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If an elderly respected expert in a given field tells you that something can be done he is almost certainly right. If an elderly respected expert in a given field tells you that something is impossible, he is almost certainly wrong.

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
Almost
Expert
Wrong
Respected
Given
Experts
Done
Tells
Right
Field
Something
Certainly
Fields
Impossible
Elderly

More quotes by Robert A. Heinlein

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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
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It is impossible for anyone to be responsible for another person's behavior. The most you or any leader can do is to encourage each one to be responsible for himself.
Robert A. Heinlein
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An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.
Robert A. Heinlein
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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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Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few.
Robert A. Heinlein
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Many short-sighted fools think that going to the Moon was just a stunt. But the astronauts knew the meaning of what they were doing, as is shown by Neil Armstrong's first words in stepping down onto the soil of Luna: One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.
Robert A. Heinlein
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If you pray hard enough, water will run uphill. How hard? Why, hard enough to make water run uphill, of course!
Robert A. Heinlein
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- I'm so busy doing what I must do that I don't have time for what I ought to do... and I never get a chance to do what I want to do! - Son, that's universal. The way to keep that recipe from killing you is occasionally to do what you want to do anyhow.
Robert A. Heinlein
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Rarest of all is the man who can and does reason at all times, quickly, accurately, inclusively, despite hope or fear or bodily distress, without egocentric bias or thalmic disturbance, with correct memory, with clear distinction between fact, assumption, and non-fact.
Robert A. Heinlein
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If I had found out anything, it was that they could print it faster than I could study it.
Robert A. Heinlein
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Never force an idea you'll abort it if you do.
Robert A. Heinlein
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Darling, a true lady takes off her dignity with her clothes and does her whorish best. At other times you can be as modest and dignified as your persona requires.
Robert A. Heinlein
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Random chance was not a sufficient explanation of the Universe---in fact, random chance was not sufficient to explain random chance the pot could not hold itself.
Robert A. Heinlein
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Liberty is never unalienable, it must be redeemed regularly with the blood of patriots or it always vanishes.
Robert A. Heinlein
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A generation which ignores history has no past — and no future.
Robert A. Heinlein
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Only a sadistic scoundrel-or a fool-tells the bald truth on social occasions.
Robert A. Heinlein
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The death rate is the same for us as for anybody ... one person, one death, sooner or later.
Robert A. Heinlein
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Do-gooding is like treating hemophilia - the real cure is to let hemophiliacs bleed to death...before they breed more hemophiliacs.
Robert A. Heinlein
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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
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In a family argument, if it turns out you are right, apologize at once.
Robert A. Heinlein