The Heinlein Society

@heinleinsociety.org

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To promote the legacy of Robert A. Heinlein by encouraging the reading and discussion of his written work, the use of critical thinking skills in our daily lives, and a love of science essential in promoting humankind’s future beyond our home planet.

Robert A. Heinlein
When Robert and Ginny moved to Colorado Springs and built a house on Mesa Avenue, they got to choose their street number since they were the first residents. Robert chose 1776 for obvious reasons. This photo shows the metal address marker they had made that adorned their front yard for many years.
Robert Heinlein as Uncle Bob, after the Uncle Sam Wants You! poster. We’re close to publishing the latest edition of The Heinlein Journal. The Journal is free to all Heinlein Society members, and individual issues are also available for purchase by the general public. Got an area of Heinlein studies you’d like to explore? Consider writing an article for the Journal! We especially encourage emerging scholars. Recent articles include: • “Empowering the Extraordinary: Analyzing Superhuman Agency and Female Strength in Robert Heinlein’s Friday” by Gunel Alasgarova • “Heinlein in the Comics” by John Tilden • “Heinlein’s Influence on Dating and Marriage Patterns in America: A Perspective” by Glen W. Olson Learn more: https://www.heinleinsociety.org/heinlein-journal/
"The most noble fate a man can endure is to place his own mortal body between his loved home and the war's desolation." ~Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers MEMORIAL DAY REMEMBER AND HONOR
"I am trembling as I write this, to address a letter to you, and I see that my typewriter itself is laboring under the weight of what I want to say but probably will not be able to. When you entered the science fiction field it was an infantile field, written so and appealing so. Those days are gone forever and because of you. You made our field worthy of adult readers and adult writers. I have long wanted to tell you that I know this, but I've been blocked in saying so; I don't know why. Perhaps there are some persons that one admires so much that one cannot even manage to express admiration—at least aloud. But my admiration for you and my enjoyment of your work has been in my heart for many years, unsaid. I want to say it now. Philip K. Dick, Excerpt from a letter to Robert A Heinlein, 02/11/74
"I was asking questions. I was not giving answers. I was trying to shake the reader loose from some preconception and induce him to think for himself, along new and fresh lines. In consequence each reader gets something different out of that book because he himself supplies the answers. If I managed to shake him loose from some prejudice, preconception, or unexamined assumption, that was all I intended to do. A rational human being does not need answers, spoon fed to him on "faith," he needs questions to worry over-serious ones. The quality of the answers then depends on him....But anyone who takes that book as answers is cheating himself. It is an invitation to think—not to believe." Robert A. Heinlein - Excerpt from letter to Tim Zell (1972), discussing Stranger In A Strange Land
"Moving parts in rubbing contact require lubrication to avoid excessive wear. Honorifics and formal politeness provide lubrication where people rub together. Often the very young, the untraveled, the naive, the unsophisticated deplore these formalities as "empty," "meaningless," or "dishonest," and scorn to use them. No matter how "pure" their motives, they thereby throw sand into machinery that does not work too well at best." Robert A. Heinlein - Time Enough For Love
"The trouble with Bob Heinlein is that he doesn't need to write. When I want a story from him, the first thing I have to do is think up something he would like to have, like a swimming pool. “The second thing is to sell him on the idea of having it. The third thing is convince him he should write a story to get the money to pay for it, instead of building it himself." John W. Campbell
I wake up in night and think I've heard him-just a whisper: "Man ... Man my best friend..." But when I say, "Mike?" he doesn't answer. Is he wandering around somewhere, looking for hardware to hook onto? Or is he buried down in Complex Under, trying to find way out? Those special memories are all in there somewhere, waiting to be stirred. But I can't retrieve them; they were voice-coded. Oh, he's dead as Prof, I know it. (But how dead is Prof?) If I punched it just once more and said, "Hi, Mike!" would he answer, "Hi, Man! Heard any good ones lately?" Been a long time since I've risked it. But he can't really be dead; nothing was hurt—he's just lost. You listening, Bog? Is a computer one of Your creatures? Robert A. Heinlein - The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
"Peace is a condition in which no civilian pays any attention to military casualties which do not achieve page-one, lead-story prominence-unless that civilian is a close relative of one of the casualties. But if there ever was a time in history when "peace" meant that there was no fighting going on, I have been unable to find out about it." Robert A. Heinlein - Starship Troopers
"A prude is a person who thinks that his own rules of propriety are natural laws." Robert A. Heinlein - Stranger In A Strange Land
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"All men must die, it was their single common heritage. But a book need never die and should not be killed; books were the immortal part of man... Books had always been his best friends. In a hundred public libraries they had taught him. From a thousand newsstands they had warmed his loneliness. He suddenly felt that if he had not been able to save some books, it would hardly be worthwhile to live." Robert A. Heinlein - Farnham's Freehold
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." Robert A. Heinlein - Time Enough For Love
"This sad little lizard told me that he was a brontosaurus on his mother's side. I did not laugh; people who boast of ancestry often have little else to sustain them. Humoring them costs nothing and adds to happiness in a world in which happiness is always in short supply." Robert A. Heinlein - Time Enough For Love
"So far as I know. It's not enough to be able to lie with a straight face; anybody with enough gall to raise on a busted flush can do that. The first way to lie artistically is to tell the truth-but not all of it. “The second way involves telling the truth, too, but is harder: Tell the exact truth and maybe all of it .. but tell it so unconvincingly that your listener is sure you are lying." Robert A. Heinlein - Time Enough For Love
"How often have you seen a headline like this?—TWO DIE ATTEMPTING RESCUE OF DROWNING CHILD. If a man gets lost in the mountains, hundreds will search and often two or three searchers are killed. But the next time somebody gets lost just as many volunteers turn out. Poor arithmetic... but very human. It runs through all our folklore, all human religions, all our literature—a racial conviction that when one human needs rescue, others should not count the price. Weakness? It might be the unique strength that wins us a Galaxy." Robert A. Heinlein - Starship Troopers
"Biographies are for dead people. My published works are public matters; critics are free to publish any criticisms they see fit. This is an occupational hazard which I would not avoid if I could-—my only counterploy is to avoid reading the reviews of my works, as the favorable ones tend to produce unhealthy conceit and the unfavorable ones are rarely helpful to the writer. My private life I try to keep private." Robert A. Heinlein - Excerpt from a letter to Sam Moskowitz (1961) - The Virginia Edition
"Johnny gulped and gathered Bindlestiff under one arm. The Marshal led him to the elephant-drawn carriage. The dog slipped out of his arms and bounded up into the carriage and into the lap of the lady. She patted it and looked proudly, happily, down at Johnny Watts. "Hello, Johnny! Welcome home, darling!" "Martha!" he sobbed-and Rex stumbled and climbed into his carriage to embrace his queen. The sweet voice of a bugle sounded up ahead, the parade started up again, wending its endless way—" Robert A. Heinlein - The Man Who Traveled in Elephants
"Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig." Robert A. Heinlein - Time Enough For Love
"Every technology goes through three stages: first a crudely simple and quite unsatisfactory gadget; second, an enormously complicated group of gadgets designed to overcome the shortcomings of the original and achieving thereby somewhat satisfactory performance through extremely complex compromise; third, a final proper design therefrom." Robert A. Heinlein - The Rolling Stones
"I spent time then soothing Mike down trying to make him happy, having figured out what troubled him - thing that makes puppies cry and causes people to suicide: loneliness. I don't know how a long a year is to a machine that thinks a million times faster than I do. But must be too long." Robert A. Heinlein - The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress
"So far as I know. It's not enough to be able to lie with a straight face; anybody with enough gall to raise on a busted flush can do that. The first way to lie artistically is to tell the truth-but not all of it. “The second way involves telling the truth, too, but is harder: Tell the exact truth and maybe all of it .. but tell it so unconvincingly that your listener is sure you are lying." Robert A. Heinlein - Time Enough For Love
One panel. Worf, wearing a Santa hat, says “I do not know who ‘Holly’ is, but the desire of her enemies to deck the halls with her bowels indicates that she must be a fierce warrior, indeed.”
Portrait of Robert A. Heinlein by Michael Whelan. Also the cover of Grumbles from the Grave, RAH’s posthumous memoir.
Two panel meme. Top panel shows Boromir from The Fellowship of the Ring movie saying “one does not simply walk into Mordor”. Bottom panel has text at the top “Samwise Gamgee on March 14” and shows an illustration of a large being with a sword in a fiery hellscape surrounded by demons saying “where the f—- is Mr Frodo”
Two panel comic. Top panel is. A cat and a dog with a red shopping bag on the floor between them. There’s a Christmas tree on the bag. Cat says “this bag is empty. did you just get me an empty bag?” Dog says “yes.” Bottom panel shows cat sitting way down in bag, peaking over the edge, saying “I love it so much.”
4 panel comic by Sarah Andersen. 1- woman holding an object says “Look!” to dog in second panel. Text over dog is blurb from woman saying “it squeaks!” Dog rejoices. 3- woman saying “come, child.” to cat in fourth panel. Woman’s hands holding green object labeled catnip into fourth panel, saying “it is time to do drugs.” Cat rejoices.
Top text: “After moving the couch, I discovered approximately 50+ of grandma’s missing crocheted coasters.” Picture below shows cat sitting on the floor looking at us, with a field of crocheted squares before it. Text next to cat: “I know nothing.”
Very tiny black kitten with large eyes standing on a hand. First line of text under that is “The darkness. The destroyer of worlds.” Second line of text is a response, “Very small worlds for now, but just you wait.”
Two panel image. Top is Marie Kondo with the text “Ideally, keep fewer than 30 books. ~_Marie Kondo_” Bottom is drawing of a man in a suit with his left hand raised before him in a warding away gesture, with the text “No one needs that kind of negativity.”
Tiny kitten sitting on a scale, weighing less than a pound, looking up at the camera with “tiny attitude”. Caption: tiny attitude
I knocked over a plant in the kitchen but my cat saw me so I had to spray myself with water so I could show the law applies to everyone