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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

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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
Life
Century
Opening
Since
Nine
Calculated
Show
Spent
Seventy
Shows
Eight
Seventies
Used
Figures
Cats
Much
Civilization
Centuries
Way
Hundred
Dawn
Men
Doors
Cat

More quotes by Robert A. Heinlein

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Those who refuse to support and defend the state have no claim to protection by that state. Killing an anarchist or a pacifist should not be considered murder in a legalistic sense. The offense against the state, if any, should be Using deadly weapons within city limits, or Creating a traffic hazard, or other misdemeanor.
Robert A. Heinlein
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It is a bad sign when the people of a country stop identifying themselves with the country and start identifying with a group. A racial group. Or a religion. Or a language. Anything, as long as it isn't the whole population.
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Democracy is four wolves and a sheep voting on dinner.
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Under our system every voter and officeholder is a man who has demonstrated through voluntary and difficult service that he places the welfare of the group ahead of personal advantage.
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The more you love, the more you can love - and the more intensely you love.
Robert A. Heinlein
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I believe in my neighbors. I know their faults and I know that their virtues far outweigh their faults.
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Most people who sneer at technology would starve to death if the engineering infrastructure were removed.
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Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks.
Robert A. Heinlein
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In a dilemma, it is helpful to change any variable, then reexamine the problem.
Robert A. Heinlein
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Whoring is like military service...okay in the upper brackets, not so good lower down.
Robert A. Heinlein
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Never pick up a stray kitten . . . unless you've already made up your mind to be owned by it.
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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, honest figures come out. Never doubted it myself till I met a computer with a sense of humor.
Robert A. Heinlein
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Pessimist by policy, optimist by temperament- it is possible to be both. How? By never taking an unnecessary chance and by minimizing the risks you can't avoid. This permits you to play out the game untroubled by the certainty of the outcome.
Robert A. Heinlein
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Always store beer in a dark place.
Robert A. Heinlein
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As it says in Bible, God fights on side of heaviest artillery.
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 own self-interest and says so, I have usually been able to work out some way to do business with him.
Robert A. Heinlein
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Physicians had gone to their graves calling Pasteur a liar, a fool, or worse—without examining evidence which their “common sense” told them was impossible.
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 who count.
Robert A. Heinlein
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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
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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