FastSaying

Its very variety, subtlety, and utterly irrational, idiomatic complexity makes it possible to say things in English which simply cannot be said in any other language.


Robert A. Heinlein

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Remember though, your best weapon is between your ears and under your scalp -provided it's loaded.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN It's as if Mom was expressing herself in a language other than English; a language that Grandma woul...
TESSA EMILY HALL I'm interested in complexity, in the mathematical sense, as well as the idiomatic sense. The ide...
HARI KUNZRU Text processing has made it possible to right-justify any idea, even one which cannot be justified o...
J. FINEGAN ...there are no sweeter words in the English language (or any other) than husband and wife.
LANIER IVESTER or any other very sensitive thing, we'll say cannot be circulated to anybody.
HANS BLIX Language is the most extraordinary invention in the history of humanity, the one which came before e...
J. M. G. LE CLEZIO For every SF reader of that period, Robert A. Heinlein was also a touchstone.
WALTER JON WILLIAMS TANSTAAFL: There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
PIERRE DOS UTT The Dancer believes that his art has something to say which cannot be expressed in words or in any o...
DORIS HUMPHREY English language is the most universal language in history, way more than the Latin of Julius Caesar...
RICHARD LEDERER Music is the only language in which you cannot say a mean or sarcastic thing.
JOHN ERSKINE Music is the only language in which you cannot say a mean or sarcastic thing.
LORD ERSKINE Music is the only language in which you cannot say a mean or sarcastic thing
JOHN ERSKINE If you simply announce that things are irrational, then that alone doesn't get you very far. You...
LARS PETER HANSEN It wasn't just about mastering English. It was about shading, subtext and subtlety - all the things ...
ROB MARSHALL My shirt and my hat always say 'World Champion' in some language. English, Spanish, Chinese,...
JUDAH FRIEDLANDER This African American Vernacular English shares most of its grammar and vocabulary with other dialec...
WILLIAM LABOV It is simply, and solely, the abundance of money within a state [which] makes the difference in its ...
JEAN BAPTISTE COLBERT It is even possible that laws which have not their origin in the mind may be irrational, and we can ...
ARTHUR EDDINGTON Painting is a language which cannot be replaced by another language. I don't know what to say about ...
BALTHUS English is the largest of human tongues, with several times the vocabulary of the second largest lan...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN The English Bible - a book which, if everything else in our language should perish, would alone suff...
THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY No, you cannot beat your wife. No, you cannot hit your sister. No you cannot use abusive language to...
HEENA RATHORE P. It is a mass language only in the same sense that its baseball slang is born of baseball players. Th...
RAYMOND CHANDLER Painting is a language which cannot be replaced by another language. I don't know what to say ab...
BALTHUS The earliest depiction of libertarian eugenics may have appeared in a science fiction novel, Robert ...
GREGORY BENFORD A feature of English that makes it different compared with all other languages is its global spread.
DAVID CRYSTAL It will be hard to shoot the ibis because people will certainly say we are being cruel and try to st...
MATTHIEU VASLIN The vast majority of English folk cannot and will not consider a picture as a picture, apart from an...
JAMES WHISTLER The vast majority of English folk cannot and will not consider a picture as a picture, apart from an...
JAMES WHISTLER With my parents, it's always in Slovak. With my siblings, it's English unless there is something tha...
YAN STASTNY English, as a subject, never really got over its upstart nature. It tries to bulk itself up with hop...
ZADIE SMITH Some people think that English poetry begins with the Anglo-Saxons. I don't, because I can't...
JAMES FENTON So when people say that poetry is a luxury, or an option, or for the educated middle classes, or tha...
JEANETTE WINTERSON In things to be seen at once, much variety makes confusion, another vice of beauty. In things that a...
CHRISTOPHER WREN the only way in which a human being can make some approach to knowing the whole of a subject, is by ...
JOHN STUART MILL I have a very irregular life, and by that, I mean I do many different things with my time. No day is...
JESSICA STEEN English grammar is so complex and confusing for the one very simple reason that its rules and termin...
BILL BRYSON More has been screwed up on the battlefield and misunderstood in the Pentagon because of a lack of u...
JOHN W. VESSEY, JR. More has been screwed up on the battlefield and misunderstood in the Pentagon because of a lack of u...
GEN JOHN W. VESSEY, JR. [The ruling class] sees people in the working class as being almost animals. It sees itself as being...
EDWARD BOND We are tied down to a language which makes up in obscurity what it lacks in style.
TOM STOPPARD Neither you nor I speak English, but there are some things that can be said only in English.
ARAVIND ADIGA By reading a lot of novels in a variety of genres, and asking questions, it's possible to learn ...
NICHOLAS SPARKS It is no exaggeration to say that the English Bible is, next to Shakespeare, the greatest work in En...
LAFCADIO HEARN English is the language through which I reach hearts from various corners of the world. English is t...
ABHIJIT NASKAR Other things being equal, the value of a book, and especially of an author's whole work, is proporti...
ROBERT HUNTINGTON FLETCHER Although human subtlety makes a variety of inventions by different means to the same end, it will ne...
LEONARDO DAVINCI [English] fails me utterly when I attempt to describe what I love about Greek, that language innocen...
DONNA TARTT Give exceeding thanks for the mystery which remains a mystery still -- the veil that hides you from ...
ROBERT NATHAN I could never learn to be totally fluent in any other language.
MAX VON SYDOW There is nothing in philosophy which could not be said in everyday language.
HENRI BERGSON The writer cannot abandon himself simply to inspiration, and feign innocence vis a vis language, bec...
JUAN GOYTISOLO If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.
DOUG LARSON If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur
DOUG LARSON As a matter of fact, a national language which spreads beyond its own confines very quickly loses mu...
EDWARD SAPIR 'The Sound of Things Falling' may be a page turner, but it's also a deep meditation on f...
EDMUND WHITE [We are] prepared to do what it takes in any country that has not yet realized the value of educatin...
CAROL BELLAMY Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
ROBERT J. HANLON It is possible for millions...to be almost utterly deprived of representation in the House of Common...
JEREMY THORPE The notion of the infinite variety of detail and the multiplicity of forms is a pleasing one; in com...
ANNIE DILLARD If I had any hand in it at all there’s a chance that it might be beautiful, but it simply cannot n...
CRAIG D. LOUNSBROUGH The English language is being augmented every year by about 400 new words. We cannot cope. We are dr...
ANTHONY BURGESS American is a very difficult language mixed with English.
SOURCE UNKNOWN Did I do and say these things? Yes, I did. Are there any mitigating circumstances? Not really, unles...
NICK HORNBY You do not say 'It's classified' to a certain thing needs to be hidden, because people are going to ...
TOBA BETA My mother tongue, Mende, is very expressive, very figurative, and when I write, I always struggle to...
ISHMAEL BEAH Its not 208 bones which makes you stronger , Its how you stand in front of any problem
DEEPAK KUMAR For sin is just this, what man cannot by its very nature do with his whole being; it is possible to ...
MARTIN BUBER For sin is just this, what man cannot by its very nature do with his whole being; it is possible to ...
MARTIN BUBER The sexiest thing that a woman can do, wear, and say all fall under one word to me: subtlety. To be ...
DWAYNE JOHNSON In the ordinary business of life, industry can do anything which genius can do, and very many things...
HENRY WARD BEECHER Invalidating someone else is not merely disagreeing with something that the other person said. It is...
DAVID M. ALLEN We begin life with the world presenting itself to us as it is. Someone - our parents, teachers, anal...
SIDNEY JOURARD Life has no plot. It is far more interesting than anything you can say about it because language, by...
ERICA JONG English should be our official language. Reading and speaking English are requirements to become a c...
ERNEST ISTOOK In the French language, there is a great gulf between prose and poetry; in English, there is hardly ...
VICTOR HUGO 'No' is the second shortest word in the English language, but one of the hardest to say.
RAYMOND ARROYO French is, in many ways, more difficult for an English-speaking person to sing. It is so full of com...
ALMA GLUCK Anyone who celebrates a regional accent as anything other than quaint fails to see that anywhere in ...
LLOYD HOBBARD-MITCHELL The institution of marriage in all societies is a pattern within which the strains put by civilizati...
MARGARET MEAD A transmission, which cannot be completely ruled out, would only be possible through very intimate c...
THOMAS METTENLEITER It is in the nature of things to be drawn to the very experiences that will spoil our innocence, tra...
THOMAS MOORE To be in a time of technological change and advancement is an awesome thought indeed as long as it i...
GARY F EVANS... This growth in the number, speed of formation, permanence, delicacy and complexity of associations p...
EDWARD THORNDIKE In an era when information can be sent instantaneously anywhere, it is utterly nonsensical that our ...
BILL PASCRELL There's not any kind of administration, and very little respect for any humanitarian (organizations)...
COLIN MCILREAVY Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree.
EZRA POUND Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree
EZRA POUND The English language is a work in progress. Have fun with it.
JONATHAN CULVER Drawing on my fine command of the English language, I said nothing.
ROBERT BENCHLEY Why, can you imagine what would happen if we named all the twos Henry or George or Robert or John or...
NORTON JUSTER Speech sounds cannot be understood, delimited, classified and explained except in the light of the t...
ROMAN JAKOBSON That it should be the questions and shape of a life, its total complexity gathered, arranged, and co...
TONY KUSHNER Its loneliness which makes up your mind to be in love.
RANA AHMAD KHAN It is an established principle of jurisprudence in all civilized nations that the sovereign cannot b...
ROGER B. TANEY Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.
VICTOR HUGO Most Americans are close to total ignorance about the world. They are ignorant. That is an unhealthy...
ZBIGNIEW BRZEZIńSKI The Dollar & English language are one of a kind,while the dollar is the most preferred currency in t...
DAVID ATTA (A.K.A DAVIED ATTLARS & MR DAIN)

More Robert A. Heinlein

Don't ever become a pessimist... a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimis...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN One man's 'magic' is another man's engineering. 'Supernatural' is a null wor...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN The universe never did make sense; I suspect it was built on government contract.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Yield to temptation. It may not pass your way again.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN The difference between science and the fuzzy subjects is that science requires reasoning while those...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Never worry about theory as long as the machinery does what it's supposed to do.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN No statement should be believed because it is made by an authority.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Don't handicap your children by making their lives easy.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN They didn't want it good, they wanted it Wednesday.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN When a place gets crowded enough to require ID's, social collapse is not far away. It is time to...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do. I am free, no matt...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortu...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN To be matter-of-fact about the world is to blunder into fantasy - and dull fantasy at that, as the r...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political po...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN A long and wicked life followed by five minutes of perfect grace gets you into Heaven. An equally lo...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with hi...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Anyone who clings to the historically untrue -- and -- thoroughly immoral doctrine that violence nev...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN There ain't no such thing as a free lunch." A Libertarian Movement slogan - The Moon Is a Harsh Mi...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Never try to outstubborn a cat.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Being a mother is an attitude, not a biological relation.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Don't handicap your children by making their lives easy.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Don't explain computers to laymen. Simpler to explain sex to a virgin.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Love" is a that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own...Jealou...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Anybody can look at a pretty girl and see a pretty girl. An artist can look at a pretty girl and see...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN I grok in fullness.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Being sorry won't get you into heaven. Get happy, son. Get that old spring into your step and stay o...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Government! Three fourths parasitic and the other fourth Stupid fumbling.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN English is the largest of human tongues, with several times the vocabulary of the second largest lan...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Faith strikes me as intellectual laziness.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Art is the process of evoking pity and terror, which is not abstract at all but very human. What the...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Thou art god, I am god. All that groks is god.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN I'm always suspicious of disinterested interest.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN I’ve been kissed by men who did a very good job. But they don’t give kissing their whole attenti...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN He's an honest politician--he stays bought.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN The slickest way in the world to lie is to tell the right amount of truth at the right time-and then...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Most neuroses and some psychoses can be traced to the unnecessary and unhealthy habit of daily wallo...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN If God existed (a question concerning which Jubal maintained a meticulous intellectual neutrality) a...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Democracy is a poor system of government at best; the only thing that can honestly be said in its fa...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN It's up to the artist to use language that can be understood, not hide it in some private code. Most...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN My dear, I used to think I was serving humanity . . . and I pleasured in the thought. Then I discove...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN There is no safety this side of the grave
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN I do know that the slickest way to lie is to tell the right amount of truth--then shut up.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN I never do anything I don't want to do. Nor does anyone, but in my case I am always aware of it.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Anybody can look at a pretty girl and see a pretty girl. An artist can look at a pretty girl and see...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN If you've got the truth you can demonstrate it. Talking doesn't prove it.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Thinking doesn't pay. Just makes you discontented with what you see around you.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN But goodness alone is never enough. A hard, cold wisdom is required for goodness to accomplish good....
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Consider the black widow spider. It's a timid little beastie, useful and, for my taste, the pretties...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Secrecy begets tyranny.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN A desire not to butt into other people's business is at least eighty percent of all human wisdom.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN I've found out why people laugh. They laugh because it hurts so much . . . because it's the only thi...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Jealousy is a disease, love is a healthy condition. The immature mind often mistakes one for the oth...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN No matter where or what, there are makers, takers, and fakers.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Learning isn't a means to an end; it is an end in itself.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, desig...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Belief gets in the way of learning.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn't ...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN To get anywhere, or even live a long time, a man has to guess, and guess right, over and over again,...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN The whole principle is wrong; it's like demanding that grown men live on skim milk because the baby ...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN I've never understood how God could expect His creatures to pick the one true religion by faith - it...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Human beings hardly ever learn from the experience of others. They learn; when they do, which isn't ...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Gratitude: An imaginary emotion that rewards an imaginary behavior, altruism. Both imaginaries are f...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN The greatest productive force is human selfishness.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done and why. Then do it.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Those who cling to the untrue doctrine that violence never settles anything would be advised to conj...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN The universe never did make sense. I suspect that it was built on a government contract.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, This you m...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do somethi...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a c...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN A long and wicked life followed by five minutes of perfect grace gets you into Heaven. An equally lo...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN You live and you learn -- or you don't live long.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Most people who sneer at technology would starve to death if the engineering infrastructure were rem...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find th...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN A dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Sense is never common.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Why is it that every time I'm with you, makes me believe in magic?
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do somethin...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Sex without love is merely healthy exercise.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN A society that gets rid of all its troublemakers goes downhill.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Sex, whatever else it is, is an athletic skill. The more you practice, the more you can, the more yo...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN I never learned from a man who agreed with me.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, This you may ...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN There is no way that writers can be tamed and rendered civilized or even cured. The only solution kn...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors... and miss.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN May you live as long as you wish and love as long as you live.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN By cultivating the beautiful we scatter the seeds of heavenly flowers, as by doing good we cultivate...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN I was there to see beautiful naked women. So was everybody else. It's a common failing.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN The trouble with conspiracies is that they rot internally.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Butterflies are not insects,' Captain John Sterling said soberly. 'They are self-propelled flowers.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Butterflies are self propelled flowers.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN The Universe was a damned silly place at best . . . but the least likely explanation for its existen...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own... Jealousy...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with hi...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN One could write a history of science in reverse by assembling the solemn pronouncements of highest a...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, an...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Goodness without wisdom always accomplishes evil.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN The most preposterous notion that Homo sapiens has ever dreamed up is that the Lord God of Creation,...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN For me, politeness is a sine qua non of civilization.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acqui...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Never insult anyone by accident.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creeds into law if it acqu...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Most people can't think, most of the remainder won't think, the small fraction who do think mostly c...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN If a grasshopper tries to fight a lawnmower, one may admire his courage but not his judgement.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Happiness lies in being privileged to work hard for long hours in doing whatever you think is worth ...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN It's an indulgence to sit in a room and discuss your beliefs as if they were a juicy piece of gossip...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN One man's theology is another man's belly laugh.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Never worry about theory as long as the machinery does what it's supposed to do.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Women will forgive anything. Otherwise, the race would have died out long ago
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afte...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN How you behave toward cats here below determines your status in Heaven.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN The more you love, the more you can love--and the more intensely you love. Nor is there any limit on...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN People usually believe anything that they are told early and often.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN A long and wicked life followed by five minutes of perfect grace gets you into Heaven. An equally lo...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Beds do not matter, it is who is in a bed that counts.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN They didn't want it good, they wanted it Wednesday.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Don't ever become a pessimist, Ira; a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN His older self had taught his younger self a language which the older self knew because the younger ...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN I don't see how an article of clothing can be indecent. A person, yes.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN It's an indulgence to sit in a room and discuss your beliefs as if they were a juicy piece of go...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN The instinct to survive is human nature itself, and every aspect of our personalities derives from i...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Elephants aren't human but they are very nice people.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN If you disturb the patient at such times, he may break into tears or become violent. and, if you sha...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Since when was an emotional argument won by logic?
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Do not confuse "duty" with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a de...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN No woman ever ages beyond eighteen in her heart.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN There were many, many times thereafter that Don regretted having enlisted - but so has every man who...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN He never once repeated himself and he never used either profanity or obscenity. (I learned later tha...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN The America of my time line is a laboratory example of what can happen to democracies, what has even...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Any government will work if authority and responsibility are equal and coordinate. This does not ins...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Political tags — such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, ...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Secrecy is the keystone to all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy and censorship. When any government o...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Yield to temptation...it may not pass your way again!
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Long human words (the longer the better) were easy, unmistakable, and rarely changed their meanings ...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN You can sway a thousand men by appealing to their prejudices quicker than you can convince one man b...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Liberty is never unalienable; it must be redeemed regularly with the blood of patriots or it always ...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN That God is in truth the sort of bloodthirsty paranoid Who would rend to bits forty-two children for...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN To be matter of fact about the world is to blunder into fantasy -- and dull fantasy at that, as the ...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Being right too soon is socially unacceptable.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Of all the strange "crimes" that human beings have legislated of nothing, "blasphemy" is the most am...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense. (Hurtin...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN When a place gets crowded enough to require ID's, social collapse is not far away. It is time to go ...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN A great artist can look at an old woman, portray her exactly as she is... and force the viewer to se...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Under what circumstances is it moral for a group to do that which is not moral for a member of that ...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Stupidity cannot be cured. Stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death. The...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Anything which is physically possible can always be made financially possible; money is a bugaboo of...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN One man’s “magic” is another man’s engineering. “Supernatural” is a null word.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN I woke up in bed with a man and a cat. The man was a stranger; the cat was not
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN A community where everyone is a ruthless murderer, with handy access to death-dealing devices, is a ...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Every general prohibition creates its bootleggers.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Heroism' often consists in keeping your head in an emergency and doing the best you can with what yo...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense. (Hurtin...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Everybody lies about sex.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN The correct way to punctuate a sentence that states: "Of course it is none of my business, but -- " ...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Work is not an end in itself; there must always be time enough for love.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Never tease an old dog; he might have one bite left.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Take big bites. Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Animals can be driven crazy by placing too many in too small a pen. Homo sapiens is the only animal ...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Cheops' Law: Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Certainly the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you; if you don't bet you can't win.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN I came, I saw, she conquered."
The original Latin seems to have been garbled.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN If you are part of a society that votes, then do so. There may be no candidates and no measures you ...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Live and learn, or you don't live long.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Be wary of strong drink, it can make you shoot at the tax collector...and miss.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN A generation which ignores history has no past — and no future.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Delusions are often functional. A mother's opinions about her children's beauty, intelligence, goodn...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN There is no such thing as "Just a cat.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Customs tell a man who he is, where he belongs, what he must do. Better illogical customs than none;...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Find out what you want to do, then do it. Never talk yourself into doing something you don’t want....
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Television leaves no external scars.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Some people insist that ‘mediocre’ is better than ‘best.’ They delight in clipping wings bec...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Dress yourself in heavy fishing waders, put on an overcoat and boxing gloves and a bucket over your ...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Library science was the foundation of all sciences.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN You can't believe what a lovely planet we have until you see her from outside.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN The Mother Thing makes our world.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Everybody else specializes. Daddy knows everything, and he puts the pieces together.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN More depended on the student than on the school.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Mother had the social restraint of an ambassador.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN I needed a space suit the way a pig needs a pipe organ.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Daddy says that, in a dilemma, it is helpful to change any variable, then reexamine the problem.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN