Robert A. Heinlein Quotes

Quotes about:

• 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.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Life, Motivational, Atheist

  Time Enough for Love "Intermission" (1973)

  80 Copy quote

• [T]here seems to have been an actual decline in rational thinking. The United States had become a place where entertainers and professional athletes were mistaken for people of importance. They were idolized and treated as leaders; their opinions were sought on everything and they took themselves just as seriously-after all, if an athlete is paid a million or more a year, he knows he is important ... so his opinions of foreign affairs and domestic policies must be important, too, even though he proves himself to be ignorant and subliterate every time he opens his mouth.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Athlete, Thinking, Media

  166 Copy quote

• You can sway a thousand men by appealing to their prejudices quicker than you can convince one man by logic.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Men, Political, Prejudice

  Robert A. Heinlein (2014). “Revolt in 2100”, p.53, Hachette UK

  171 Copy quote

• I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Inspirational, Freedom, Responsibility

  "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress" by Robert A. Heinlein, (Ch. 6), 1966.

  155 Copy quote

• Secrecy is the keystone to all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy and censorship. When any government or church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, "This you may not read, this you must not know," the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man who has been hoodwinked in this fashion; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, whose mind is free. No, not the rack nor the atomic bomb, not anything. You can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Fashion, Atheist, Freedom

  76 Copy quote

• It is a bad sign when the people of a country stop identifying themselves with the country and start identifying with a group. A racial group. Or a religion. Or a language. Anything, as long as it isn't the whole population.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Country, Long, People

  Robert A. Heinlein (1982). “Friday”

  32 Copy quote

• A dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than is a riot.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Loss, Dying, Culture

  Robert A. Heinlein (1982). “Friday”

  46 Copy quote

• 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.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Race, People, Political

  101 Copy quote

• Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty. This is known as "bad luck.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Men, Thinking, Creating

  Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Time Enough for Love”, p.228, Penguin

  19 Copy quote

• Ignorance is curable, stupid is forever.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Stupid, Ignorance, Forever

  30 Copy quote

• Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Stupidity, Underestimate, Attributes

  50 Copy quote

• I think perhaps of all the things a police state can do to its citizens, distorting history is possibly the most pernicious.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Thinking, Police, Citizens

  "The Past Through Tomorrow" by Robert A. Heinlein, G. P. Putnam Inc., (p. 401), 1967.

  25 Copy quote

• I never learned from a man who agreed with me.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Wise, Wisdom, Learning

  132 Copy quote

• Anyone who can worship a trinity and insist that his religion is a monotheism can believe anything.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Believe, Religion, Worship

  Robert A. Heinlein (1985). “Job, a Comedy of Justice”, Del Rey

  30 Copy quote

• If you are part of a society that votes, then do so. There may be no candidates and no measures you want to vote for ... but there are certain to be ones you want to vote against. In case of doubt, vote against. By this rule you will rarely go wrong.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Doubt, May, Want

  Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Time Enough for Love”, p.321, Penguin

  16 Copy quote

• Democracy can survive anything except Democrats

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Democracy, Politics, Democrat

  38 Copy quote

• Remember though, your best weapon is between your ears and under your scalp -provided it's loaded.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Ears, Weapons, Remember

  64 Copy quote

• It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creeds into law if it acquires the political power to do so, and will follow it by suppressing opposition, subverting all education to seize early the minds of the young, and by killing, locking up, or driving underground all heretics.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Law, Political, Mind

  76 Copy quote

• There are two ways of forming an opinion. One is the scientific method; the other, the scholastic. To the scientific mind, experimental proof is all-important, and theory is merely a convenience in description, to be junked when it no longer fits. To the academic mind, authority is everything, and facts are junked when they do not fit theory.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Two, Mind, Important

  27 Copy quote

• In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Clear Goals, Excellence, Loyal

  74 Copy quote

• You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Wisdom, Peace, Freedom

  Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Time Enough for Love”, p.227, Penguin

  25 Copy quote

• No matter where or what, there are makers, takers, and fakers.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Fake, Psychology, Matter

  Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Time Enough for Love”, p.112, Penguin

  23 Copy quote

• Patriotism is not 'my country right or wrong'; patriotism means loving the ideals for which America stands and having the courage to speak up when these ideals are distorted for personal or political gain. The American government was instituted to be the servant of the people, not our master.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Country, Mean, Government

  36 Copy quote

• The United States has become a place where entertainers and professional athletes are mistaken for people of importance.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Athlete, People, United States

  38 Copy quote

• A fool cannot be protected from his folly. If you attempt to do so, you will not only arouse his animosity but also you will be attempting to deprive him of whatever benefit he is capable of deriving from experience. Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Pigs, Benefits, Waste

  Time Enough for Love "Prelude II" (1973)

  67 Copy quote

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