. “Live and learn, or you don’t live long.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

114. “To permit irresponsible authority is to sell disaster.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

115. “Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn’t there. Theologians can persuade themselves of anything.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

116. “First you must learn to control your self. The rest follows. Blessed is he who knows himself and commands himself, for the world is his and love and happiness and peace walk with him wherever he goes.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

117. “Hate always sells well, but for repeat trade and the long pull happiness is sounder merchandise.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

118. “Animals can be driven crazy by placing too many in too small a pen. Homo sapiens is the only animal that voluntarily does this to himself.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

119. “The best things in history are accomplished by people who get tired of being shoved around.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

120. “Once you get to earth orbit, you’re halfway to anywhere in the solar system.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

121. “Life is short, but the years are long.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

122. “Minimize your therbligs until it becomes automatic; this doubles your effective lifetime – and thereby gives time to enjoy butterflies and kittens and rainbows.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

123. “Beware of altruism. It is based on self-deception, the root of all evil.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

124. “Anything free is worth what you pay for it.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

125. “Coffee comes in five descending stages: Coffee, Java, Jamoke, Joe, and Carbon Remover.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

126. “A human being has no natural rights of any nature.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

127. “Thou art god, I am god. All that groks is god.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

128. “Never try to have the last word. You might get it.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

129. “They didn’t want it good, they wanted it Wednesday.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

130. “The greatest fallacy of democracy is that everyone’s opinion is worth the same.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

131. “Goodness without wisdom always accomplishes evil.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

132. “I do know that the slickest way to lie is to tell the right amount of truth – then shut up.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

133. “Faith is intellectual laziness.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

134. “Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

135. “Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes. Keep this in mind; it may offer a way to make him your friend. If not, you can kill him without hate – and quickly.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

136. “Government! Three fourths parasitic and the other fourth Stupid fumbling.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

137. “Man has no moral instinct. He is not born with moral sense. You were not born with it, I was not – and a puppy has none. We acquire moral sense, when we do, through training, experience, and hard sweat of the mind.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

138. “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

139. “My old man claimed that the more complicated the law the more opportunity for scoundrels.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

140. “Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How’s that again? I missed something.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

141. “A zygote is a gamete’s way of producing more gametes. This may be the purpose of the universe.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

142. “I was not offended, my love. An insult is like a drink; it affects one only if accepted. And pride is too heavy baggage for my journey...”

— Robert A. Heinlein

143. “Learning isn’t a means to an end; it is an end in itself.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

144. “If you would know a man, observe how he treats a cat.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

145. “Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

146. “Never tease an old dog; he might have one bite left.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

147. “Obscurity is the refuge of incompetence.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

148. “Don’t ever become a pessimist, Ira; a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun – and neither can stop the march of events.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

149. “Avoid making irrevocable decisions while tired or hungry.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

150. “Most gods have the morals of a spoiled child.”

— Robert A. Heinlein