Top 500 Robert A. Heinlein Quotes (2024 Update)
Page 8 of 10

351. “Revolution is an art that I pursue rather than a goal I expect to achieve. Nor is this a source of dismay; a lost cause can be as spiritually satisfying as a victory.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

352. “Thinking doesn’t pay. Just makes you discontented with what you see around you.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

353. “Christ was crucified for preaching without a police permit.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

354. “The way to find justice is to deal fairly with other people and not worry about how they deal with you.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

355. “From my point of view, a great deal of openly expressed piety is insufferable conceit.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

356. “I’ve never understood how God could expect His creatures to pick the one true religion by faith-it strikes me as a sloppy way to run a universe.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

357. “All men are created unequal.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

358. “Talking with a Martian is something like talking with an echo. You don’t get any argument but you don’t get results either.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

359. “With eternity to draw on there could be no reason for hurrying – ‘hurry’ was not a concept in Martian.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

360. “Under our system every voter and officeholder is a man who has demonstrated through voluntary and difficult service that he places the welfare of the group ahead of personal advantage.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

361. “Teaching causes people to go into situations from which they cannot escape, except by thinking. Do not handicap children by making their lives easy.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

362. “Seems to be a deep instinct in human beings for making everything compulsory that isn’t forbidden.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

363. “In a society in which it is a moral offense to be different from your neighbor your only escape is to never let them find out.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

364. “Aside from a cold appreciation of my own genius I felt that I was a modest man.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

365. “The mind’s ability to rationalize it’s own shortcomings is unlimited; I am no exception.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

366. “One could write a history of science in reverse by assembling the solemn pronouncements of highest authority about what could not be done and could never happen.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

367. “Boats and ships are female because they are beautiful, lovable, expensive and unpredictable.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

368. “The best thing about space travel is that it made it possible to go elsewhere.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

369. “It takes two to create a heaven, but hell can be accomplished by one.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

370. “In a dilemma, it is helpful to change any variable, then reexamine the problem.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

371. “All my enemies are self-appointed.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

372. “Of all the strange ‘crimes’ that human beings have legislated out of nothing, ‘blasphemy’ is the most amazing – with ‘obscenity’ and ‘indecent exposure’ fighting it out for second and third place.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

373. “If you do not believe that a man will commit murder for one can of tomatoes, then you have never been hungry.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

374. “How can I possibly put a new idea into your heads, if I do not first remove your delusions?”

— Robert A. Heinlein

375. “Oh, you have to charge ’em, Jubal. The marks won’t pay attention if it’s free.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

376. “Never encourage a man to cook breakfast; it cause him to wonder if women are necessary.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

377. “Sin is cruelty and injustice, all else is peccadillo.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

378. “There will always be survivors.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

379. “When you’re rich, you don’t have friends; you just have endless acquaintances.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

380. “Logic is a feeble reed, friend.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

381. “Happiness consists in getting enough sleep.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

382. “An invention is something that was “impossible” up to then that’s why governments grant patents.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

383. “It’s better to copulate than not.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

384. “It’s a man’s business to be what he is, and to be it in style.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

385. “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

386. “Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

387. “I don’t know Who is cranking; I’m pleased He doesn’t stop.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

388. “History is never surprising after it happens.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

389. “I believe in my neighbors. I know their faults and I know that their virtues far outweigh their faults.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

390. “Women talk when they want to. Or don’t.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

391. “It’s an indulgence to sit in a room and discuss your beliefs as if they were a juicy piece of gossip.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

392. “Money problems can always be solved by a man not frightened by them.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

393. “I am not going to talk about religious beliefs, but about matters so obvious that it has gone out of style to mention them.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

394. “A boy who gets a C- in ‘Appreciation of Television’ can’t be all bad.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

395. “Working because you want to is the best sort of play.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

396. “We have had enough guesses; I’ll state the obvious: Under our system every voter and officeholder is a man who has demonstrated through voluntary and difficult service that he places the welfare of the group ahead of personal advantage. And that is the one practical difference. He may fail in wisdom, he may lapse in civic virtue. But his average performance is enormously better than that of any other class of rulers in history.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

397. “Many older physicians had gone to their graves calling Pasteur a liar, a fool, or worse – and without examining evidence which their “common sense” told them was impossible.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

398. “I say ‘art’ advisedly, for art is undefined, undefinable, and without limits. I can use the word without fear of misusing it, for it has no exact meaning. There are as many meanings as there are artists.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

399. “Figure out for yourself what you want to be really good at, know that you’ll never really satisfy yourself that you’ve made it, and accept that that’s okay.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

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

— Robert A. Heinlein