Robert Heinlein Quotes

Dad was an avid science fiction reader, and as I recall, he enjoyed Robert Heinlein's stories quite a lot, as did my little sister and I. Here are 101 Heinlein quotes I found online today at https://kidadl.com/quotes/robert-heinlein-quotes-from-the-dean-of-science-fiction-writers. I've copied and pasted them here for better readability, and also in case the attributed site disappears one day.

These quotes were introduced with the words, "Heinlein's works often emphasize the value of critical thinking. He and his works continue to have an impact on modern culture generally along with influencing science-fiction to date. Heinlein, along with Arthur C. Clarke and Issac Asimov, is known as one of the three masters to arise in the so-called Golden Age of science fiction. He is often termed as the 'dean of science fiction writers,' as his work has inspired a plethora of authors in the science fiction genre who have gone on to achieve fame. His works have been continuously printed since their first appearance, and are still available decades after his death. During his lifetime, Heinlein published 32 novels, 59 stories, and 16 collections. Three nonfiction books and two poems were released posthumously in 2003 and 2006."
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Quotes About Life
1. "Taxes are not levied for the benefit of the taxed."
2. "Life is short, but the years are long."
3. "Don't handicap your children by making their lives easy."
4. "A prude is a person who thinks that his own rules of propriety are natural laws."
5. "Sin lies only in hurting others unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense."
6. "May you live as long as you wish and love as long as you live."
7. "There is no such thing as freedom. There are only various privileges."
8. "The brave ones are braver, the good ones are better — and the vile ones are viler, for that matter."
9. "There are no dangerous weapons; there are only dangerous men."
10. "Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own."
11. "When a place gets crowded enough to require IDs, social collapse is not far away."
12. "A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity."
13. "You're in bad shape when your emotions force you into acts which you know are foolish."
14. "To the academic mind, authority is everything, and facts are junked when they do not fit theory."
15. "Must be yearning deep in human heart to stop other people from doing as they please."
16. "For me, politeness is a sine qua non of civilization."
17. "You can sway a thousand men by appealing to their prejudices quicker than you can convince one man by logic."
18. "There's a lot of guff talked about freedom. No man is free."
19. "There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him."
20. "A child's life is like a piece of paper on which every person leaves a mark."
21. "Nothing of value is free. Even the breath of life is purchased at birth only through gasping effort and pain."

Motivational Quotes
22. "It takes two to create a heaven, but hell can be accomplished by one."
23. "No intelligent man has any respect for an unjust law."
24. "Never worry about theory as long as the machinery does what it's supposed to do."
25. "Don't ever become a pessimist...a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun, and neither can stop the march of events."
26. "Courage is the complement of fear. A man who is fearless cannot be courageous."
27. "A generation which ignores history has no past and no future."
28. "If you don't like yourself, you can't like other people."
29. "I never learned from a man who agreed with me."
30. "A hard, cold wisdom is required for goodness to accomplish good. Goodness without wisdom always accomplishes evil."
31. "My old man says when it's time to be counted, the important thing is to be man enough to stand up."
32. "The way to find justice is to deal fairly with other people and not worry about how they deal with you."
33. "It's a man's business to be what he is, and to be it in style."
34. "Man is not a rational animal, he is a rationalizing animal."
35. "My old man claimed that the more complicated the law the more opportunity for scoundrels. The door into summer."

Inspirational Quotes
36. "One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortune of others."
37. "I never do anything I don't want to do. Nor does anyone, but in my case I am always aware of it."
38. "Take big bites. Anything worth doing is worth overdoing."
39. "The stars will never be won by little minds; we must be big as space itself."
40. "We laugh because it hurts, and it's the only thing to make it stop hurting."
41. "Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done."
42. "When I don't understand, I have an unbearable itch to know why."
43. "History is never surprising after it happens."
44. "Butterflies are self-propelled flowers."
45. "Audacity, always audacity - soundest principal of strategy."

Science and Sci-Fi Quotes
46. "I think that science fiction, even the corniest of it, even the most outlandish of it, no matter how badly it's written, has a distinct therapeutic value because all of it has as its primary postulate that the world does change."
47. "The difference between science and the fuzzy subjects is that science requires reasoning while those other subjects merely require scholarship."
48. "There are two ways of forming an opinion. One is the scientific method; the other, the scholastic."
49. "One could write a history of science in reverse by assembling the solemn pronouncements of highest authority about what could not be done and could never happen."
50. "...scientific research, no matter how 'pure' and useless it may seem, has an annoying habit of paying for itself many times, in the long run, in the form of greatly increased productivity."
51. "...the pursuit of science, despite its social benefits, is not a social virtue; its practitioners can be men so self-centered as to be lacking in social responsibility."
52. "One man's "magic" is another man's engineering."
53. "Abstract knowledge is always useful, sooner or later."

Funny Quotes
54. "Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy people trying to find easier ways to do something."
55. "Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea."
56. "The capacity of the human mind for swallowing nonsense and spewing it forth in violent and repressive action has never yet been plumbed."
57. "Ignorance is curable, stupid is forever."
58. "One should not attend even the end of the world without a good breakfast."
59. "It's an indulgence to sit in a room and discuss your beliefs as if they were a juicy piece of gossip."
60. "Cats have no sense of humor, they have terribly inflated egos, and they are very touchy."
61. "If a grasshopper tries to fight a lawnmower, one may admire his courage but not his judgment."
62. "Ninety percent of all human wisdom is the ability to mind your own business."
63. "Never pick up a stray kitten...unless you've already made up your mind to be owned by it."
64. "Avoid making irrevocable decisions while tired or hungry."
65. "The universe never did make sense; I suspect it was built on government contract."
66. "A poet who reads his verse in public may have other nasty habits."
67. "Never underestimate the power of human stupidity."
68. "The coldest depth of Hell is reserved for people who abandon kittens."
69. "God created men to test the souls of women."

Quotes From 'Time Enough For Love', considered to be one of his greatest sci-fi works
70. "Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig."
71. "To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks."
72. "Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it."
73. "You live and learn. Or you don't live long."
74. "If it can't be expressed in figures, it is not science; it is opinion."
75. "One man's theology is another man's belly laugh."
76. "Certainly the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you; if you don't bet you can't win."
77. "Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house."
78. "Respect for laws is a pragmatic matter. Women know this instinctively; that's why they are all smugglers. Men often believe — or pretend — that the "Law" is something sacred, or at least a science — an unfounded assumption very convenient to governments."
79. "Never try to out stubborn a cat."
80. "Never tease an old dog; he might have one bite left."
81. "Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny."
82. "Belief gets in the way of learning."
83. "No matter where or what, there are makers, takers, and fakers."

Quotes from 'Stranger In A Strange Land'
84. "Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own."
85. "Hate always sells well, but for repeat trade and the long pull happiness is sounder merchandise."
86. "The only religious opinion I feel sure of is this: self-awareness is not just a bunch of amino acids bumping together."
87. "Democracy is a poor system; the only thing that can be said for it is that it's eight times as good as any other method.
88. "A better artist can look at an old woman and see the pretty girl that she used to be."
89. "The truth can't be stated in English any more than Beethoven's Fifth can be."
90. "Thou art God. May you always drink deep may you never be thirsty."
91. "I have learned two ways to tie my shoes. One way is only good for lying down. The other way is good for walking."
92. "I never do anything I don't want to do. Nor does anyone, but in my case I am always aware of it."
93. "Contemplation must bring forth right action in order to permit further growth."
94. "The slickest way in the world to lie is to tell the right amount of truth at the right time--and then shut up."

Quotes from 'The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress'
95. "I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do."
96. "One might define adulthood as the age at which a person learns he must die and accepts his sentence undismayed."
97. "Women are amazing creatures-sweet, soft, gentle, and far more savage than we are."
98. "Nothing uses up alcohol faster than political argument."
99. "As it says in the Bible, God fights on the side with the heaviest artillery."
100. "Women talk when they want to. Or don't."
101. "If I don't start having service I'm going to swap you all for a dog and shoot the dog."