Quotes About Heinlein

If men were the automatons that behaviorists claim they are, the behaviorist psychologists could not have invented the amazing nonsense called 'behaviorist psychology.'

Never appeal to a man's 'better nature.' He may not have one. Invoking his self-interest gives you more leverage.

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.

What we think of as 'Physical beauty' is almost certainly a tag for a complex of useful survival characteristics. Smartness - intelligence - among them.

The earliest depiction of libertarian eugenics may have appeared in a science fiction novel, Robert Heinlein's 1942 tale 'Beyond This Horizon.'

In the twentieth century, nowhere on Earth was sex so vigorously suppressed as in America---and nowhere else was there such a deep interest in it.

Thou art God'. It's not a message of cheer and hope. It's a defiance - and an unafraid, unabashed assumption of personal responsibility.

Is this Paradise?' 'I can guarantee you that it isn't,' Jubal assured him. 'My taxes are due this week.

As for logic and internal consistency, these mundane rules do not apply to sacred writings and never have...

Sovereign, like love, means anything you want it to mean; it's a word in dictionary between sober and sozzled.

Of all the strange "crimes" that human beings have legislated out of nothing, "blasphemy" is the most amazing—with "obscenity" and "indecent exposure" fighting it out for second and third place.

Never appeal to a man's better nature. He may not have one. Invoking his self-interest gives you more leverage.

That God is in truth the sort of bloodthirsty paranoid Who would rend to bits forty-two children for the crime of sassing one of his priests. Don't ask me about the Front Office's policies; I just work here.

His claim to Mars is lawyers' hogwash; as a lawyer myself I need not respect it.

Once upon a time there was a Martian named Valentine Michael Smith.

Private,' he said firmly. 'Family matter. Go have a drink.' 'Whose family?' 'A death in yours, if you insist.

For millennia philosophers and saints have tried to reason out a logical scheme for the universe... until Hilda came along and demonstrated that the universe is not logical but whimsical, its structure depending solely on the dreams and nightmares of non-logical dreamers.

writing is a legal way of avoiding work without actually stealing and one that doesn't take any talent or training

Well, I'll stick to the Old Testament, picking it to pieces usually doesn't upset people quite so much.

Being kissed by Wyoming Knott is more definite than being married to most women.

I object to conscription the way a lobster objects to boiling water: it may be his finest hour but it's not his choice.

I hope he's just a scoundrel . . . because a saint can stir up ten times as much mischief as a scoundrel.

Mahmoud, sir. No, Doctor Mahmoud is not well. A—a slight nervous breakdown, sir." Van Tromp reflected that being dead drunk was the moral equivalent thereof.

Want to back out?" Jill let out a long breath. "No. I've always wanted a life of crime. Will you teach me gangster lingo? I want to be a credit to you.