491 quotes
You’re not a stranger; you’re an old friend we haven’t known very long.
Friday (1982)
If you can’t outargue the other fellow, sometimes you can outlive him.
The Star Beast (1954)
Rotation through a fourth dimension can’t affect a three-dimensional figure any more than you can shake letters off a printed page.
Off the Main Sequence (2005)
“Joe, I’ve learned by bitter experience not to trust statements set off by ‘naturally,’ ‘of course,’ or ‘that goes without saying.’”
Off the Main Sequence (2005)
“‘Magic,’” I stated, “is a symbol for any process not understood.”
The Number of the Beast (1980)
Preaching has always been a chancy vocation, but in the days of Peter's ministry it was as chancy as that of a Marine platoon sergeant.
Job: A Comedy of Justice (1984)
Oh Max, you large lout, you arouse the eternal maternal in me.
Starman Jones (1953)
Is it not better to be in ignorance than to believe falsely?
Off the Main Sequence (2005)
A distance “as the crow flies” is significant only to crows.
Starman Jones (1953)
The phrase is self-contradictory; "sense" is never "common".
Time Enough for Love (1973)
Self-pity, he said, is the most demoralizing of all vices.
Friday (1982)
Three things only do slaves require, food, work, and their gods, and of the three their gods must never be touched, else they grow troublesome.
Sixth Column (1949)
Learning isn’t a means to an end; it is an end in itself.
Time for the Stars (1956)
Being a mother is an attitude, not a biological relation.
Have Space Suit—Will Travel (1958)
The difference between science and the fuzzy subjects is that science requires reasoning, while those other subjects merely require scholarship.
Time Enough for Love: the lives of Lazarus Long; a novel (1973)
It is better to be a lively frump than a stylish corpse.
The Number of the Beast (1980)
You can only grieve so much; after that it’s self pity.
Farmer in the Sky (1950)
Marriage is not ownership and wives are not property.
The Puppet Masters (1951)
Americans are considered crazy anywhere in the world.
“Scheer, are you any good at counterfeiting?”
“I’ve never tried it, sir.”
“No time like the present. Every man needs an alternative profession.”
Sixth Column (1949)