Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinleinwas an American science-fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was an influential and controversial author of the genre in his time...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth7 July 1907
CountryUnited States of America
men democracy assumption
Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How's that again? I missed something.
years genius fifteen
I have never been able to see how a thirty-year old moron can vote more wisely than a fifteen-year old genius...
soon-enough life-after-death evidence
There is no conclusive evidence of life after death, but there is no evidence of any sort against it. Soon enough you will know, so why fret about it?
life hurt laughing
I've found out why people laugh. They laugh because it hurts so much . . . because it's the only thing that'll make it stop hurting.
friendship love-is horny
Love is what still goes on when you're not horny.
love giving definitions
I'll give you an exact definition. When the happiness of another person becomes as essential to yourself as your own, then the state of love exists.
running children men
Our behavior is different. How often have you seen a headline like this?--TWO DIE ATTEMPTING RESCUE OF DROWNING CHILD. If a man gets lost in the mountains, hundreds will search and often two or three searchers are killed. But the next time somebody gets lost just as many volunteers turn out. Poor arithmetic, but very human. It runs through all our folklore, all human religions, all our literature--a racial conviction that when one human needs rescue, others should not count the price.
pain things-in-life agony
Nothing of value is free. Even the breath of life is purchased at birth only through gasping effort and pain... The best things in life are beyond money; their price is agony and sweat and devotion... and the price demanded for the most precious of all things in life is life itself--ultimate cost for perfect value
dream mad doe
No storyteller has been able to dream up anything as fantastically unlikely as what really does happen in this mad Universe.
views conceit point-of-view
From my point of view, a great deal of openly expressed piety is insufferable conceit.
writing hands ashamed
Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.
ideas giving creative
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.
thinking ideas fiction
I think that science fiction 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.
fighting judgement trying
If a grasshopper tries to fight a lawnmower, one may admire his courage but not his judgement.