Thursday, May 12, 2016

Heinlein

Robert A. Heinlein Quotes





A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity.

Never worry about theory as long as the machinery does what it's supposed to do.

Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow if tomorrow might improve the odds.

Being intelligent is not a felony. But most societies evaluate it as at least a misdemeanor.
No intelligent man has any respect for an unjust law.
A touchstone to determine the actual worth of an "intellectual"- find out how he feels about astrology.
Taxes are not levied for the benefit of the taxed.
The hardest part of gaining any new idea is sweeping out the false idea occupying that niche.
Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things.
If you pray hard enough, water will run uphill. How hard? Why, hard enough to make water run uphill, of course!
Sex should be friendly. Otherwise stick to mechanical toys; its more sanitary.
The three-legged stool of understanding is held up by history, languages, and mathematics. Equipped with these three you can learn anything you want to learn. But if you lack any one of them you are just another ignorant peasant with dung on your boots.
To get anywhere, or even to live a long time, a man has to guess, and guess right, over and over again, without enough data for a logical answer.
To stay young requires unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods.
Sin lies only in hurting others unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense.
There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.
Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny.
Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.
In a society in which it is a moral offense to be different from your neighbor your only escape is never to let them find out.
Anyone can see a forest fire. Skill lies in sniffing the first smoke.
If "everybody knows" such-and-such, then it ain't so, by at least ten thousand to one.
Yield to temptation; it may not pass your way again.
An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.
The greatest productive force is human selfishness.
The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.
Obscurity is the refuge of incompetence.
Being right too soon is socially unacceptable.
Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.
Most people can't think, most of the remainder won't think, the small fraction who do think mostly can't do it very well.
If you don't like yourself, you can't like other people.
One man's theology is another man's belly laugh.
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.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.
Of all the strange "crimes" that human beings have legislated out of nothing, "blasphemy" is the most amazing, with "obscenity" and "indecent exposure" fighting it out for second and third place.
Belief gets in the way of learning.
Humans hardly ever learn from the experience of others. They learn - when they do, which isn't often - on their own, the hard way.
No matter where or what, there are makers, takers, and fakers.
One man's "magic" is another man's engineering. "Supernatural" is a null word.
It's amazing how much "mature wisdom" resembles being too tired.
Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.