Top 500 Robert A. Heinlein Quotes (2026 Update)
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301. “I have never been able to see how a thirty-year old moron can vote more wisely than a fifteen-year old genius...”

— Robert A. Heinlein

302. “What we think of as ‘Physical beauty’ is almost certainly a tag for a complex of useful survival characteristics. Smartness intelligence among them.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

303. “Brainpower is the scarcest commodity and the only one of real value.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

Featured in: Real Quotes

304. “There are things which cannot be taught in ten easy lessons, nor popularized for the masses; they take years of skull sweat.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

305. “You were probably educated in the conventional economic theories of your period which were magnificent and most ingenious, but – if you will pardon my saying so – all wrong.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

306. “What was “grokking”? He had been using the word for a week – and he didn’t grok it.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

307. “Well, we shoot mad dogs, don’t we?”

— Robert A. Heinlein

308. “A little more money won’t do you any good – because daughters can use up ten percent more than a man can make in any normal occupation, regardless of the amount.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

309. “Make money, lose money – who cares? The idea is to enjoy it.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

310. “Nothing gives life more zest that running for your life.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

311. “But a well-run tyranny is almost as scarce as an efficient democracy.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

312. “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

313. “It may be better to be a live jackal than a dead lion, but it is better still to be a live lion. And usually easier.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

314. “I know why we laugh. We laugh because it hurts, and it’s the only thing to make it stop hurting.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

315. “Marriage is a psychological condition, not a civil contract and a license. Once a marriage is dead, it is dead, and it begins to stink faster than a dead fish.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

316. “If an elderly respected expert in a given field tells you that something can be done he is almost certainly right. If an elderly respected expert in a given field tells you that something is impossible, he is almost certainly wrong.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

317. “Autobiography is usually honest but it is never truthful.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

318. “Only a sadistic scoundrel-or a fool-tells the bald truth on social occasions.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

319. “Math is hard work and it occupies your mind – and it doesn’t hurt to learn all you can of it, no matter what rank you are; everything of any importance is founded on mathematics.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

320. “I don’t trust a man who talks about ethics when he is picking my pocket. But if he is acting in his own self-interest and says so, I have usually been able to work out some way to do business with him.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

321. “One can lead a child to knowledge but one cannot make him think.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

322. “There is no such thing as ‘social gambling.’ Either you are there to cut the other bloke’s heart out and eat it – or you’re a sucker. If you don’t like this choice – don’t gamble.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

323. “Men rarely if ever dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

324. “Why don’t they make more science fiction movies? The answer to any question starting, Why don’t they- is almost always, Money.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

325. “Customs tell a man who he is, where he belongs, what he must do. Better illogical customs than none; men cannot live together without them.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

326. “Any priest or shaman must be presumed guilty until proved innocent.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

327. “It is impossible for a man to love his wife whole heartedly without loving all women somewhat. I suppose that the converse must be true of women.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

328. “If you’ve got the truth you can demonstrate it. Talking doesn’t prove it.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

329. “By cultivating the beautiful we scatter the seeds of heavenly flowers, as by doing good we cultivate those that belong to humanity.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

330. “If Satan should ever replace God he would find it necessary to assume the attributes of Divinity.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

331. “Geniuses and supergeniuses always make their own rules about sex as on everything else; they do not accept the monkey customs of their lessers.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

332. “Democracy’s worst fault is that its leaders are likely to reflect the faults and virtues of their constituents.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

333. “A paradox may be paradoctored.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

334. “The early worm deserves the bird.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

335. “Most women are damn fools and children. But they’ve got more range than we’ve got. The brave ones are braver, the good ones are better – and the vile ones are viler, for that matter.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

336. “Self awareness is NOT just a bunch of amino acids bumping together.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

337. “Random chance was not a sufficient explanation of the Universe – in fact, random chance was not sufficient to explain random chance; the pot could not hold itself.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

338. “Nobody has ever seen an electron. Nor a thought. You can’t see a thought, you can’t measure, weigh, nor taste it- but thoughts are the most real things in the Galaxy.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

Featured in: Real Quotes

339. “Nursing does not diminish the beauty of a woman’s breasts; it enhances their charm by making them look lived in and happy.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

340. “Sex should be friendly. Otherwise stick to mechanical toys; it’s more sanitary.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

341. “But, whatever you do, do not let the past be a straitjacket!”

— Robert A. Heinlein

342. “A poet who reads his verse in public may have other nasty habits.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

343. “Always tell her she is beautiful, especially if she is not.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

344. “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

345. “God created men to test the souls of women.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

346. “Dr. Jubal Harshaw, professional clown, amateur subversive, and parasite by choice, had long attempted to eliminate “hurry” and all related emotions from his pattern. Being aware that he had but a short time left to live and having neither Martian nor Kansan faith in his own immortality, it was his purpose to live each golden moment as if it were eternity – without fear, without hope, but with sybaritic gusto.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

347. “Value’ has no meaning other than in relation to living beings. The value of a thing is always relative to a particular person, is completely personal and different in quantity for each living human – ‘market value’ is a fiction, merely a rough guess at the average personal values, all of which must be quantitively different or trade would be impossible.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

348. “Any group is weaker than a man alone unless they are perfectly trained to work together.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

349. “Every general prohibition creates its bootleggers.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

350. “Men are not potatoes!”

— Robert A. Heinlein