# The Past Through Tomorrow

- Author: [Robert A. Heinlein](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein.md)
- Quotes: 22
- Book page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow

## Quotes

> “Yes, maybe it’s just one colossal big joke with no point to it.” Lazarus stood up and stretched and scratched his ribs. “But I can tell you this, Andy, whatever the answers are, here’s one monkey that’s going to keep on climbing, and looking around him to see what he can see, as long as the tree holds out.”

p. 667 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow/yes-maybe-its.md)

> “What course of action do you favor?”
>
> “Me? Why, none. Mary, if there is any one thing I have learned in the past couple of centuries, it’s this: These things pass. Wars and depressions and Prophets and Covenants—they pass. The trick is to stay alive through them.”

p. 539 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow/what-course-of-action.md)

> I think perhaps of all the things a police state can do to its citizens, distorting history is possibly the most pernicious.

p. 401 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow/i-think-perhaps.md)

> “Do you seriously expect to start a rebellion with picayune stuff like that?”
>
> “It’s not picayune stuff, because it acts directly on their emotions, below the logical level. You can sway a thousand men by appealing to their prejudices quicker than you can convince one man by logic. It doesn’t have to be a prejudice about an important matter either.

p. 426 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow/do-you-seriously.md)

> From my point of view, a great deal of openly expressed piety is insufferable conceit.

p. 431 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow/from-my-point.md)

> Mass psychology is not simply a summation of individual psychologies; that is a prime theorem of social psychodynamics—not just my opinion; no exception has ever been found to this theorem. It is the social mass-action rule, the mob-hysteria law, known and used by military, political, and religious leaders, by advertising men and prophets and propagandists, by rabble rousers and actors and gang leaders, for generations before it was formulated in mathematical symbols. It works.

p. 535 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow/mass-psychology-is-not.md)

> I began to sense faintly that secrecy is the keystone of all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy...censorship. When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, “This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know,” the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything—you can’t conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him.

p. 401 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow/i-began-to-sense.md)

> “Johnnie, the nice thing about citing God as an authority is that you can prove anything you set out to prove. It’s just a matter of selecting the proper postulates, then insisting that your postulates are ‘inspired.’ Then no one can possibly prove that you are wrong.”

p. 432 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow/johnnie-the-nice.md)

> I was too busy to oblige them by dying just now.

p. 412 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow/i-was-too.md)

> “The truth of a proposition has little or nothing to do with its psychodynamics. The notion that ‘truth will prevail’ is merely a pious wish; history doesn’t show it.”

p. 606 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow/the-truth-of-a-proposition.md)

> First they junked the concept of “justice.” Examined semantically “justice” has no referent—there is no observable phenomenon in the space-time-matter continuum to which one can point, and say, “This is justice.” Science can deal only with that which can be observed and measured. Justice is not such a matter; therefore it can never have the same meaning to one as to another; any “noises” said about it will only add to confusion.
>
> But damage, physical or economic, can be pointed to and measured. Citizens were forbidden by the Covenant to damage another. Any act not leading to damage, physical or economic, to some particular person, they declared to be lawful.

p. 500 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow/first-they-junked.md)

> Just now I’m writing a series of oh-so-respectful articles about the private life of the Prophet and his acolytes and attending priests, how many servants they have, how much it costs to run the Palace, all about the fancy ceremonies and rituals, and such junk. All of it perfectly true, of course, and told with unctuous approval. But I lay it on a shade too thick. The emphasis is on the jewels and the solid gold trappings and how much it all costs, and I keep telling the yokels what a privilege it is for them to be permitted to pay for such frippery and how flattered they should feel that God’s representative on earth lets them take care of him.

p. 426 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow/just-now-im-writing.md)

> History is never surprising—after it happens.

p. 333 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow/history-is-never.md)

> High I.Q., good compatibility index, superior education—everything that makes a person pleasant and easy and interesting to have around.

p. 255 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow/high-i-q-good.md)

> There are but two ways of forming an opinion in science. One is the scientific method; the other, the scholastic. One can judge from experiment, or one can blindly accept authority. To the scientific mind, experimental proof is all important and theory is merely a convenience in description, to be junked when it no longer fits. To the academic mind, authority is everything and facts are junked when they do not fit theory laid down by authority.

p. 24 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow/there-are-but.md)

> He decided to stay in his space suit; explosive decompression didn’t appeal to him. Come to think about it, death from old age was his choice.

p. 214 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow/he-decided-to-stay.md)

> You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity.

p. 335 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow/you-have-attributed.md)

> There is nothing in this world so permanent as a temporary emergency.

p. 100 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow/there-is-nothing.md)

> How can I possibly put a new idea into your heads, if I do not first remove your delusions?

p. 15 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow/how-can-i-possibly.md)

> There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute nor common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back, for their private benefit.

p. 25 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow/there-has-grown.md)

> He seeks order, not truth. Suppose truth defies order, will he accept it? Will you? I think not.

p. 16 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow/he-seeks-order.md)

> Don’t pay any attention to what she says. Half of it’s always wrong and she doesn’t mean the rest.

p. 351 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow/dont-pay-any.md)