Robert A. Heinlein


This page is dedicatd to the Grandmaster of Science fiction: Robert A. Heinlein. I began my journey into his incredible Universe in 1991, while still in high school. The first of his works which I read was "Assignment in Eternity", a collection of short stories. Of all the stories in this book, I was particularly impressed with "Jerry Was a Man". If you have not read this story, I strongly suggest doing so. It is a wonderful tale of freedom and what it means to be human.

Unfortunatly, there were but two Heinlein books in the school library. Fortunatly one of these was "A Stranger in a Strange Land". This novel is one of the few which had an enormous impact on me. I can say without a doubt that it changed my life forever. If you have not yet read Heinlein, I would recomend this book as your starting point.

It is the tale of the human Valentine Michael Smith who, as an infant, is the sole survivor of a failed expedition to Mars. He grows to maturity among the Martians, learning the Martian tongue and Martian customs. When a new expedition form Earth is sent to Mars, Michael is discovered and brought back to Earth. From here the story enfolds into a beautiful tale of love, discovery, and triumph.

A few years have passed since high school, and I have read many more of Heinlein's novels. A few years ago I began collecting quotes from his work, and feel that I have some understanding of Heinlein's views. If i were asked to label his philosophy, I suppose I would have to call it "Cynical-Optimisim".

Within this site you will find the quotes I have collected. Many of them may seem redundant, but as Heinlein writes in "A Stranger in a Strange Land": "Most of my stuff is worth reading only once, and not even once by a person who knows the little I have to say." I disagree with this statement, Heinlein is a master plot development and character creation. Perhaps his strongest point is in his use of dialogue. He uses little narration in his work, and relies more on character dialogue to get his point across. Ah, but what incredible conversations his characters have!

At any rate, I feel that the quotations I have collected sum up "the little he has to say". This page will remain under construction as I collect more quotes and continue adding the ones I have. Please send me any quotes that you feel are missing, or E-mail me and tell me what you think of the ones I already have. I try to keep my quotes as brief as possible to retain the message with as little unnecessay wordage as possible. Many sites of Heinlein quotes I have seen seem to include a large amount of excess words which are not required to get the point across. I have included a few long excerpts which I truly found enjoyable, though I try to keep it to a minimum, and rarely include large blocks of dialogue.

(A final note: If you have not read the works listed here and plan to do so, I would recommend not reading the quotes I have listed, as some of them contain much of the flavor of the novel. Thank you.)



Quotes

Quotes
Stranger in a Strange Land Time Enough for Love To Sail Beyond the Sunset