Robert A. Heinlein Quotes - Page 5

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• The Ten Commandments are for lame brains. The first five are solely for the benefit of the priests and the powers that be; the second five are half truths, neither complete nor adequate.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Brain, Religion, Lame

  Robert A. Heinlein (1988). “To Sail Beyond the Sunset”

  18 Copy quote

• Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Inspirational, Excess, Flavor

  Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Time Enough for Love”, p.226, Penguin

  18 Copy quote

• Never tease an old dog; he might have one bite left.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Dog, Might, Tease

  Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Time Enough for Love”, p.19, Penguin

  17 Copy quote

• Man is not a rational animal, he is a rationalizing animal.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Animal, Men, Rational

  Robert A. Heinlein (2005). “Tunnel in the Sky”, p.38, Simon and Schuster

  8 Copy quote

• Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Life, Minutes

  Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Time Enough for Love”, p.331, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

• Animals can be driven crazy by placing too many in too small a pen. Homo sapiens is the only animal that voluntarily does this to himself.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Crazy, Animal, Doe

  8 Copy quote

• There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute nor common law. 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

  Country, Men, Law

  "The Past Through Tomorrow" by Robert A. Heinlein, G. P. Putnam Inc., (p. 25), 1967.

  27 Copy quote

• Premenstrual Syndrome: Just before their periods women behave the way men do all the time.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Time, Men, Way

  The Cat Who Walks Through Walls: A Comedy of Manners ch. 15 (1985)

  8 Copy quote

• Moving parts in rubbing contact require lubrication to avoid excessive wear. Honorifics and formal politeness provide lubrication where people rub together. Often the very young, the untravelled, the naive, the sophisticated deplore these formalities as 'empty,' 'meaningless,' or 'dishonest,' and scorn to use them. No matter how 'pure' their motives, they thereby throw sand into machinery that does not work too well at best.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Moving, People, Together

  12 Copy quote

• It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Inspirational, Life, War

  Robert A. Heinlein (2014). “Revolt in 2100”, p.124, Hachette UK

  90 Copy quote

• Expertise in one field does not carry over into other fields. But experts often think so. The narrower their field of knowledge the more likely they are to think so.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Knowledge, Science, Thinking

  Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Time Enough for Love”, p.326, Penguin

  9 Copy quote

• The profession of shaman has many advantages. It offers high status with a safe livelihood free of work in the dreary, sweaty sense. In most societies it offers legal privileges and immunities not granted to other men. But it is hard to see how a man who has been given a mandate from on High to spread tidings of joy to all mankind can be seriously interested in taking up a collection to pay his salary; it causes one to suspect that the shaman is on the moral level of any other con man. But it is a lovely work if you can stomach it.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Men, Joy, Lovely

  Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Time Enough for Love”, p.325, Penguin

  22 Copy quote

• 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

  Dream, Atheist, Children

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

  18 Copy quote

• Fulfillment in life is loving a good woman and killing a bad man.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Death, Suicide, Men

  14 Copy quote

• Liberty is never unalienable; it must be redeemed regularly with the blood of patriots or it always vanishes. Of all the so-called natural human rights that have ever been invented, liberty is least likely to be cheap and is never free of cost.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Rights, Blood, Liberty

  Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Starship Troopers”, p.96, Penguin

  13 Copy quote

• In a family argument, if it turns out you are right, apologize at once.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Apologizing, Argument, Turns

  Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Time Enough for Love”, p.322, Penguin

  18 Copy quote

• 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

  Real, Taste, Electrons

  Robert A. Heinlein (2005). “Citizen of the Galaxy”, p.152, Simon and Schuster

  8 Copy quote

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

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Sex, Men, Breakfast

  9 Copy quote

• Government! Three fourths parasitic and the other fourth Stupid fumbling.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Stupid, Government, Three

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  Want, Existential, Accepting

  23 Copy quote

• The first principle of freedom is the right to go to hell in your own handbasket.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Atheist, Firsts, Principles

  12 Copy quote

• You're in bad shape when your emotions force you into acts which you know are foolish.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Shapes, Emotion, Foolish

  Robert A. Heinlein (2005). “Have Space Suit, Will Travel”, p.148, Simon and Schuster

  25 Copy quote

• Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Cat, Protocol, Kitty Cat

  "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls". Book by Robert A. Heinlein, 1985.

  76 Copy quote

• Touch is the most fundamental sense. A baby experiences it, all over, before he is born and long before he learns to use sight, hearing, or taste, and no human ever ceases to need it. Keep your children short on pocket money but long on hugs

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Baby, Children, Learning

  19 Copy quote

• A committee is the only known form of life with a hundred bellies and no brain.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Brain, Hundred, Form

  Robert A. Heinlein (2014). “Methuselah's Children”, p.13, Hachette UK

  17 Copy quote

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