Quotessence
Home / Authors / Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein

Robert A. Heinlein Quotes

Science writer

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenIfsPeopleHumansWayKnowsDoeReligionThinkingLongShouldSelfStranger In A Strange LandMindForceLawMayWantSexMoral

Famous Robert A. Heinlein Quotes

“There are two ways of forming an opinion. One is the scientific method; the other, the scholastic. To the scientific mind, experimental proof is all-important, and theory is merely a convenience in description, to be junked when it no longer fits. To the academic mind, authority is everything, and facts are junked when they do not fit theory.”

WayMindTwoImportantFactsOpinionTheoryFitAuthorityMethodProofDescriptionAcademicConvenienceTwo WaysScientific MethodScholastics
Author:Robert A. Heinlein
Create image

“Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own... Jealousy is a disease, love is a healthy condition. The immature mind often mistakes one for the other, or assumes that the greater the love, the greater the jealousy.”

LoveMindPersonsLove IsMistakeGreaterConditionsHealthyEssentialsDiseaseAssumingJealousyJealousImmatureBeing JealousJealousy EnvyJealousy And EnvyLove JealousyJealous And EnvyLove And JealousyJealous PeopleBeing ImmatureI Am JealousMature And ImmatureYour JealousJealous LoveYou Jealous
Book:Stranger in a Strange Land
Create image

“Secrecy is the keystone to all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy and censorship. When any government or church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, "This you may not read, this you must not know," the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man who has been hoodwinked in this fashion; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, whose mind is free. No, not the rack nor the atomic bomb, not anything. You can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him.”

KnowsMenMindMayLittlesHas BeensEndsMatterGovernmentReligionForceCan DoChurchFreedomResultsSubjectsFashionAmountNeededHolyAtheistTyrannyOppressionConquerMotiveBombsCensorshipSecrecyFree ManAtomic BombRacksEnd ResultsKeystones
Author:Robert A. Heinlein
Create image

“What are the facts? Again and again and again – what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what “the stars foretell,” avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable “verdict of history” – 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!”

ThinkingMindFactsTruthCareStarsForgetOpinionDivineHistoricalNeighborRevelationsPilotsAgain And AgainClueWishful ThinkingVerdictDivine RevelationUnknown FutureDecimals
Author:Robert A. Heinlein
Create image

“There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute nor common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back...”

MenYearsMindMadeCountryGovernmentFacesLawCertainAsksIndividualInterestCommonNumbersGroupsStrangeDutyCircumstancesCourtNotionProfitContraryDoctrineClockCorporationsPublic InterestStatutesCommon Law
Author:Robert A. Heinlein
Create image

“It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creeds 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.”

IfsMindLawYoungPoliticalPoliticsKillingDrivingAcquireOppositionCensorshipCreedsCultSectsPolitical PowerHereticTruismSuppressing
Author:Robert A. Heinlein
Create image