Robert A. Heinlein · 388 pages
Rating: (19K votes)
“Sex, whatever else it is, is an athletic skill. The more you practice, the more you can, the more you want to, the more you enjoy it, the less it tires you.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, quote from The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
“Butterflies are not insects,' Captain John Sterling said soberly. 'They are self-propelled flowers.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, quote from The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
“There is no way that writers can be tamed and rendered civilized. Or even cured.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, quote from The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
“I scrolled on down to the obituaries. I usually read the obituaries first as there is always the happy chance that one of them will make my day.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, quote from The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
“I woke up in bed with a man and a cat. The man was a stranger; the cat was not”
― Robert A. Heinlein, quote from The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
“A monarch’s neck should always have a noose around it—it keeps him upright.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, quote from The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
“The hardest part about gaining any new idea is sweeping out the false idea occupying that niche. As long as that niche is occupied, evidence and proof and logical demonstration get nowhere. But once the niche is emptied of the wrong idea that has been filling it — once you can honestly say, ‘I don’t know’, then it becomes possible to get at the truth.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, quote from The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
“Hit it! You have to hit it harder than that. Electrons are timid little things but notional; you have to let them know who’s boss.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, quote from The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
“I tried to dig out of the computer a call directory for Luna. But it was still sulking. I could not get it to list its own directory. So I tried some test problems on it. It insisted that 2 + 2 = 3.99999999999999999999999.... When I tried to get it to admit that 4 = 2 + 2, it became angry and claimed that 4 = 3.141592653589793238462643383279... So I gave up.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, quote from The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
“How is a sincere criminal, trying hard, going to get ahead in his profession if his victim fails to cooperate?”
― Robert A. Heinlein, quote from The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
“There is no way to stop. Writers go on writing long after it becomes financially unnecessary...because it hurts less to write than it does not to write.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, quote from The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
“For millennia philosophers and saints have tried to reason out a logical scheme for the universe... until Hilda came along and demonstrated that the universe is not logical but whimsical, its structure depending solely on the dreams and nightmares of non-logical dreamers.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, quote from The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
“a friend who offers help without asking for explanations is a treasure beyond price.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, quote from The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
“...writing is a legal way of avoiding work without actually stealing and one that doesn't take any talent or training”
― Robert A. Heinlein, quote from The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
“The only constant thing in these shifting, fairy-chess worlds is human love.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, quote from The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
“there used to be, dirtside, a legal defenses called "diminished capacity" and "not guilty by reason on insanity." These concepts would bewilder a Loonie. In Luna City a man would necessarily be of diminished mental capacity to even think about rape; to carry one out would be the strongest possible proof of insanity - but among Loonies such mental disorders would not gain a rapist any sympathy. loonies do not psychoanalyze a rapist; they kill him. Now. Fast. Brutally.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, quote from The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
“Women and cats do what they do; there is nothing a man can do about it”
― Robert A. Heinlein, quote from The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
“Marrying Gretchen is a good idea, darling; I would enjoy bringing her up. Teaching her to shoot, helping her with her first baby, coaching her in how to handle a knife, working out with her in martial arts, all the homey domestic skills a girl needs in this modern world.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, quote from The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
“I'm not feisty. But when you're as small as I am and female if you don't stand up for your rights, you're sure to be pushed around by big, hairy, smelly men with delusions about male superiority.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, quote from The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
“Richard, Bill has the socialist disease in its worst form; he thinks the world owes him a living. He told me sincerely - smugly! - that of course everyone was entitled to the best possible medical and hospital service - free of course, unlimited of course, and of course the government should pay for it.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, quote from The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
“Almost all crime depends on the acquiescence of the victim. If the victim refuses his assigned role, the criminal is placed at a disadvantage - one so severe, that it usually takes an understanding and compassionate judge to set things right. I had broken the rules. I had fought back.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, quote from The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
Robert A. Heinlein
Born place: in Butler, MO, The United States
Born date July 7, 1907
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“Did you ever notice that all machines are made for some reason?" he asked Isabelle. "They are built to make you laugh, like the mouse here, or to tell the time, like clocks, or to fill you with wonder like the automaton. Maybe that's why a broken machine always makes me a little sad, because it isn't able to do what it was made to do." Isabelle picked up the mouse, wound it again, and set it down. "Maybe it's the same with people," Hugo continued. "If you lose your purpose...it's like you're broken.”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret
“A rational anarchist believes that concepts such as ‘state’ and ‘society’ and ‘government’ have no existence save as physically exemplified in the acts of self-responsible individuals. He believes that it is impossible to shift blame, share blame, distribute blame… as blame, guilt, responsibility are matters taking place inside human beings singly and nowhere else. But being rational, he knows that not all individuals hold his evaluations, so he tries to live perfectly in an imperfect world…aware that his effort will be less than perfect yet undismayed by self-knowledge of self-failure.
[...]
“My point is that one person is responsible. Always. [...] In terms of morals there is no such thing as ‘state.’ Just men. Individuals. Each responsible for his own acts.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, quote from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
“I decided a long time ago I would feed on the vultures until a dove came along. A pigeon. The kind of soul that didn't impede on anyone; just walked around worrying about its own business, trying to get through life without pulling everyone else down. With its own needs and selfish habits. Brave. A communicator. Intelligent. Beautiful. Soft-spoken. A creature that mates for life. Unattainable until she has a reason to trust you.”
― Jamie McGuire, quote from Walking Disaster
“Great! He has indigestion, so let's torture him with cake.”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Fire
“When rivers flooded, when fire fell from the sky, what a fine place the library was, the many rooms, the books. With luck, no one found you. How could they!--when you were off to Tanganyika in '98, Cairo in 1812, Florence in 1492!?”
― Ray Bradbury, quote from Something Wicked This Way Comes
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