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The most important lesson in the writing trade is that any manuscript is improved if you cut away the fat.
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
Writing
Fats
Lesson
Lessons
Trade
Cutting
Language
Manuscript
Away
Manuscripts
Important
Improved
More quotes by Robert A. Heinlein
The Stone trembled and threw herself outward bound, toward Saturn. In her train followed hundreds and thousands and hundreds of thousands of thousands of restless, rolling Stones . . . to Saturn . . . to Uranus, to Pluto . . . rolling on out to the stars . . . outward bound to the ends of the Universe.
Robert A. Heinlein
The early worm deserves the bird.
Robert A. Heinlein
Men are not potatoes!
Robert A. Heinlein
Patriotism is not 'my country right or wrong' patriotism means loving the ideals for which America stands and having the courage to speak up when these ideals are distorted for personal or political gain. The American government was instituted to be the servant of the people, not our master.
Robert A. Heinlein
You have to give an editor something to change, or he gets fretful. After he pees in it, he likes the flavor better, so he buys it.
Robert A. Heinlein
Gentlemen, let's go row!
Robert A. Heinlein
You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.
Robert A. Heinlein
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.
Robert A. Heinlein
If a thing's worth doing, it's worth overdoing. (Lazarus Long)
Robert A. Heinlein
The killer looked up as the bullet hit him. He looked as if he were puzzled by some strange occurence, being too freshly dead to be aware of it.
Robert A. Heinlein
The intelligent fights only when he must and never for sport.
Robert A. Heinlein
Have you ever known me to be rude to a lady? I have seen you be intentionally rude to a woman. I have never seen you be rude to a lady.
Robert A. Heinlein
Any government will work if authority and responsibility are equal and coordinate. This does not insure “good” government, it simply insures that it will work. But such governments are rare — most people want to run things, but want no part of the blame. This used to be called the “backseat driver” syndrome.
Robert A. Heinlein
The greatest productive force is human selfishness.
Robert A. Heinlein
In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it.
Robert A. Heinlein
Logic is a feeble reed, friend. Logic proved that airplanes can't fly and that H-bombs won't work and that stones don't fall out of the sky. Logic is a way of saying that anything which didn't happen yesterday won't happen tomorrow.
Robert A. Heinlein
The truth of a proposition has nothing to do with its credibility. And vice versa.
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
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
The faith in which I was brought up assured me that I was better than other people I was saved, they were damned.... Our hymns were loaded with arrogance - self-congratulation on how cozy we were with the Almighty and what a high opinion he had of us, what hell everybody else would catch come Judgment Day.
Robert A. Heinlein
