Top 500 Robert A. Heinlein Quotes (2025 Update)
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351. “Son, the phrase is self-contradictory; “sense” is never “common”.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

352. “Religion is a solace to many people and it is even conceivable that some religion, somewhere, really is Ultimate Truth. But in many cases, being religious is merely a form of conceit.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

353. “Straining at gnats and swallowing camels is a required course in all law schools.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

354. “Butterflies are self propelled flowers.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

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

— Robert A. Heinlein

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

— Robert A. Heinlein

357. “All men are created unequal.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

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

— Robert A. Heinlein

359. “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

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. “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

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

— Robert A. Heinlein

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

— Robert A. Heinlein

364. “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

365. “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

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

— Robert A. Heinlein

367. “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

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

— Robert A. Heinlein

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

— Robert A. Heinlein

370. “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

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

— Robert A. Heinlein

372. “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

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

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

— Robert A. Heinlein

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

— Robert A. Heinlein

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

— Robert A. Heinlein

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

— Robert A. Heinlein

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

— Robert A. Heinlein

380. “He ate what was set before him.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

381. “There will always be survivors.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

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

— Robert A. Heinlein

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

— Robert A. Heinlein

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

— Robert A. Heinlein

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

— Robert A. Heinlein

386. “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

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

— Robert A. Heinlein

388. “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

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

— Robert A. Heinlein

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

— Robert A. Heinlein

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

— Robert A. Heinlein

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

— Robert A. Heinlein

393. “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

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

— Robert A. Heinlein

395. “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

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

— Robert A. Heinlein

397. “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

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

— Robert A. Heinlein

399. “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

400. “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