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Quotations from
Robert A. Heinlein [1907-88]
 | American science-fiction writer Robert Anson Heinlein was often called the 'dean of science fiction writers'. He published 32 novels, 59 short stories, and 16 collections during his life; three nonfiction books and two poems have been published posthumously, plus his first (unpublished) novel "For Us, The Living: A Comedy of Customs" [2003]; and an extensive outline by Heinlein for "Variable Star" was completed by Spider Robinson and published in 2006. Heinlein was named the first Science Fiction Writers Grand Master in 1974. He won Hugo Awards for four of his novels; in addition, fifty years after publication, five of his works were awarded 'Retro Hugos', which are given retrospectively for works that were published before the Hugo Awards came into existence. |
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Robert A. Heinlein entry at Wikipedia
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“The universe never did make sense; I suspect it was built on government contract.” {Issue #36}
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“Love is a subjective condition in which the welfare and happiness of another person
are essential to one's own happiness.” {Issue #51}
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“The best things in history are accomplished by people who got tired of being shoved around.” {Issue #59}
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“The majority is never right.” {Issue #64}
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“Nothing gives life more zest than running for your life.” {blog 12/2007}
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“Paradoxes are verbal, they do not exist in the real world.” {blog 9/2008}
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“Vice has this defeat: It cannot be truly intelligent. It's very motives are its weakness.” {blog 9/2008}
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“A generation which ignores history has no past – and no future.” {blog 10/2009}
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“Progress in physics is achieved by denying the obvious and accepting the impossible.” {blog 1/2010}
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“Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done and why. Then do it.” {blog 5/2010}
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“Military policy is like cancer: Nobody knows where it comes from but it can't be ignored.” {blog 10/2010}
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“Disturbing the ecological balance is the worst mistake [that] any government can make.” {blog 10/2010}
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“As courage is bravery in the face of fear, virtue is right conduct in the face of temptation.” {blog 12/2010}
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“Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways
to do something.” {blog 12/2011}
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“When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.” {blog 6/2012}
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“Writing is a legal way of avoiding work without actually stealing.” {blog 1/2014}
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“A basic proposition of epistomology . . . is that an observed fact requires no proof;
it simply IS, self-demonstrating.” {blog 8/2014}
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“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts,
build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure,
program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” {blog 8/2015}
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“Man is not a rational animal, he is a rationalizing animal.” {blog 3/2016}
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“All philosophies that claim [that] the physical world around [you does] not exist except in your imagination are sheer nonsense.” {blog 7/2016}
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“Luck is a tag given by the mediocre to account for the accomplishments of genius.” - in "Puppet Masters" [1951 novel] {blog 8/2016}
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“Man is the one animal that can't be tamed.” {blog 2/2017}
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“In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until we become enslaved by it.” {blog 1/2018}
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“Yield to temptation. It may not pass your way again.” {blog 2/2018}
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“Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done.” {blog 6/2018}
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“May you live as long as you wish and love as long as you live.” {blog 8/2018}
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“TANSTAAFL: There ain't no such thing as a free lunch!” {blog 12/2019}
~~ popularized by author Robert Heinlein
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“The truth of a proposition has little or nothing to do with its psychodynamics. The notion that 'truth will prevail' is merely
a pious wish; history doesn't show it.” - in "Methuselah's Children" [1958] {blog 3/2023}
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“I think that science fiction, even the corniest of it, even the most outlandish of it, no matter how badly written, has a distinct therapeutic value
because all of it has as its primary postulate: that the world does change. I cannot overemphasize the importance of that idea.” {blog 12/2024}
Heinlein Quotations Not Yet Used on Blog
"Women should be obscene and not heard."
"I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them obnoxious, "Beware of altruism. It is based on self-deception, the root of all evil."
"An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life."
"A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity."
"One person's theology is another's belly laugh."
I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything [that] I do."
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