Robert Anson Heinlein (1907 –1988) was a popular American science fiction writer. For decades, Heinlein was among the best-selling science fiction writers.

He made a great contribution to the genre and raised the standards of quality. Heinlein’s favorite themes included the importance of self-reliance and individualism, difference between “physical” and “emotional” love, influence of culture, religion and government, and the relationship between an individual and society.

Robert Heinlein Quotes

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. — Robert Heinlein

A generation which ignores history has no past and no future. — Robert Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long

Never underestimate the power of human stupidity. — Robert Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long

Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors… and miss. — Robert Heinlein

Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How’s that again? I missed something.
Autocracy is based on the assumption that one man is wiser than a million men. Let’s play that over again, too. Who decides? — Robert Heinlein

There are no dangerous weapons. There are only dangerous men. — Robert Heinlein

Never appeal to a man’s ‘better nature.’ He may not have one. Invoking his self-interest gives you more leverage. — Robert Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long

The price of freedom is the willingness to do sudden battle, anywhere, at any time, and with utter recklessness. — Robert Heinlein, The Pupper Masters

No state has an inherent right to survive through conscript troops, and in the long run no state ever has. Roman matrons used to say to their sons: ‘Come back with your shield, or on it.’ Later on, this custom declined. So did Rome. — Robert Heinlein

You can have peace, or you can have freedom. Don’t ever count on having both at once. — Robert Heinlein

Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity. — Robert Heinlein

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. — Robert Heinlein

Democracy can’t work. Mathematicians, peasants, and animals, that’s all there is – so democracy, a theory based on the assumption that mathematicians and peasants are equal, can never work. Wisdom is not additive; its maximum is that of the wisest man in a given group. — Robert Heinlein

War is too serious a matter to be taught by the inexperienced. — Robert Heinlein

An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life. — Robert Heinlein

Beware of altruism. It is based on self-deception, the root of all evil. — Robert Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long

Sovereign ingredient for a happy marriage: Pay cash or do without. Interest charges not only eat up a household budget, awareness of debt eats up domestic felicity. — Robert Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long

Taxes are not levied for the benefit of the taxed. — Robert Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long