Robert A. Heinlein Quotes

A lot of things have been thrown at me in life, and I've got through it all without a rule book, taking it one day at a time.

She believed not in divine salvation but in the proposition that we poor mortals are fully capable of saving ourselves, if conditions and inclinations are right, and the evidence of this potential is found in the smallest of gestures, like the uncertain resting of a large hand on a bony shoulder.

Don't ask for guarantees. And don't look to be saved in any one thing, person, machine, or library. Do your own bit of saving, and if you drown, at least die knowing you were heading for shore.

You never know what's going to happen, so you just continue with your head down and never expect things to start being handed to you.

Your on your on with this one babe." "Coward." "Calling me names isn't going to get me in there." -Ranger and Stephanie

Life helps those who help themselves.

A man must find his occasions in himself, it is true. The natural day is very calm, and will hardly reprove his indolence.

Do you think God can be trusted? Or do yo think you need to take things into your own hands?

Every year is different. I'm not getting any younger trying to keep it going. It's always a challenge. It's like a boxer going into a ring. You never can tell what's going to work and what's not going to work until you're in action and everything is going on around you. It's very intense and always a challenge and always a thrill.

Believe in miracles but don't depend on them.

But one must go where one's road leads, even when it's a distressing road.

My mother always taught me to be strong and to never be a victim. Never make excuses. Never expect anyone else to provide for me things I know I can provide for myself.

Independence is not a static condition; it is a continuous conquest, and in order to reach not only freedom, but also strength, and the perfecting on one's powers, it is necessary to follow this path of unremitting toil.

It's about time that we as Arabs take things into our own hands and figure out our own future, rather than [keep depending] on some outside force to do it for us... particularly when intervention by this outside force has not particularly been beneficial to the region in recent history.

No man can be truly free whose liberty is dependent upon the thought, feeling and action of others, and who has himself no means in his own hands for guarding, protecting, defending and maintaining that liberty

If you need a certain vitality you can only supply it yourself, or there comes a point, anyway, when no one's actions but your own seem dramatically convincing and justifiable in the plot that the number of your days concocts.

In my years, I have seen that people must be their own gods and make their own good fortune. The bad will come or not come anyway.

I was raised to face any challenge.

I had to stop hoping so much that a ship would rescue me. I should not count on outside help. Survival had to start with me. In my experience, a castaway’s worst mistake is to hope too much and to do too little. Survival starts by paying attention to what is close at hand and immediate. To look out with idle hope is tantamount to dreaming one’s life away.

The future's here, we are it, we are on our own

Motivation is the fuel, necessary to keep the human engine running.

The main thing is the YOU beneath the clothes and skin--the ability to do, the will to conquer, the determination to understand and know this great, wonderful, curious world.

Do it for yourself. The universe will be around to collect its cut later.

Let's face it, life is a constant challenge. It's full of unexpected detours that no one but you can navigate.

Here must thou be, O man, Strength to thyself - no helper hast thou here - Here keepest thou thy individual state: No other can divide with thee this work, No secondary hand can intervene To fashion this ability. 'Tis thine, The prime and vital principle is thine In the recesses of thy nature, far From any reach of outward fellowship, Else 'tis not thine at all.