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Long human words (the longer the better) were easy, unmistakable, and rarely changed their meanings . . . but short words were slippery, unpredictable, changing their meanings without any pattern.
Robert A. Heinlein
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Robert A. Heinlein
Age: 80 †
Born: 1907
Born: July 7
Died: 1988
Died: May 8
Essayist
Literary Critic
Naval Officer
Novelist
Prosaist
Science Fiction Writer
Science Writer
Screenwriter
Stonemason
Writer
Butler
Missouri
Robert Anson Heinlein
Anson MacDonald
Lyle Monroe
John Riverside
Caleb Saunders
Simon York
Long
Longer
Slippery
Changed
Meanings
Words
Unpredictable
Easy
Pattern
Better
Rarely
Human
Patterns
Humans
Changing
Without
Short
Unmistakable
More quotes by Robert A. Heinlein
Cheops' Law: Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget.
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Whores perform the same function as priests, but far more thoroughly.
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The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.
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A dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than is a riot.
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Ignorance is curable, stupid is forever.
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Widows are far better than brides. They don't tell, they won't yell, they don't swell, they rarely smell, and they're grateful as hell.
Robert A. Heinlein
A fake fortuneteller can be tolerated. But an authentic soothsayer should be shot on sight. Cassandra did not get half the kicking around she deserved.
Robert A. Heinlein
In this complex world, the scientific method, and the consequences of the scientific method are central to everything the human race is doing and to wherever we are going.
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He never gave up his search for the Door into Summer.
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Like every living thing its prime characteristic is a blind, unreasoned instinct to survive.
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Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done.
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If I had a Boy Scout I could make a fire by rubbing his hind legs together.
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War is not violence and killing, pure and simple war is controlled violence, for a purpose. The purpose of war is to support your government's decisions by force. The purpose is never to kill the enemy just to be killing him but to make him do what you want him to do. Not killing... but controlled and purposeful violence.
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Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How's that again? I missed something.
Robert A. Heinlein
Evolution is a process that never stops. Baboons who fail to exhibit moral behavior do not survive they wind up as meat for leopards.
Robert A. Heinlein
There are things which cannot be taught in ten easy lessons, nor popularized for the masses they take years of skull sweat.
Robert A. Heinlein
I have spent too much of my life opening doors for cats—I once calculated that, since the dawn of civilization, nine hundred and seventy-eight man-centuries have been used up that way. I could show you figures.
Robert A. Heinlein
Behind every mystery lies another mystery.
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We came here for a small, informal meeting. We find you've turned it into a circus. Well, if you're going to have a circus, you've got to have elephants.
Robert A. Heinlein
Boats and ships are female because they are beautiful, lovable, expensive and unpredictable.
Robert A. Heinlein
