Robert A. Heinlein Quotes

1907–1988 United States

Robert Anson Heinlein (7 July 1907 – 8 May 1988) was one of the most popular, influential, and controversial authors of science fiction of the 20th Century.

United States
Agnostics
Anti-communists
Critics
Engineers

Also known as: Heinlein, Heinlein, Robert A., Robert A Heinlein, Robert Anson Heinlein, Robert Heinlein, Friday (novel)

Random Robert A. Heinlein quote

491 quotes

Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.

Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)

“My uncle used to say, ‘Never pick up a stray kitten…unless you’ve already made up your mind to be owned by it.’”

The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (1985)

I have never been able to see life as anything but a vast complicated practical joke, and it’s better to laugh than cry.

I Will Fear No Evil (1970)

A generation which ignores history has no past —and no future.

Time Enough for Love (1973)

If you would know a man, observe how he treats a cat.

The Door Into Summer (1957)

It seemed to John that most of the older people in the world spent much of their time not listening.

The Star Beast (1954)

It seems to me that any law that is not enforced and can’t be enforced weakens all other laws.

Friday (1982)

In Wilson’s scale of evaluations breakfast rated just after life itself and ahead of the chance of immortality.

Off the Main Sequence (2005)

A friend who offers help without asking for explanations is a treasure beyond price.

The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (1985)

A monarch’s neck should always have a noose around it—it keeps him upright.

The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (1985)

I suspect that there are just two sorts of lawyers: those who spend their efforts making life easy for other people—and parasites.

Friday (1982)

The capacity of the human mind for swallowing nonsense and spewing it forth in violent and repressive action has never yet been plumbed.

Revolt in 2100 (1953)

He considered horoscopes as silly as spectacles on a cow.

Between Planets (1951)

A beautiful summer day in Iowa leaves no room for worry.

The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (1985)

Nobody ever wins a lawsuit but the lawyers.

The Door Into Summer (1957)

Everything is theoretically impossible, until it’s done. 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.

Between Planets (1951)

One time in a hundred a gun might save your life; the other ninety-nine it will just tempt you into folly.

Tunnel in the Sky (1955)

Like many a man before him, he found himself forced into a lie because the truth simply would not be believed.

Off the Main Sequence (2005)

Cold calculated awareness that their power lay in keeping the people in ignorance.

Off the Main Sequence (2005)

A man who learns to read and write is half-way to freedom by that one fact.

Requiem: New Collected Works by Robert A. Heinlein and Tributes to the Grand Master (1992)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Robert A. Heinlein (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.