Robert A. Heinlein

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

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.

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

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

You are in great danger. And so am I, although I think your danger is much greater than mine. But, Alec, I can assure you of this: If It decides to extinguish you, you will never know it. It is not a sadistic God.

Oy! Every prophecy I fulfilled! And now He tells me consistent I am not! This is justice?

A man who is happy at home doesn’t lie awake nights worrying about the hereafter.

Lucifer always has reasons for what He does. He rarely explains. His intentions are malevolent only toward malicious people

...which you are not.

For a creature to act out its own minor art, the rules under which it acts must be either known to it or be such that the rules can become known through trial and error — with error not always fatal. In short the creature must be able to learn and to benefit by its experience.

“You see?”

“I suppose I do. About as well as a cow understands calculus.

Time is never a problem on the God level. Or space. Whatever needed to deceive you was provided. But no more than that. That is the conservative principle in art at the God level. While I can't do it, not being at that level, I have seen a lot of it done. A skillful Artist in shapes and appearances does no more than necessary to create His effect.

Mr. Chairman, almost everything about a human creature is ridiculous, except its ability to suffer bravely and die gallantly for whatever it loves and believes in. The validity of that belief, the appropriateness of that love, is irrelevant; it is the bravery and the gallantry that count. These are uniquely human qualities, independent of mankind’s creator, who has none of them himself—as I know, since he is my brother...and I lack them, too.