Heinlen, Robert A. (Robert A. Heinlein)

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.
-- Robert A. Heinlein

Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.
-- Robert A. Heinlein

One man's "magic" is another man's engineering. "Supernatural" is a null word.
-- Robert A. Heinlein

Most people can't think, most of the remainder won't think, the small fraction who do think mostly can't do it very well. The extremely tiny fraction who think regularly, accurately, creatively, and without self-delusion
-- Robert A. Heinlein

That we were slaves I had known all my life
-- Robert A. Heinlein

Genius is where you find it.

-- Robert A. Heinlein

I will accept any rules that you feel necessary to your freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them to obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.

-- Robert A. Heinlein

TANSTAAFL (There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch)

-- Robert A. Heinlein

First, what is it you want us to pay taxes for? Tell me what I get and perhaps I'll buy it.

-- Robert A. Heinlein

Suppose instead of election a man were qualified for office by petition signed by four thousand citizens. He would then represent those four thousand affirmatively, with no disgruntled minority, for what would have been a minority in a territorial constituency would all be free to start other petitions or join in them. All would then be represented by men of their choice. Or a man with eight thousand supporters might have two votes in this body. Difficulties, objections, practical points to be worked out
-- Robert A. Heinlein

Whatever you do, do not let the past be a straitjacket!

-- Robert A. Heinlein

Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it.
-- Robert A. Heinlein

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.
-- Robert A. Heinlein

Being intelligent is not a felony. But most societies evaluate it as at least a misdemeanor.
-- Robert A. Heinlein

Certainly the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you; if you don't bet, you can't win.
-- Robert A. Heinlein

Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get.
-- Robert A. Heinlein

Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How's that again? I missed something.

Autocracy is based on the assumption that one man is wiser than a million men. Let's play that over again, too. Who decides?
-- Robert A. Heinlein

If it can't be expressed in figures, it is not science; it is opinion. It has long been known that one horse can run faster than another
-- Robert A. Heinlein

If you happen to be one of the fretful minority who can do creative work, never force an idea; you'll abort it if you do. Be patient and you'll give birth to it when the time is ripe. Learn to wait.
-- Robert A. Heinlein

It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so, and will follow it by suppressing opposition, subverting all education to seize early the minds of the young, and by killing, locking up, or driving underground all heretics.
-- Robert A. Heinlein

No state has an inherent right to survive through conscript troops and, in the long run, no state ever has. Roman matrons used to say to their sons: "Come back with your shield, or on it." Later on, this custom declined. So did Rome.
-- Robert A. Heinlein

Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can't help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity
-- Robert A. Heinlein

What are the facts? Again and again and again - what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, for get what "the stars foretell," avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable "verdict of his story" - what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!
-- Robert A. Heinlein

Let's assume that I am sane (or nearly so; being a little bit crazy is helpful). If I am okay, then the world is out of joint. Let's take stock.

-- Robert A. Heinlein

For a creature to act out its own minor part, the rules under which it acts must be either known to it or be such that the rules can become known through trial and error - with error not always fatal. In short the creature must be able to learn and to benefit by its experience.

-- Robert A. Heinlein

Don't explain computers to laymen. Simpler to explain sex to a virgin.
-- Robert A. Heinlein

You can have Peace, or you can have Freedom. Don't ever count on having both at the same time.
-- Robert A. Heinlein

Being right too soon is socially unacceptable.
-- Robert A. Heinlein

Goodness alone is never enough. A hard cold wisdom is required, too, for goodness to accomplish good. Goodness without wisdom invariably accomplishes evil.
-- Robert A. Heinlein

"Do you know who is responsible?"

"Jill, 'the government' is several million people."
-- Robert A. Heinlein