Robert A. Heinlein Quotes

The condition of man... is a condition of war of everyone against everyone.

Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best; it removes all that is base. All men are afraid in battle. The coward is the one who lets his fear overcome his sense of duty. Duty is the essence of manhood.

It was a natural process, because when we go to the ring we are human beings, but once you feel the punches and the competition that's when the beast comes out and takes hold of us.

As we leave the Moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came, and God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind.

No man lives without jostling and being jostled; in all ways he has to elbow himself through the world, giving and receiving offence.

As humans, we have evolved to compete... it is in our genes, and we love to watch a competition.

I'd still like to see 'Survivor' minus the planned show-biz parts. That would be the purest form of show business - I want to see someone so hungry that they eat somebody else's foot.

That's what Hubble can do for us. It can tell us whether the universe is expanding forever or if one day it's going to come back together.

I think it's part of the DNA of human beings. We are a cooking animal. What differentiates us from all the other animals is that we cook and they don't.

All men have an instinct for conflict: at least, all healthy men.

I think the human race doesn't have a future if it doesn't go into space.

We need to spread out now in the universe. I think in 100 years we'll be living on other planets.

It's time for the human race to enter the solar system.

Mankind invents things to fight about.

Without game, men prey on each other.

We humans have millions of years of evolutionary baggage that makes us regard competition in a deadly light.

If it's natural to kill, how come men have to go into training to learn how?

Man is a predatory animal, and this aspect of his nature is nowhere better suited by environment than in the world of politics.

Humanity is not forever chained to this planet.

For a country like ours that needs to stay ahead of the world or go under, we must do great, ambitious things - like going to the moon - to survive.

I don't think that humankind is worthy of trust when we can't let go of war, draw borders between neighboring countries, seek to become richer than others, find joy in defeating others at sports, and choose someone of the opposite gender based on their appearance.

God and nature have thrown all human fortunes into the midst of mankind; and they are thus attainable rather by rapine than by industry, by wicked actions rather than by good. Hence it is that men feed upon each other, and those who cannot defend themselves must be worried.

The trouble is, the same thing that enabled us to survive evolution is also going to kill us, because in the final analysis, if survival is the primary motivation of every human being, then we will finally be in a situation where might will make right and only one person will survive.

These pigeons have been living with each other for 10 or 15 years, but when I throw feed down, they kill each other to get it, and it's the same with the fighters. We love and respect each other...but we need that money.

It's a morality that keeps humans human.