People simplify ‘Apollonian’ into ‘mild’, and ‘calm’, and ‘cool’. But ‘Apollonian’ and ‘Dionysian’ are two sides of one coin–a nun kneeling in her cell, holding perfectly still, can be in ecstacy more frenzied than any...

Don’t explain computers to laymen. Simpler to explain sex to a virgin.

Being a mother is an attitude, not a biological relation.

God split himself into a myriad parts that he might have friends. This may not be true, but it sounds good—and is no sillier than any other theology.

A hero must hero.

There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.

Political tags — such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth — are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those...

Daughters can spend ten percent more than a man can make in any usual occupation. That’s a law of nature, to be known henceforth as ‘Harshaw’s Law.

Random chance is not sufficient to explain random chance. ~Jubal Harshaw

He’s an honest politician–he stays bought.

It’s up to the artist to use language that can be understood, not hide it in some private code. Most of these jokers don’t even want to use language you and I know or can...

I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone...

Never own more than you can carry in both hands at a dead run.

Liberty is never unalienable; it must be redeemed regularly with the blood of patriots or it always vanishes. Of all the so-called natural human rights that have ever been invented, liberty is least likely to...

Love” is a that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own…Jealousy is a disease, love is a healthy condition. The immature mind often mistakes one for the other, or...

The only religious opinion I feel sure of is this: self-awareness is not just a bunch of amino acids bumping together.

All human behavior, all human motivations, all man’s hopes and fears, were heavily colored and largely controlled by mankind’s tragic and oddly beautiful pattern of reproduction.

Thinking doesn’t pay. Just makes you discontented with what you see around you.

History has the relation to truth that theology has to religion — ie., none to speak of

Heinlein’s Rules for Writers Rule One: You Must WriteRule Two: Finish What Your StartRule Three: You Must Refrain From Rewriting, Except to Editorial OrderRule Four: You Must Put Your Story on the MarketRule Five: You...

If you’ve got the truth you can demonstrate it. Talking doesn’t prove it.

Nothing uses up alcohol faster than political argument.

A dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than is a riot.

The Universe was a damned silly place at best . . . but the least likely explanation for its existence was the no-explanation of random chance, the conceit that some abstract somethings “just happened” to...

My dear, I used to think I was serving humanity . . . and I pleasured in the thought. Then I discovered that humanity does not want to be served; on the contrary it resents...

A poet who reads his verse in public may have other nasty habits.

Secrecy begets tyranny.

Nothing could go wrong because nothing had…I meant “nothing would.” No – Then I quit trying to phrase it, realizing that if time travel ever became widespread, English grammar was going to have to add...

Never try to outstubborn a cat.

…I have this one nasty habit. Makes me hard to live with. I write……writing is antisocial. It’s as solitary as masturbation. Disturb a writer when he is in the throes of creation and he is...

Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.

The country and culture commonly known as “America” had had a badly split personality all through its history. Its overt laws were almost always puritanical for a people whose covert behavior tended to be Rabelaisian;...

Darling, a true lady takes off her dignity with her clothes and does her whorish best. At other times you can be as modest and dignified as your persona requires.

I’m always suspicious of disinterested interest.

All those religions–they contradict each other on every point but every one of them is filled with ways to help people to be brave enough to laugh even though they know they are dying.

My old man says when it’s time to be counted, the important thing is to be man enough to stand up.

A desire not to butt into other people’s business is at least eighty percent of all human wisdom.

He had learned that close-held secrets could often be cracked by going all the way to the top and there making himself unbearably unpleasant. He knew that such twisting of the tiger’s tail was dangerous,...

A society that gets rid of all its troublemakers goes downhill.

Harshaw had the arrogant humility of the man who has learned so much that he is aware of his own ignorance and he saw no point in ‘measurements’ when he did not know what he...

But one way or another competing and weeding takes place . . . or a race goes downhill.

One can lead a child to knowledge but one cannot make him think.

Limiting the freedom of news ‘just a little bit’ is in the same category with the classic example ‘a little bit pregnant.

It’s a long story. Want a refill?””No, let’s start the steak. Where’s the button?””Right here.””Well, push it.””Me? You offered to cook.””Ben Caxton, I will lie here and starve before I will get up to push...

I woke up in bed with a man and a cat. The man was a stranger; the cat was not

Could dump two Chinee down in one of our maria and they would get rich selling rocks to each other while raising twelve kids. Then a Hindu would sell retail stuff he got from them...

Jealousy is a disease, love is a healthy condition. The immature mind often mistakes one for the other, or assumes that the greater the love, the greater the jealousy – in fact, they are almost...

Butterflies are self propelled flowers.

I know why we laugh. We laugh because it hurts, and it’s the only thing to make it stop hurting.

Do you know your Bible?”Uh, not very well.”It merits study, it contains very practical advice for most emergencies.