Robert A. Heinlein Quotes

If there are degrees of evil, it is hard to say who is more contemptible: the brute who assumes the right to force the mind of others or the moral degenerate who grants to others the right to force his mind.

Some people have a knack of putting upon you gifts of no real value, to engage you to substantial gratitude. We thank them for nothing.

Always I pay. Always I pay. How do you know Gelli? What do you want? How much do you want?

Many delight more in giving of presents than in paying their debts.

It rankles me when somebody tries to force somebody to do something.

What is debt anyway? A debt is just the perversion of a promise. It is a promise corrupted by both math and violence.

You can never pay back, so you should always try to pay forward.

He that owes nothing, if he makes not mouthes at us, is courteous.

Suretyship (Dogma) is the precursor of ruin.

I do have magical powers, I try to use them for good and not evil, but I can pretty much make anyone do whatever I want them to do, if they're within range.

One thing I want to make clear: You never want to hide from your debts. It doesn't work.

All that is due to us will be paid, although not perhaps by those to whom we have lent.

We are never quits with those who oblige us," was Dantes' reply; "for when we do not owe them money, we owe them gratitude.

He who receives a benefit should never forget it; he who bestows should never remember it.

Too much pleasure disagrees with us. Too many concords are annoying in music; too many benefits irritate us; we wish to have the wherewithal to overpay our debts.

Belief is with them mechanical, voluntary: they believe what they are paid for - they swear to that which turns to account. Do you suppose, that after years spent in this manner, they have any feeling left answering to the difference between truth and falsehood?

We may never be able to pay directly for the gifts of true friendship - but pay we must, even though we make our payment to someone who owes us nothing, in some other place and at some other time.

He who bestows something great receives no gratitude; for in accepting it the recipient has already been weighed down too much.

I have never put a gun to anyone's head to obligate him to marry me.

A portion of the multitude must ever be coerced.

A man who has taken your time recognises no debt; yet it is the one he can never repay.

There is no duty more obligatory than the repayment of kindness.

A habit of debt is very injurious to the memory.

He that trusts much Obliges much, says the Spaniard.

I owe a debt to America that I will never be able to repay.