Robert A. Heinlein Quotes

A character is what he does, yes - but even more, a character is what he means to do.

There are two kinds of people in this world: people who want to be desired, and people who want to be desired so much that they pretend they don't.

You can't go around hoping that most people have sterling moral characters. The most you can hope for is that people will pretend that they do.

The nobler a man, the harder it is for him to suspect inferiority in others.

Because I am fascinated by people and what makes them behave the way they do. I think it is one of the most fascinating things in the world.

In so complex a thing as human nature, we must consider it is hard to find rules without exception.

People generally despise where they flatter, and cringe to those they would gladly overtop; so that truth and ceremony are two things.

Give a truly good person power, and they’re still a good person. Give a bad person power, and they’re still a bad person. The question is always about the person in between. The one that isn’t evil, or good, but just ordinary. You don’t always know what an ordinary person is like on the inside.

Moral qualities rule the world, but at short distances the senses are despotic.

History is nothing but a problem of mechanics applied to psychology.

The more one analyses people, the more all reasons for analysis disappear. Sooner or later one comes to that dreadful universal thing called human nature.

Men despise one another and flatter one another; and men wish to raise themselves above one another, and crouch before one another.

I conduct my life with an expectation that people will do the right thing. Yet even with all my experience, I am still surprised when they do not.

It is not races but individuals that are noble and courageous or ignoble and craven or considerate or persistent or philosophical or reasonable. The race gets credit when the percentage of noble individuals is high.

When it comes to people -- don't write about who you know; but what you know of human nature.

Four varieties in society: lovers, the ambitious, observers, and fools. The fools are the happiest.

I tend to come from a more psychological - that's sort of my passion. I'm interested in the psychology of politics as well - and obviously I'm interested in what's going on in the world - but my passion is more the psychology of people.

A small lie, if it actually is a lie, condemns a man as much as a big and black falsehood. If a man will deliberately cheat to the amount of a single cent, give him opportunity and he would cheat to any amount.

I will confess that I have no more sense of what goes on in the mind of mankind than I have for the mind of an ant.

People do what they are told not to do. It happens time and time again. Here on the frozen tundra, it is known as the Tongue on the Frozen Pump Handle principle.

All men are evil and will declare themselves to be so when occasion is offered.

Little lies are very dangerous, because there are so many of them, and because each one of them scours upon the character as diamond-pointed.

It's always fun to play the innocent, no matter what you're doing. If you feel like you're doing the right thing, you can get away with a lot comedically. I had definitely missed not having a conscience.

Morality has nothing to do with such a man as I am.

This script was just so much smarter than usual and I'm just fascinated by human behavior.