Robert A. Heinlein

Citizenship is an attitude, a state of mind, an emotional conviction that the whole is greater than the part...and that the part should be humbly proud to sacrifice itself that the whole may live.

The way to find justice is to deal fairly with other people and not worry about how they deal with you.

Specialization is for insects.

People who are busy and happy don't write diaries; they are too busy living.

I woke up in bed with a man and a cat. The man was a stranger; the cat was not

when faced with a problem you do not understand, do any part of it you do understand, then look at it again.

- I'm so busy doing what I must do that I don't have time for what I ought to do... and I never get a chance to do what I want to do! - Son, that's universal. The way to keep that recipe from killing you is occasionally to do what you want to do anyhow.

In terms of morals there is no such thing as ‘state.’ Just men. Individuals. Each responsible for his own acts.

Death isn't funny." "Then why are there so many jokes about death? Jill, with us — us humans — death is so sad that we must laugh at it.

But when they began handing out doctorates for comparative folk dancing and advanced fly-fishing, I became too stink in’ proud to use the title. I won’t touch watered whiskey and I take no pride in watered-down degrees.

Talking with a Martian is like talking with an echo. You don't get argument but you don't get results.

You were probably educated in the conventional economic theories of your period which were magnificent and most ingenious, but--if you will pardon my saying so--all wrong.

I do know that the slickest way to lie is to tell the right amount of truth--then shut up.

The commonest weakness of our race is our ability to rationalize our most selfish purposes.

Autobiography is usually honest but it is never truthful.

The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.

Heinlein's Rules for Writers Rule One: You Must Write Rule Two: Finish What Your Start Rule Three: You Must Refrain From Rewriting, Except to Editorial Order Rule Four: You Must Put Your Story on the Market Rule Five: You Must Keep it on the Market until it has Sold

A monarch's neck should always have a noose around it. It keeps him upright.

Morals - all correct moral laws - derive from the instinct to survive. Moral behavior is survival behavior above the individual level.

The price of freedom is the willingness to do sudden battle anywhere, any time and with utter recklessness.

Ignorance is curable, stupid is forever.