Quotes from Robert A. Heinlein

however the trouble with "lessons from history" is that we usually read them best after falling flat on our chins.

It was a belt canteen of flexible synthetic divided into half-litre pockets. The weight was taken by shoulder straps and a tube ran up the left suspender, ending in a nipple near his mouth, so that he might drink without taking it off.

It's a nasty story. I got that much before my informant sobered up. Dr. Ward Smith delivered his wife by Caesarean section—and she died on the table. What he did next shows that he knew the score; with the same scalpel he cut Captain Brant's throat—then his own. Sorry, hon." Jill

The first principle in riding a tiger is to hang on tight to its ears.

The Universe was a silly place at best . . . but the least likely explanation for it was the no-explanation of random chance, the conceit that abstract somethings 'just happened' to be atoms that 'just happened' to get together in ways which 'just happened' to look like consistent laws and some configurations 'just happened' to possess self-awareness and that two 'just happened' to be the Man from Mars and a bald-headed old coot with Jubal inside.

We have had enough guesses; I'll state the obvious: Under our system every voter and officeholder is a man who has demonstrated through voluntary and difficult service that he places the welfare of the group ahead of personal advantage. And that is the one practical difference. He may fail in wisdom, he may lapse in civic virtue. But his average performance is enormously better than that of any other class of rulers in history.

To stay young requires unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods.

government is a dangerous servant and a terrible master. You now have freedom—if you can keep it. But do remember that you can lose this freedom more quickly to yourselves than to any other tyrant.

She was relaxed with what she was - liked herself as Lazarus thought of it - and liking yourself was the necessary first step toward loving other people.

too many facts hamper a diplomat, especially an honest one." "I'm not especially honest." "But you have no talent for dishonesty, so your refuge must be ignorance and stubbornness. You have the latter; try to preserve the former.

I grok people now, Jill . . . Little Brother . . . precious darling . . . little imp with lively legs and lovely lewd lascivious lecherous licentious libido . . . beautiful bumps and pert posterior . . . soft voice and gentle hands. My baby darling." "Why

like fire and fusion, government is a dangerous servant and a terrible master.

We find you've turned it into a circus. Well, if you're going to have a circus, you've got to have elephants.

What's that got to do with it? Learning isn't a means to an end; it is an end in itself.

The typical American female is sure that she has genius as a couturière, as an interior decorator, as a gourmet cook, and, always, as a courtesan. Usually she is wrong on four counts. But don't try to tell her so." He had added, "Unless you can catch one not over twelve and segregate her, especially from her mother—and even that may be too late.

human being has no natural rights of any nature.

The American male is convinced that he is a great warrior, a great statesman, and a great lover. Spot checks prove that he is as deluded as she is. Or worse. Historo-culturally speaking, there is strong evidence that the American male, rather than the female, murdered sex in your country.

Each copy is guaranteed—or double your money back—to be printed on genuine paper of enough pages to hold the covers apart.

There is no such thing as luck; there is only adequate or inadequate preparation to cope with a statistical universe. Do you intend to enter this?

Never underestimate the power of human stupidity." "There's

I hadn't been surprised when he kicked over his career to stand up for what he felt was right. Real officers did that.

Where you go, I go. Today and to the end of our lives. Unless you tell me to get out, that you don't want me anymore. I have spoken." "You certainly have, dear. Hilda?

the soap that washes cleaner, is packed with vitamins, and improves your chances of Heaven, not to mention its rich creamy lather, finer ingredients, and refusal to take the Fifth Amendment.

Oremos por un último aterrizaje sobre el globo que nos vio nacer. Fijemos nuestros ojos en el cielo aborregado y las frescas, verdes colinas de la Tierra.