Favourite Heinlein Quotes

[TTBRAHWTMG]

I'm sure this has been done to death...but I just spent 3 hours looking for a specific Heinlein quote (unsuccessfully)...and ran across so many beauties in the process.

There are soooo many good ones, I thought it might be fun to hear some of people's favourites. I've got to rule out the "specialization is for insects" not because it's not brilliant, but we've ALL heard that one so many times.

I offer a few of the ones I didn't recall until tonight's search...


"The whole principle [of censorship] is wrong. It's like demanding that grown men live on skim milk because the baby can't have steak." The Man Who Sold the Moon

"Jealousy is a disease, love is a healthy condition. The immature mind often confuses one with the other, or assumes the greater the love the greater the jealousy. In fact, they are almost always incompatible; both at once produce unbearable turmoil." Stranger in a Strange Land

"An elephant. A mouse built to government specifications." Time Enough For Love

"There is no such thing as 'social gambling'. Either you are there to cut the other bloke's heart out and eat it - or you're a sucker. If you don't like this choice - don't gamble." Time Enough for Love

 

[j d worthington]

You're right. There are so many. RAH was very good at creating aphorisms. One of my favorites I quoted a bit of earlier, in another thread. Here's the full quote:

"I began to sense faintly that secrecy is the keystone of all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy ... censorship. When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know, the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything -- you can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him." -- "If This Goes On --"

 

[manephelien]

"Don't handicap your children by making their lives too easy." Attributed to Lazarus Long in Time enough for love.

TANSTAAFL

 

[TTBRAHWTMG]

RAH was very good at creating aphorisms.

Again my lack of education is exposed...had to look up aphorisms.

Aphorism: a term used to describe a principle expressed tersely in a few telling words or any general truth expressed in a short and pithy sentence (now I've got to look up pithy), in such a way that when once heard it is unlikely to pass from memory.

Pithy: Precisely meaningful; forceful and brief

These definitions brought a few to mind that ran into my head during other threads....when I was talking about failed introductions of Heinlein to some friends (this one has always been one of my favourites)

Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig

...when I was talking about being 10 yrs into my personal goals and plans and my own commandments...

In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it.

...and I'll throw one more out there that I think is "pithier" (such a word exist?) than most...

Do steers sign treaties with meat packers?

I can feel myself stretching while reading your comments and links and processing them...I am sincerely grateful Prof. Worthington! One little impish comment from the back of the class...after presenting aphorism does your posting meet the definition?

 

[j d worthington]

I can feel myself stretching while reading your comments and links and processing them...I am sincerely grateful Prof. Worthington! One little impish comment from the back of the class...after presenting aphorism does your posting meet the definition?

LOL. Very good. No... but then, I wasn't going for an aphorism as such, just my favorite quote, and made an observation on his ability with aphorisms (in response to your earlier comments) along the way. (Wriggled out of that one right proper, didn't I? )

Actually, there are a couple of things that either are, or are very close to aphorisms within that one. The first is perhaps a bit long... though I've seen some rather long phrases named in compilations of aphorisms ... the one that begins: "When any government..." and runs through "... holy the motives." Others are the terse "You can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him." (A favorite theme of Heinlein's, of course.)

And... "Prof. Worthington"? Oh, dear.... Er, could we just go with JD?

 

[TTBRAHWTMG]

RAH was very good at creating aphorisms. One of my favorites I quoted a bit of earlier...

Hmmmm...keep wriggling. Think I've got the hook firmly in the cheek on this one! I'll grant that there are aphorisms embodied in your selected quote, though...LOL!

 

[Pyan]

But he also used to say that a wise man should be prepared to abandon his baggage at any time.

Source: Daniel Boone Davis in the door into summer

Is that the one you wanted, TT?

 

[Pyan]

My own personal favourite has always been the one from the Notebooks:

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.

 

[TTBRAHWTMG]

Aaaaah...thank you Pyan. I only got 2hrs sleep last night due to chasing that quote and reviewing that essay on parents. I am like a dog looking for my bone with stuff like that. You've ended my misery. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Relief at last!

I'm going to have to pull a copy to get it in context again. That one was such a great story. I, like Heinlein, am a cat lover, and found the cat and alot of his commentary about cats quite entertaining too.

 

[j d worthington]

I think you'll find quite a few ailurophiles (cat-lovers) here -- myself included. And you don't even need to ask about the Cat and her take on the subject.....

 

[TTBRAHWTMG]

3 cats in the house. Each born on the same day as each of my kids. Pixel, September, and Petronious (Pete). The first and third should be obvious...September because my middle kid was born September 11, 2001, and we just felt we had to mark the day some how.

I'll personally vouch for Heinlein's comments about not being able to ignore a cat who wants through a door! Wasn't this the book where Heinlein said "Where there are cats, there is civilization"?

Ailurophiles! Geeze! Thanks for saving me looking it up! Stretching, stretching!

 

[Pyan]

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Relief at last!

Bows:blushes: Quotable Heinlein

Where cat is, is Civilization.

Eureka, in The Number of the Beast.

 

[TTBRAHWTMG]

Is that the site that you found the drop the bags quote on? I spent some time there looking for it last night...was frustrating not being able to search through the quotes and having to keep rolling the dice. After a dozen or so repeats of other quotes, I gave up and looked elsewhere.

 

[Razorback]

"Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks!"

Capt. Lazarus Long in Time Enough For Love

Your site is terrific Pyran. I thought this quote was from Time Enough, but I wasn't sure.

 

[Urlik]

"little girls, like butterflies, need no excuse" L. Long TELF

"Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can't help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity" L. Long TELF

"Whenever women have insisted on absolute equality with men, they have invariably wound up with the dirty end of the stick. What they are and what they can do makes them superior to men, and their proper tactic is to demand special privileges, all the traffic will bear. They should never settle merely for equality. For women, "equality" is a disaster" L. Long TELF

 

[TTBRAHWTMG]

Ailurophiles! Geeze! Thanks for saving me looking it up! Stretching, stretching!

A few threads got me thinking about The Door Into Summer, and I decided to pick it up again to re-read. Partly due to talk of cats making me want to revist old scarred up Pete, partly because I wanted that dam drop the bags quote in context again.

When I opened it, I noticed something right away that I had overlooked on previous readings. Heinlein's dedication reads "For A.P. and Phyllis, Mick and Annette, Aelurophiles All." At first I thought I had another hook in your cheek JD, as you spelled this ailurophile on your post...lol...but a quick check showed both spellings are correct. (from the latin "aeluroidea" meaning "cats")

This got me curious who A.P., Phyllis, Mick and Annette were, which in turn, led me to the following, which I found interesting and thought I'd throw out here for anyone else who might be interested.

The Door Into Summer (1956) was dedicated “For A. P. and Phyllis, Mick and Annette, Aelurophiles All.” “A. P.” refers to William Anthony Parker White (1911 – 1968), science fiction writer, who usually worked under the pseudonym of Anthony Boucher. He was a friend of Heinlein and author of Rocket to the Morgue under another pseudonym, H. H. Holmes. This was a detective story in which the detective is helped in solving the case by thinly-disguised members of the real-life Manãna Literary Society. “Phyllis” is Phyllis White, Boucher’s wife. “Mick” is Jesse Francis McComas (1911 – 1978), who later became editor of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction along with Boucher, and “Annette” was Annette McComas, his wife.

site: Robert A. Heinlein - Archives - Heinlein's Book Dedications

Plenty of interesting info about his dedications on the above site if anyone's interested.

By the way, Pyan, I'm just about through the re-read and ran into the "abandon his baggage line" last night, p75 of the 1964 2nd printing. I'm surprised how it stuck in my head, being inserted so inconsequentially. I'm even more impressed that you FOUND it, considering it's obscurity. How did you come across it?

 

[Pyan]

Niggle, niggle, niggle at that little bit at the back of the brain that remembers everything you ever read! Plus a profound belief in the Great God Google!

 

[Liz Pf]

Wow!

I leave for a few days (big dustup at my Print on Demand supplier, which has led me to find a new one), and this comes up!

I'm still too new on this board to be allowed to advertise, but I create t-shirts with Heinlein aphorisms on them. And I'm always looking for more material -- fortunately RAH has plenty.

Years ago, in a dull job, I built a HyperCard stack of Heinlein quotes, with citations. Alas, that was many years ago, and that file exists only on a 3.5 floppy, and in an unreadable format :-(

As a professional polymath, "specialization is for insects" is one of my favorites.

So ... what RAH would you like to see on a t-shirt?

--Liz

 

[TTBRAHWTMG]

So ... what RAH would you like to see on a t-shirt?

--Liz

Checked out your site. Love the little girls and butterflies...going to have to order for my girls. Not for a T-shirt...but didn't Heinlein also say "Butterflies aren't insects; they are flowers with wings." or something like that. He must have loved butterflies near as much as he loved cats. Would love the "Yield to temptation. It may not pass your way again!" quote on a shirt with a little RAH or Heinlein under it, although I didn't verify it and am probably paraphrasing.

 

[Pyan]

Close - he actually said;

Butterflies are self-propelled flowers.

and I think its from The Cat Who...

However, he may have been, consciously or unconsciously, influenced by:

The butterfly is a flying flower, the flower a tethered butterfly

by Ponce Denis Écouchard Lebrun(August 11, 1729 - August 31, 1807), the French lyric poet.