Robert A. Heinlein's Quotes

The universe never did make sense; I suspect it was built on government contract.

One man's 'magic' is another man's engineering. 'Supernatural' is a null word.

The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive.

Being right too soon is socially unacceptable.

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

By cultivating the beautiful we scatter the seeds of heavenly flowers, as by doing good we cultivate those that belong to humanity.

To be matter-of-fact about the world is to blunder into fantasy - and dull fantasy at that, as the real world is strange and wonderful.

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

I don't see how an article of clothing can be indecent. A person, yes.

The difference between science and the fuzzy subjects is that science requires reasoning while those other subjects merely require scholarship.

When a place gets crowded enough to require ID's, social collapse is not far away. It is time to go elsewhere. The best thing about space travel is that it made it possible to go elsewhere.

For me, politeness is a sine qua non of civilization.

Never worry about theory as long as the machinery does what it's supposed to do.

Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn't there. Theologians can persuade themselves of anything.

There is no way that writers can be tamed and rendered civilized or even cured. The only solution known to science is to provide the patient with an isolation room, where he can endure the acute stages in private and where food can be poked in to him with a stick.

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.

A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity.

Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own... Jealousy is a disease, love is a healthy condition. The immature mind often mistakes one for the other, or assumes that the greater the love, the greater the jealousy.

An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.

I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do. 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.

Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.

Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.

Don't handicap your children by making their lives easy.