Robert A. Heinlein

“Citizenship is an attitude, a state of mind, an emotional conviction that the whole is greater than the part...and that the part should be humbly proud to sacrifice itself that the whole may live.”

“The capacity of humans to believe in what seems to me highly improbable- from table tapping to the superiority of their children- has never been plumbed.”

“Allie, what do the Stars tell me to do? You know I don't understand the scientific part.”

“Everybody is equal. Everybody! That's the law.""They are? Only from on top.”

“I don't pay much attention to politics.""You should. It's barely less important than your own heart beat.”

“Thing that got me was not her list of things she hated, since she was obviously crazy as a Cyborg, but fact that always somebody agreed with her prohibitions. Must be a yearning deep in human heart to stop other people from doing as they please. Rules, laws — always for other fellow. A murky part of us, something we had before we came down out of trees, and failed to shuck when we stood up. Because not one of those people said: "Please pass this so that I won't be able to do something I know I should stop." Nyet, tovarishchee, was always something they hated to see neighbors doing. Stop them "for their own good" — not because speaker claimed to be harmed by it.”

“Cats, like butterflies, need no excuse.”

“Victory in defeat, there is none higher. She didn't give up, Ben; she's still trying to lift that stone after it has crushed her. She's a father working while cancer eats away his insides, to bring home one more pay check. She's a twelve-year-old trying to mother her brothers and sisters because mama had to go to Heaven. She's a switchboard operator sticking to her post while smoke chokes her and fire cuts off her escape. She's all the unsung heroes who couldn't make it but never quit.”

“History has the relation to truth that theology has to religion — ie., none to speak of”

“Women are amazing creatures-sweet, soft, gentle, and far more savage than we are.”

“We organized First and Second Volunteer Defense Gunners of Free Luna-two regiments so that First could snub lowly Second and Second could be jealous of First.”

“Seems to be a deep instinct in human beings for making everything compulsory that isn't forbidden.”

“Must be yearning deep in human heart to stop other people from doing as they please.”

“Women and cats do as they damned well please, and men and dogs had best learn to live with it.”

“It is a bad sign when the people of a country stop identifying themselves with the country and start identifying with a group. A racial group. Or a religion. Or a language. Anything, as long as it isn't the whole population.”

“Drop dead-but first get permit”

“Till the stars grow old and our sun grows cold? Will you fight for us, lie for us, love us - and let us love you?”

“The way to find justice is to deal fairly with other people and not worry about how they deal with you.”

“How is a sincere criminal, trying hard, going to get ahead in his profession if his victim fails to cooperate?”

“Sick cultures show a complex of symptoms such as you have named...but a dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than is a riot.”

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

“Learn to say No—and to be rude about it when necessary. Otherwise you will not have time to carry out your duty, or to do your own work, and certainly no time for love and happiness. The termites will nibble away your life and leave none of it for you. ”

“…certain feet were made for stepping on ,in order to improve the breed, promote the general welfare and minimize the ancient insolence of office..”

“Man has no moral instinct. He is not born with moral sense. You were not born with it, I was not - and a puppy has none. We acquire moral sense, when we do, through training, experience, and hard sweat of the mind.”

“People who are busy and happy don't write diaries; they are too busy living.”

“Thou art God.”

“The whole principle (censorship) is wrong; it's like demanding that grown men live on skim milk because the baby can't eat steak.”

“He was finding it ruinously expensive to be rich.”

“- I'm so busy doing what I must do that I don't have time for what I ought to do... and I never get a chance to do what I want to do!- Son, that's universal. The way to keep that recipe from killing you is occasionally to do what you want to do anyhow.”

“A boy who gets a C- in 'Appreciation of Television' can't be all bad.”

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

“[He] stopped long enough to remind himself that this baby innocent was neither babyish nor innocent — was in fact sophisticated in a culture which he was beginning to realize, however dimly, was far in advance of human culture in some very mysterious ways… and that these naive remarks came from a superman — or what would do in place of a ‘superman’ for the time being.”

“Revolution is an art that I pursue rather than a goal I expect to achieve. Nor is this a source of dismay; a lost cause can be as spiritually satisfying as a victory.”

“Some logics get nervous breakdowns. Overloaded phone system behaves like frightened child. Mike did not have upsets, acquired sense of humor instead. Low one. If he were a man, you wouldn't dare stoop over. His idea of thigh-slapper would be to dump you out of bed — or put itch powder in pressure suit.”

“I will accept any rules that you feel necessary to your freedom. 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.”

“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.”

“I woke up in bed with a man and a cat. The man was a stranger; the cat was not”

“I tried to dig out of the computer a call directory for Luna. But it was still sulking. I could not get it to list its own directory. So I tried some test problems on it. It insisted that 2 + 2 = 3.99999999999999999999999.... When I tried to get it to admit that 4 = 2 + 2, it became angry and claimed that 4 = 3.141592653589793238462643383279... So I gave up.”

“She might say: “This mess will clear up if you take that troublemaker there — What’s your name? You, with the goatee — out and shoot him. Do it now.”--Glory Road; Heinlein”

“You are telling me that I did something because I was going to do something.”“Well, didn’t you? You were there.”“No, I didn’t—no… well, maybe I did, but it didn’t feel like it.”“Why should you expect it to? It was something totally new to your experience.”“But… but—” Wilson took a deep breath and got control of himself. Then he reached back into his academic philosophical concepts and produced the notion he had been struggling to express. “It denies all reasonable theories of causation. You would have me believe that causation can be completely circular. I went through because I came back from going through to persuade myself to go through. That’s silly.”“Well, didn’t you?"~ By His Bootstraps / Robert A. Heinlein”

“In Wilson's scale of evaluations breakfast rated just after life itself and ahead of the chance of immortality."~ By His Bootstraps / Robert A. Heinlein”

“In terms of morals there is no such thing as ‘state.’ Just men. Individuals. Each responsible for his own acts.”

“in a matter of some generations all the stupid ones will die out and those with your discipline will inherit the Earth”

“Unless you intend to kill him immediately thereafter, never kick a man in the balls. Not even symbolically. Or perhaps especially not symbolically.”

“Daughters can spend ten percent more than a man can make in any usual occupation. That’s a law of nature, to be known henceforth as ‘Harshaw’s Law.”

“I’ve been kissed by men who did a very good job. But they don’t give kissing their whole attention. They can’t. No matter how hard they try parts of their minds are on something else. Missing the last bus—or their chances of making the gal—or their own techniques in kissing—or maybe worry about jobs, or money, or will husband or papa or the neighbors catch on. Mike doesn’t have technique . . . but when Mike kisses you he isn’t doing anything else. You’re his whole universe . . . and the moment is eternal because he doesn’t have any plans and isn’t going anywhere. Just kissing you.”

“When railroading time comes you can railroad—but not before.”

“Because the world has gone nutty and art always paints the spirit of its times”

“Death isn't funny." "Then why are there so many jokes about death? Jill, with us — us humans — death is so sad that we must laugh at it.”

“The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.”