Robert A. Heinlein Life Quotations

Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.

It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.

A society that gets rid of all its troublemakers goes downhill.

Don't handicap your children by making their lives easy.

The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive.

Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.

A friend who offers help without asking for explanations is a treasure beyond price

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

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.

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?

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.

I don't see why human people make such a heavy trip out of sex. It isn't anything complex, it is simply the best thing in life, even better than food.

Certainly the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you; if you don't bet you can't win.

A child's life is like a piece of paper on which every person leaves a mark.

But goodness alone is never enough. A hard, cold wisdom is required for goodness to accomplish good. Goodness without wisdom always accomplishes evil.

Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few.

The saddest thing about ephemerals was that their little lives rarely held time enough for love.

With eternity to draw on there could be no reason for hurrying - 'hurry' was not a concept in Martian.

My old man taught me two things: 'Mind own business' and 'Always cut cards.'

Life is short, but the years are long.