Quotes from Robert A. Heinlein

the unkindest thing you can do for a hungry man is to give him food.

Well, 'hate' is the other luxury an instructor can never afford. We must not hate them, we must not like them; we must teach them.

Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and their freedoms.

Maybe the whole world held together only when you kept your attention centered on it and believed in it. If you let discrepancies creep in, you began to doubt and it began to go to pieces.

What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly . . . it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. —Thomas Paine

The weak ones died, and the bad ones died or were killed; the stock that survived was always stronger, smarter, more decent. New Beginnings was a planet to be proud of, and it would get better and better and better for a long time.

I say 'art' advisedly, for art is undefined, undefinable, and without limits. I can use the word without fear of misusing it, for it has no exact meaning. There are as many meanings as there are artists.

A rational anarchist believes that concepts such as 'state' and 'society' and 'government' have no existence save as physically exemplified in the acts of self-responsible individuals.

noise is always a byproduct of inefficiency. A correctly designed engine is as silent as the grave.

If God existed (concerning which Jubal maintained neutrality) and if He wanted to be worshipped (a proposition which Jubal found improbable but nevertheless possible in the light of his own ignorance), then it seemed wildly unlikely that a God potent to shape galaxies would be swayed by the whoop-te-do nonsense the Fosterites offered as "worship." But

A managed democracy is a wonderful thing, Manuel, for the managers.

He could not afford to believe anything that he was told, or that he read, or that was implicitly assumed to be true about the world around him. No, he could not believe any of it, for the sum total of what be had been told and read and been taught in school was so contradictory, so senseless, so wildly insane that none of it could be believed unless he personally confirmed it.

She found as always that words on paper proved themselves; they were so beautifully true.

intelligence" in the military meaning; a man in a suit can be just as stupid as anybody else—only he had better not be)

You really aren't here at all. There isn't anybody but me. Jane, here alone in the dark, I miss you dreadfully!

Terra had climbed well beyond that which its

joking. A slave needs privileges to keep him quiet.

First, I want your solemn oath not even to talk in your sleep about this job. If my simple word is not good, is my oath better?

What I fear most are affirmative actions of sober and well- intentioned men, granting to government powers to do something that appears to need doing.

If God meant for people to fly, He would have given them brains.

It is by no means enough that an officer should be capable. . . . He should be as well a gentleman of liberal education, refined manners, punctilious courtesy, and the nicest sense of personal honor. . . . No meritorious act of a subordinate should escape his attention, even if the reward be only one word of approval. Conversely, he should not be blind to a single fault in any subordinate.

Dress yourself in heavy fishing waders, put on an overcoat and boxing gloves and a bucket over your head, then have somebody strap two sacks of cement across your shoulders and you will know what a space suit feels like under one gravity.

There was a lot to be said for the job of assistant section leader—when you come right to it, it's a lot easier to die than it is to use your head.

Almost all crime depends on the acquiescence of the victim. If the victim refuses his assigned role, the criminal is placed at a disadvantage - one so severe, that it usually takes an understanding and compassionate judge to set things right. I had broken the rules. I had fought back.