His was not a small mind bothered by logic and consistency.


Robert A. Heinlein

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TANSTAAFL: There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
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For every SF reader of that period, Robert A. Heinlein was also a touchstone.
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Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
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There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
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As for logic and internal consistency, these mundane rules do not apply to sacred writings and never...
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Don't ever become a pessimist... a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimis...
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One man's 'magic' is another man's engineering. 'Supernatural' is a null wor...
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The universe never did make sense; I suspect it was built on government contract.
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Yield to temptation. It may not pass your way again.
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The difference between science and the fuzzy subjects is that science requires reasoning while those...
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Never worry about theory as long as the machinery does what it's supposed to do.
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No statement should be believed because it is made by an authority.
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Don't handicap your children by making their lives easy.
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You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.
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They didn't want it good, they wanted it Wednesday.
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When a place gets crowded enough to require ID's, social collapse is not far away. It is time to...
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I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do. I am free, no matt...
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One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortu...
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To be matter-of-fact about the world is to blunder into fantasy - and dull fantasy at that, as the r...
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There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
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Almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political po...
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A long and wicked life followed by five minutes of perfect grace gets you into Heaven. An equally lo...
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An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with hi...
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Anyone who clings to the historically untrue -- and -- thoroughly immoral doctrine that violence nev...
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There ain't no such thing as a free lunch." A Libertarian Movement slogan - The Moon Is a Harsh Mi...
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Never try to outstubborn a cat.
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Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.
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Being a mother is an attitude, not a biological relation.
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Don't handicap your children by making their lives easy.
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Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get.
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Don't explain computers to laymen. Simpler to explain sex to a virgin.
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You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity.
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Love" is a that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own...Jealou...
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Anybody can look at a pretty girl and see a pretty girl. An artist can look at a pretty girl and see...
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Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.
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I grok in fullness.
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Being sorry won't get you into heaven. Get happy, son. Get that old spring into your step and stay o...
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Government! Three fourths parasitic and the other fourth Stupid fumbling.
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English is the largest of human tongues, with several times the vocabulary of the second largest lan...
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Faith strikes me as intellectual laziness.
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Art is the process of evoking pity and terror, which is not abstract at all but very human. What the...
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Thou art god, I am god. All that groks is god.
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I'm always suspicious of disinterested interest.
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I’ve been kissed by men who did a very good job. But they don’t give kissing their whole attenti...
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He's an honest politician--he stays bought.
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The slickest way in the world to lie is to tell the right amount of truth at the right time-and then...
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Its very variety, subtlety, and utterly irrational, idiomatic complexity makes it possible to say th...
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Most neuroses and some psychoses can be traced to the unnecessary and unhealthy habit of daily wallo...
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If God existed (a question concerning which Jubal maintained a meticulous intellectual neutrality) a...
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Democracy is a poor system of government at best; the only thing that can honestly be said in its fa...
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It's up to the artist to use language that can be understood, not hide it in some private code. Most...
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My dear, I used to think I was serving humanity . . . and I pleasured in the thought. Then I discove...
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There is no safety this side of the grave
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I do know that the slickest way to lie is to tell the right amount of truth--then shut up.
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I never do anything I don't want to do. Nor does anyone, but in my case I am always aware of it.
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Anybody can look at a pretty girl and see a pretty girl. An artist can look at a pretty girl and see...
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If you've got the truth you can demonstrate it. Talking doesn't prove it.
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Thinking doesn't pay. Just makes you discontented with what you see around you.
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But goodness alone is never enough. A hard, cold wisdom is required for goodness to accomplish good....
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Consider the black widow spider. It's a timid little beastie, useful and, for my taste, the pretties...
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Secrecy begets tyranny.
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A desire not to butt into other people's business is at least eighty percent of all human wisdom.
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I've found out why people laugh. They laugh because it hurts so much . . . because it's the only thi...
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Jealousy is a disease, love is a healthy condition. The immature mind often mistakes one for the oth...
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No matter where or what, there are makers, takers, and fakers.
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Learning isn't a means to an end; it is an end in itself.
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A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, desig...
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Belief gets in the way of learning.
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Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn't ...
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To get anywhere, or even live a long time, a man has to guess, and guess right, over and over again,...
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The whole principle is wrong; it's like demanding that grown men live on skim milk because the baby ...
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I've never understood how God could expect His creatures to pick the one true religion by faith - it...
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Human beings hardly ever learn from the experience of others. They learn; when they do, which isn't ...
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A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.
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Gratitude: An imaginary emotion that rewards an imaginary behavior, altruism. Both imaginaries are f...
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The greatest productive force is human selfishness.
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Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done and why. Then do it.
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Those who cling to the untrue doctrine that violence never settles anything would be advised to conj...
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The universe never did make sense. I suspect that it was built on a government contract.
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When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, This you m...
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Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do somethi...
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A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a...
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History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a c...
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A long and wicked life followed by five minutes of perfect grace gets you into Heaven. An equally lo...
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You live and you learn -- or you don't live long.
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Most people who sneer at technology would starve to death if the engineering infrastructure were rem...
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I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find th...
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A dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others...
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Sense is never common.
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Why is it that every time I'm with you, makes me believe in magic?
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Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do somethin...
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Sex without love is merely healthy exercise.
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A society that gets rid of all its troublemakers goes downhill.
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Sex, whatever else it is, is an athletic skill. The more you practice, the more you can, the more yo...
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I never learned from a man who agreed with me.
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When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, This you may ...
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There is no way that writers can be tamed and rendered civilized or even cured. The only solution kn...
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One man's 'magic' is another man's engineering. 'Supernatural' is a null wor...
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Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done and why. Then do it.
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The universe never did make sense. I suspect that it was built on a government contract.
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I never learned from a man who agreed with me.
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Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done.
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Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors... and miss.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
May you live as long as you wish and love as long as you live.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
By cultivating the beautiful we scatter the seeds of heavenly flowers, as by doing good we cultivate...
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Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat.
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I was there to see beautiful naked women. So was everybody else. It's a common failing.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
The trouble with conspiracies is that they rot internally.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn...
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Butterflies are not insects,' Captain John Sterling said soberly. 'They are self-propelled flowers.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Butterflies are self propelled flowers.
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The Universe was a damned silly place at best . . . but the least likely explanation for its existen...
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Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own... Jealousy...
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An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with hi...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
One could write a history of science in reverse by assembling the solemn pronouncements of highest a...
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Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, an...
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Goodness without wisdom always accomplishes evil.
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The most preposterous notion that Homo sapiens has ever dreamed up is that the Lord God of Creation,...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
For me, politeness is a sine qua non of civilization.
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It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acqui...
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The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive.
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Never insult anyone by accident.
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ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Most people can't think, most of the remainder won't think, the small fraction who do think mostly c...
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If a grasshopper tries to fight a lawnmower, one may admire his courage but not his judgement.
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Happiness lies in being privileged to work hard for long hours in doing whatever you think is worth ...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
It's an indulgence to sit in a room and discuss your beliefs as if they were a juicy piece of gossip...
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One man's theology is another man's belly laugh.
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Never worry about theory as long as the machinery does what it's supposed to do.
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Women will forgive anything. Otherwise, the race would have died out long ago
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Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afte...
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How you behave toward cats here below determines your status in Heaven.
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The more you love, the more you can love--and the more intensely you love. Nor is there any limit on...
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People usually believe anything that they are told early and often.
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A long and wicked life followed by five minutes of perfect grace gets you into Heaven. An equally lo...
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Beds do not matter, it is who is in a bed that counts.
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They didn't want it good, they wanted it Wednesday.
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I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.
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His older self had taught his younger self a language which the older self knew because the younger ...
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I don't see how an article of clothing can be indecent. A person, yes.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
It's an indulgence to sit in a room and discuss your beliefs as if they were a juicy piece of go...
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The instinct to survive is human nature itself, and every aspect of our personalities derives from i...
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Elephants aren't human but they are very nice people.
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If you disturb the patient at such times, he may break into tears or become violent. and, if you sha...
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Since when was an emotional argument won by logic?
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In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ...
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Do not confuse "duty" with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a de...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
No woman ever ages beyond eighteen in her heart.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
There were many, many times thereafter that Don regretted having enlisted - but so has every man who...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
He never once repeated himself and he never used either profanity or obscenity. (I learned later tha...
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The America of my time line is a laboratory example of what can happen to democracies, what has even...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Any government will work if authority and responsibility are equal and coordinate. This does not ins...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Political tags — such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, ...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Secrecy is the keystone to all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy and censorship. When any government o...
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Yield to temptation...it may not pass your way again!
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor.
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Long human words (the longer the better) were easy, unmistakable, and rarely changed their meanings ...
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You can sway a thousand men by appealing to their prejudices quicker than you can convince one man b...
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Liberty is never unalienable; it must be redeemed regularly with the blood of patriots or it always ...
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That God is in truth the sort of bloodthirsty paranoid Who would rend to bits forty-two children for...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
To be matter of fact about the world is to blunder into fantasy -- and dull fantasy at that, as the ...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Being right too soon is socially unacceptable.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Of all the strange "crimes" that human beings have legislated of nothing, "blasphemy" is the most am...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense. (Hurtin...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
When a place gets crowded enough to require ID's, social collapse is not far away. It is time to go ...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
A great artist can look at an old woman, portray her exactly as she is... and force the viewer to se...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Under what circumstances is it moral for a group to do that which is not moral for a member of that ...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Stupidity cannot be cured. Stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death. The...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Anything which is physically possible can always be made financially possible; money is a bugaboo of...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
One man’s “magic” is another man’s engineering. “Supernatural” is a null word.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
I woke up in bed with a man and a cat. The man was a stranger; the cat was not
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
A community where everyone is a ruthless murderer, with handy access to death-dealing devices, is a ...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Every general prohibition creates its bootleggers.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Heroism' often consists in keeping your head in an emergency and doing the best you can with what yo...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense. (Hurtin...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Everybody lies about sex.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
The correct way to punctuate a sentence that states: "Of course it is none of my business, but -- " ...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Work is not an end in itself; there must always be time enough for love.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Never tease an old dog; he might have one bite left.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Take big bites. Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Animals can be driven crazy by placing too many in too small a pen. Homo sapiens is the only animal ...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Cheops' Law: Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Certainly the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you; if you don't bet you can't win.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
I came, I saw, she conquered."
The original Latin seems to have been garbled.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
If you are part of a society that votes, then do so. There may be no candidates and no measures you ...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Live and learn, or you don't live long.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Be wary of strong drink, it can make you shoot at the tax collector...and miss.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
A generation which ignores history has no past — and no future.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Delusions are often functional. A mother's opinions about her children's beauty, intelligence, goodn...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
There is no such thing as "Just a cat.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Customs tell a man who he is, where he belongs, what he must do. Better illogical customs than none;...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Find out what you want to do, then do it. Never talk yourself into doing something you don’t want....
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Television leaves no external scars.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Some people insist that ‘mediocre’ is better than ‘best.’ They delight in clipping wings bec...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Dress yourself in heavy fishing waders, put on an overcoat and boxing gloves and a bucket over your ...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Library science was the foundation of all sciences.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
You can't believe what a lovely planet we have until you see her from outside.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
The Mother Thing makes our world.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Everybody else specializes. Daddy knows everything, and he puts the pieces together.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
More depended on the student than on the school.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Mother had the social restraint of an ambassador.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
I needed a space suit the way a pig needs a pipe organ.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN