Self Quotes by Robert A. Heinlein

22 Self quotes by Robert A. Heinlein

All Self quotes Robert A. Heinlein’s page

When Heinlein turns his mind to the inner self, he does it with the same boldness he brings to rockets and alien worlds. Expect a mix of pragmatic advice and speculative musings that challenge how you view personal identity.

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Son, the phrase is self-contradictory; "sense" is never "common".

Robert A. Heinlein

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Self awareness is NOT just a bunch of amino acids bumping together.

Robert A. Heinlein

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All my enemies are self-appointed.

Robert A. Heinlein

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Butterflies are self propelled flowers.

Robert A. Heinlein

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Butterflies are not insects,' Captain John Sterling said soberly. 'They are self-propelled flowers.

Robert A. Heinlein

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Never appeal to a man's 'better nature.' He may not have one. Invoking his self-interest gives you more leverage.

Robert A. Heinlein

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Beware of altruism. It is based on self-deception, the root of all evil.

Robert A. Heinlein

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We learned not to waste ammo even on warriors except in self-protection

Robert A. Heinlein

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The basic of all morality is duty, a concept with the same relation to group that self-interest has to individual.

Robert A. Heinlein

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If tempted by something that feels 'altruistic,' examine your motives and root out that self-deception. Then, if you still want to do…

Robert A. Heinlein

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A pacifist male is a contradiction in terms. Most self-described "pacifists" are not pacific; they simply assume false colors. When the wind…

Robert A. Heinlein

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First you must learn to control your self. The rest follows. Blessed is he who knows himself and commands himself, for the…

Robert A. Heinlein

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The extremely tiny fraction who think regularly, accurately, creatively, and without self-delusion - in the long run, these are the only people…

Robert A. Heinlein

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I don't trust a man who talks about ethics when he is picking my pocket. But if he is acting in his…

Robert A. Heinlein

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...I am opposed to all attempts to license or restrict the arming of individuals... I consider such laws a violation of civil…

Robert A. Heinlein

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His older self had taught his younger self a language which the older self knew because the younger self, after being taught,…

Robert A. Heinlein

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The Universe was a silly place at best...but the least likely explanation for it was the no-explanation of random chance, the conceit…

Robert A. Heinlein

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Do not confuse "duty" with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to…

Robert A. Heinlein

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The faith in which I was brought up assured me that I was better than other people; I was saved, they were…

Robert A. Heinlein

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What is supposed to happen in a democracy is that each sovereign citizen will always vote in the public interest for the…

Robert A. Heinlein

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Art is the process of evoking pity and terror, which is not abstract at all but very human. What the self-styled modern…

Robert A. Heinlein

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My folks tried to make a preacher of me and missed by a narrow margin… I would have made a good one…

Robert A. Heinlein

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More by Robert A. Heinlein

Social responsibility above the level of family, or at most of tribe, requires imagination-- devotion, loyalty, all the higher virtues -- which a man…

Robert A. Heinlein

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My folks tried to make a preacher of me and missed by a narrow margin… I would have made a good one if I…

Robert A. Heinlein

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Ninety percent of all human wisdom is the ability to mind your own business.

Robert A. Heinlein

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If we blow ourselves up we will do it by misapplication of science; if we manage to keep from blowing ourselves up, it will…

Robert A. Heinlein

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Nor would anybody suspect. If was one thing all people took for granted, was conviction that if you feed honest figures into a computer,…

Robert A. Heinlein

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Women will forgive anything. Otherwise, the race would have died out long ago.

Robert A. Heinlein

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Most neuroses and some psychoses can be traced to the unnecessary and unhealthy habit of daily wallowing in the troubles and sins of five…

Robert A. Heinlein

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No statement should be believed because it is made by an authority.

Robert A. Heinlein

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“Some people are ants by nature; they have to work, even when it’s useless. Few people have a talent for constructive laziness.”

Robert A. Heinlein

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“The instinct to survive is human nature itself, and every aspect of our personalities derives from it. Anything that conflicts with the survival instinct…

Robert A. Heinlein