Robert A. Heinlein Quotes

Conservatives need to go where the facts, not ideology, take them.

Science is not wisdom.

Facts are not truths; they are not conclusions; they are not even premises, but in the nature and parts of premises.

You can have your own opinion, but not your own facts.

Rationality is the recognition of the fact that nothing can alter the truth and nothing can take precedence over that act of perceiving it.

Hope is easy; knowledge is hard. Science is the one domain in which we human beings make a truly heroic effort to counter our innate biases and wishful thinking. Science is the one endeavor in which we have developed a refined methodology for separating what a person hopes is true from what he has good reason to believe.

I maintain there is much more wonder in science than in pseudoscience. And in addition, to whatever measure this term has any meaning, science has the additional virtue, and it is not an inconsiderable one, of being true.

Opinions don't affect facts. But facts should affect opinions, and do, if you're rational

Science is more than a body of knowledge. It's a way of thinking: a way of skeptically interrogating the universe.

The man of science is a poor philosopher.

There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the later ignorance.

I'm a bit of a freak for evidence-based analysis. I strongly believe in data.

Realists do not fear the results of their study.

Only science and the spirit of seeking truth from facts can save China. I firmly believe in this.

Blind faith, no matter how passionately expressed, will not suffice. Science for its part will test relentlessly every assumption about the human condition.

Never confuse wishes with facts.

Disregard belief systems that aren't based on empirical studies.

I'm a rationalist and a skeptic, someone who safely separates faith from reason.

Let not men think there is no truth, but in the sciences that they study, or the books that they read.

Belief is a toxic and dangerous attitude toward reality. After all, if it's there it doesn't require your belief- and if it's not there why should you believe in it?

You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. Stick to Facts, sir!

My father, whose way was to force every event in nature into an hypothesis, by which means never man crucified TRUTH at the rate he did.

Man discovers truth by reason only, not by faith.

I grew up in a very rationalist household. My father, in particular, came from that mid-century tradition of thinking science will ultimately explain everything.

Never act upon wishful thinking. Act without checking the facts, and chances are that you will be swept away along with the mob.