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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
Better
Rarely
Human
Patterns
Humans
Changing
Without
Short
Unmistakable
Long
Longer
Slippery
Changed
Meanings
Words
Unpredictable
Easy
Pattern
More quotes by Robert A. Heinlein
The death rate is the same for us as for anybody ... one person, one death, sooner or later.
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The early worm deserves the bird.
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Once upon a time there was a Martian named Valentine Michael Smith.
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Men are expendable women and children are not. A tribe or a nation can lose a high percentage of its men and still pick up the pieces and go on ... as long as the women and children are saved.
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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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Spacemen - men who work in space, pilots and jetmen and astrogators and such - are men who like a few million miles of elbow room.
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When railroading time comes you can railroad—but not before.
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Brainpower is the scarcest commodity and the only one of real value.
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You can go wrong by being too skeptical as readily as by being too trusting.
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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 own self-interest and says so, I have usually been able to work out some way to do business with him.
Robert A. Heinlein
The saddest thing about ephemerals was that their little lives rarely held time enough for love.
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Like every living thing its prime characteristic is a blind, unreasoned instinct to survive.
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The future is better than the past. Despite the crepe hangers, romanticists, and anti-intellectuals, the world steadily grows better because the human mind, applying itself to environment, makes it better. With hands ... with tools ... with horse sense and science and engineering.
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In a dilemma, it is helpful to change any variable, then reexamine the problem.
Robert A. Heinlein
Son, the phrase is self-contradictory sense is never common.
Robert A. Heinlein
My old man says when it's time to be counted, the important thing is to be man enough to stand up.
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Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.
Robert A. Heinlein
Government! Three fourths parasitic and the other fourth Stupid fumbling.
Robert A. Heinlein
I never learned from a man who agreed with me.
Robert A. Heinlein
Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes. Keep this in mind it may offer a way to make him your friend. If not, you can kill him without hate — and quickly.
Robert A. Heinlein
