Robert A. Heinlein quotes - page 17

There is one thing no head of a country can know, and that is: how good is his intelligence system? He finds out only by having it fail him. (Robert A. Heinlein)
The situation has multifarious ramifications not immediately apparent to the unassisted optic. View quote
Robert A. Heinlein
‘Magic,'” I stated, "is a symbol for any process not understood. View quote
Robert A. Heinlein
It is better to be a lively frump than a stylish corpse. View quote
Robert A. Heinlein
I said, "What do you think about it, Paul?” The boss smiled gently. "I don't. I haven't enough data.”. View quote
Robert A. Heinlein
When had a slave religion proved anything but an aid to the conqueror? Slaves needed a wailing wall; they went into their temples, prayed to their gods to deliver them from oppression, and came out to work in the fields and factories, relaxed and made harmless by the emotional catharsis of prayer. View quote
Robert A. Heinlein
Random numbers are to a computer what free will is to a human being. View quote
Robert A. Heinlein
When a fact came along, he junked theories that failed to match. View quote
Robert A. Heinlein
Fighting continued on a token basis, and the dead did not complain. View quote
Robert A. Heinlein
Wong shook his head sadly. "I sometimes think that modern education is deliberately designed to handicap a boy.”. View quote
Robert A. Heinlein
Marriage is not ownership and wives are not property. (Robert A. Heinlein)
No philosophy that he had ever heard or read gave any reasonable purpose for man's existence, nor any rational clue to his proper conduct. Basking in the sunshine might be as good a thing to do with one's life as any other - but it was not for him and he knew it, even if he could not define how he knew it. View quote
Robert A. Heinlein
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. I cannot overemphasize the importance of that idea. View quote
Robert A. Heinlein
It didn't happen that way,” Roger Stone cut in, "so there is no use talking about other possibilities. They probably aren't really possibilities at all, if only we understood it.” Pollux: "Predestination.” Castor: "Very shaky theory.” Roger grinned. "I'm not a determinist and you can't get my goat. I believe in free will.” Pollux: "Another very shaky theory.” "Make up your minds,” their father told them. "You can't have it both ways.” "Why not?” asked Hazel. "Free will is a golden thread running through the frozen matrix of fixed events.” "Not mathematical,” objected Pollux. Castor nodded. "Just poetry. View quote
Robert A. Heinlein
He gave up and went back to loafing, found that he could sleep all right in the afternoons but that the practice kept him awake at night. View quote
Robert A. Heinlein
McIlvaine continued, "Take the amoeba-a more basic, and much more successful life form than than ours. The motivational psychology of the amoeba-” I switched off my ears; free speech gives a man the right to talk about the "psychology” of an amoeba, but I don't have to listen. View quote
Robert A. Heinlein
Doc says the Company set-up is just one big happy family, and the idea that it is a non-profit corporation is the biggest joke since women were invented. View quote
Robert A. Heinlein
The sort of guardian you can hire is worth about as much as the sort of wife you can buy. View quote
Robert A. Heinlein
The United States had become a place where entertainers and professional athletes were mistaken for people of importance. View quote
Robert A. Heinlein
I looked it up later; he was right. Dad is an absolute mine of useless information. He says a fact should be loved for itself alone. View quote
Robert A. Heinlein
The door dilated. (Robert A. Heinlein)
One time in a hundred a gun might save your life; the other ninety-nine it will just tempt you into folly. View quote
Robert A. Heinlein
When a cat greets you, he makes a big operation of it, bumping, stropping your legs, buzzing like mischief. But when he leaves, he just walks off and never looks back. Cats are smart. View quote
Robert A. Heinlein
I do not like weapons, Doctor; they are the last resort of faulty diplomacy. View quote
Robert A. Heinlein
If you can't outargue the other fellow, sometimes you can outlive him. View quote
Robert A. Heinlein