Curtiss Martin > Curtiss's Quotes

“Sin lies only in hurting others unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense.”
― Robert A. Heinlein

“I've found out why people laugh. They laugh because it hurts so much . . . because it's the only thing that'll make it stop hurting.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

“A desire not to butt into other people's business is at least eighty percent of all human wisdom.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

“Jealousy is a disease, love is a healthy condition. The immature mind often mistakes one for the other, or assumes that the greater the love, the greater the jealousy - in fact, they are almost incompatible; one emotion hardly leaves room for the other.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

“Anybody can look at a pretty girl and see a pretty girl. An artist can look at a pretty girl and see the old woman she will become. A better artist can look at an old woman and see the pretty girl that she used to be. But a great artist-a master-and that is what Auguste Rodin was-can look at an old woman, protray her exactly as she is...and force the viewer to see the pretty girl she used to be...and more than that, he can make anyone with the sensitivity of an armadillo, or even you, see that this lovely young girl is still alive, not old and ugly at all, but simply prisoned inside her ruined body. He can make you feel the quiet, endless tragedy that there was never a girl born who ever grew older than eighteen in her heart...no matter what the merciless hours have done to her. Look at her, Ben. Growing old doesn't matter to you and me; we were never meant to be admired-but it does to them.”
― Robert Heinlein

“Secrecy begets tyranny.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

“The more you love, the more you can love--and the more intensely you love. Nor is there any limit on how many you can love. If a person had time enough, he could love all of that majority who are decent and just.”
― Robert A. Heinlein

“I never do anything I don't want to do. Nor does anyone, but in my case I am always aware of it.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

“There is no safety this side of the grave”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

“Girls are simply wonderful. Just to stand on a corner and watch them going past is delightful. They don't walk. At least not what we do when we walk. I don't know how to describe it, but it's much more complex and utterly delightful. They don't move just their feet; everything moves and in different directions . . . and all of it graceful.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers

“But goodness alone is never enough. A hard, cold wisdom is required for goodness to accomplish good. Goodness without wisdom always accomplishes evil.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

“English is the largest of human tongues, with several times the vocabulary of the second largest language -- this alone made it inevitable that English would eventually become, as it did, the lingua franca of this planet, for it is thereby the richest and most flexible -- despite its barbaric accretions . . . or, I should say, because of its barbaric accretions. English swallows up anything that comes its way, makes English out of it.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

“Yes, Boss?'
Dorcas, the last twenty or thirty years I've been a worthless, no-good parasite.'
She yawned again. 'Everybody knows that.'
Nevermind the flattery. There comes a time in every man's life when he has to stop being sensible--a time to stand up and be counted--strike a blow for liberty--smite the wicked.'
Ummm...'
So quit yawning, the time has come.'
She glanced down. 'Maybe I had better get dressed.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

“One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortune of others.”
― Robert A. Heinlein

“Democracy is a poor system of government at best; the only thing that can honestly be said in its favor is that it is eight times as good as any other method the human race has ever tried.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

“Heinlein's Rules for Writers

Rule One: You Must Write
Rule Two: Finish What Your Start
Rule Three: You Must Refrain From Rewriting, Except to Editorial Order
Rule Four: You Must Put Your Story on the Market
Rule Five: You Must Keep it on the Market until it has Sold”
― Robert A. Heinlein

“I do know that the slickest way to lie is to tell the right amount of truth--then shut up.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

“Customs tell a man who he is, where he belongs, what he must do. Better illogical customs than none; men cannot live together without them.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Citizen of the Galaxy

“The verdict to be passed on the third planet around Sol was never in doubt.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

“A desire not to butt into other people's business is at least eighty percent of all human 'wisdom'...and the other twenty percent isn't very important.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

“But one way or another competing and weeding takes place . . . or a race goes downhill.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

“Most moral philosophers consciously or unconsciously assume the essential correctness of our cultural sexual code — family, monogamy, continence, the postulate of privacy, ... restriction of intercourse to the marriage bed, etcetera. Having stipulated our cultural code as a whole, they fiddle with details - even such piffle as solemnly discussing whether or not the female breast is an "obscene" sight! But mostly they debate how the human animal can be induced or forced to obey this code, blandly ignoring the high probability that the heartaches and tragedies they see all around them originate in the code itself rather than the failure to abide by the code.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

“I woke up in bed with a man and a cat. The man was a stranger; the cat was not”
― Robert A. Heinlein, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls

“Apparently Blank thinks I am a nice accommodating guy, please explain to him that I am a son of a bitch”
― Robert Heinlein

“Thou art God.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

“Because the world has gone nutty and art always paints the spirit of its times”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

“The Universe was a damned silly place at best . . . but the least likely explanation for its existence was the no-explanation of random chance, the conceit that some abstract somethings "just happened" to be some atoms that "just happened" to get together in configurations which "just happened" to look like consistent laws and then some of these configurations "just happened" to possess self-awareness and that two such "just happened" to be the Man from Mars and the other a bald-headed old coot with Jubal himself inside.

No, Jubal would not buy the "just happened" theory, popular as it was with men who called themselves scientists. 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, Stranger in a Strange Land

“To support his austerely upholstered nest and its rabble staff he put forth minimum effort for maximum return simply because it was easier to be rich than to be poor - Harshaw merely wished to live exactly as he liked, doing whatever he thought was best for him.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

“God made alcohol and he made feet - and he made 'em so you could put 'em together and be happy!”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

“Audacity, always audacity - soundest principal of strategy.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land