Quotes from Robert A. Heinlein

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.

oxygen content of air 11 percent higher

Always take an honor guard with you. If you have to go, go down fighting. The size of your guard of honor determines your status in hell.

I've been afraid so many times that I am no longer scared to be afraid again. What can't be cured must be endured.

Any government that gets to be too big and too successful gets to be a nuisance. The Federation got that way—it started out decently enough—and now it has to be trimmed down to size. So that the citizens can enjoy some 'looseness'.

Conceited indeed! Aside from a cold appreciation of my own genius I felt that I was a modest man.

The prize for first place is worthless to you . . . because you haven't earned it. But you enjoy a modest satisfaction in placing fourth; you earned it.

Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.

But does Man have any "right" to spread through the universe? Man is what he is, a wild animal with the will to survive, and (so far) the ability, against all competition. Unless one accepts that, anything one says about morals, war, politics—you name it—is nonsense. Correct morals arise from knowing what Man is—not what do-gooders

Not bleedin' likely, Aunt Nanny Goat. I toughened my feet for karate—I can break a four-by-nine with my feet and get nary a bruise. Or run on sharp gravel.

Never try to outstubborn a cat

Distrust the obvious, suspect the traditional . . . for in the past mankind has not done well when saddling itself with governments

We don't begrudge money spent on roads and public health and national defense and truly useful things. But we've quit paying for parasites wherever we can identify them.

river shots or nearby mountains. Oh, yes, Dallas—we destroy Dallas spaceport and should catch some ships; were six there last time I checked. Won't kill any people unless they insist on standing on target; Dallas is perfect place to bomb; that spaceport is big and flat and empty, yet maybe ten million people will see us hit it.

I am not indifferent to male beauty, but my sensuality is not perfectly balanced; in the presence of a homely female and a beautiful male, I tend to look at the female. So I'll never be an esthete; I lack judgment in matters of beauty. I apologize in advance to any female who finds my primitive attitude offensive.

combat team in the Galaxy into a leaderless, lawless, fear-crazed mob. "The whole merciless load will land without warning. You must act at once and you'll have only God over you. Don't expect Him to fill in tactical details;

I laugh because I dare not cry. This is a crazy world and the only way to enjoy it is to treat it as a joke. That doesn't mean I don't read and can't think. I read everything from Giblett to Hoyle, from Sartre to Pauling. I read in the tub, I read on the john, I read in bed, I read when I eat alone, and I would read in my sleep if I could keep my eyes open.

But it is a great and wonderful age, the most wonderful this giddy planet has yet seen. It is sometimes comic, too often tragic, and always wonderful. Our wildest dreams of the future will be surpassed by what lies in front of us. Come bad, come good, I want to take part in the show as long as possible.

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But don't worry; almost no one in this ship speaks System English and she isn't one of the few. They talk their 'secret language' -- only it isn't secret; it's just Finnish.

There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future

duty is an adult virtue—indeed a juvenile becomes an adult when, and only when, he acquires a knowledge of duty and embraces it as dearer than the self-love he was born with.

When are the territorial states going to learn that they cannot possibly win against corporate states?

You tickle trout by gaining their confidence, and then abusing it.