Quotes by
Robert Heinlein |
1907-1988 , American sci-fi writer
He was one of the first American science-fiction writers to break into mainstream magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post in the late 1940s. He, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke are often considered the “Big Three” of English-language science fiction. Notable Heinlein works include Stranger in a Strange Land (1961), Starship Troopers (1959) and The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966).
| 28 quotes | 826 visits |
Quotations
| • | Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. Never underestimate the power of human stupidity. 5 |
| • | A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. 3 |
| • | Love your country, but never trust its government. 3 |
| • | Democracy is four wolves and a sheep voting on dinner. 2 |
| • | The greatest fallacy of democracy is that everyone’s opinion is worth the same. 2 |
| • | In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it. 2 |
| • | Age is not an accomplishment, and youth is not a sin. 1 |
| • | Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own. 1 |
| • | Don’t handicap your children by making their lives easy. 1 |
| • | Whoring is like military service...okay in the upper brackets, not so good lower down. 1 |
| • | The answer to any question starting, “Why don’t they...” is almost always, “Money”. |
| • | Each generation thinks it invented sex; each generation is totally mistaken. Anything along that line today was commonplace both in Pompeii and in Victorian England; the differences lie only in the degree of coverup — if any. |
| • | Life is short, but the years are long. |
| • | We lived like that “Happy Family“ you sometimes see in traveling zoos: a lion caged with a lamb. It is a startling exhibit but the lamb has to be replaced frequently. |
| • | There is no such thing as luck; there is only adequate or inadequate preparation to cope with a statistical universe. |
| • | A generation which ignores history has no past —and no future. |
| • | This Universe never did make sense; I suspect that it was built on government contract. |
| • | No philosopher allows his opinions to be swayed by facts—he would be kicked out of his guild. Theologians, the lot of them. |
| • | The Bible is such a gargantuan collection of conflicting values that anyone can prove anything from it. |
| • | Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. |
| • | Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea. |
| • | Remember though, your best weapon is between your ears and under your scalp -provided it’s loaded. |
| • | Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something. |
| • | No matter where or what, there are makers, takers, and fakers. |
| • | One man's theology is another man’s belly laugh. |
| • | Anyone who can worship a trinity and insist that his religion is a monotheism can believe anything. |
| • | Yield to temptation. It may not pass your way again. |
| • | Audacity, always audacity - soundest principal of strategy. |
