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I Never Do Anything I Don't Want To Do. Nor Does Anyone, But In My Case I Am Always Aware Of It.
-Robert A. Heinlein
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I Never Do Anything

Robert A. Heinlein
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I Never Do Anything I Don't Want To Do. Nor Does Anyone, But In My Case I Am Always Aware Of It.

Understanding the Quote: "i never do anything i don't want to do. nor does anyone,..."

This quote by Robert A. Heinlein reflects deeply on the theme of doe. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Doe, Want, Stranger In A Strange Land, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Robert A. Heinlein interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Robert A. Heinlein

Robert A. Heinlein is celebrated for insightful thoughts on doe and want. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Doe
Want
Stranger In A Strange Land
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Consider The Black Widow Spider. It's A Timid Little Beastie, Useful And, For My Taste, The Prettiest Of The Arachnids, With Its Shiny, Patent-leather Finish And Its Red Hourglass Trademark. But The Poor Thing Has The Fatal Misfortune Of Possessing Enormously Too Much Power For Its Size. So Everybody Kills It On Sight.
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Men
Race
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Law
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Some Logics Get Nervous Breakdowns. Overloaded Phone System Behaves Like Frightened Child. Mike Did Not Have Upsets, Acquired Sense Of Humor Instead. Low One. If He Were A Man, You Wouldn't Dare Stoop Over. His Idea Of Thigh-slapper Would Be To Dump You Out Of Bed — Or Put Itch Powder In Pressure Suit.
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Men
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Railroads
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A Community Where Everyone Is A Ruthless Murderer, With Handy Access To Death-dealing Devices, Is A Very Polite Community.
Community
Ruthless
Polite
When He Kisses You He Isn't Doing Anything Else. You're His Whole Universe, And The Moment Is Eternal Because He Doesn't Have Any Plans And Isn't Going Anywhere. Just Kissing You ... It's Overwhelming.
Kissing
Moments
Stolen Kisses
When One Teaches, Two Learn.
Education
Clever
Teaching
Get A Shot Off Fast. This Upsets Him Long Enough To Let You Make Your Second Shot Perfect.
Peace
War
Long
It Is Possible That The Percentage Of Honest And Competent Whores Is Higher Than That Of Plumbers And Much Higher Than That Of Lawyers. And Enormously Higher Than That Of Professors.
Education
Honest
Lawyer
Most 'scientists' Are Bottle Washers And Button Sorters.
Buttons
Bottles
Scientist
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Men
Groups
Halos
One Might Define Adulthood As The Age At Which A Person Learns That He Must Die ...and Accepts His Sentence Undismayed.
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Might
Accepting
Fulfillment In Life Is Loving A Good Woman And Killing A Bad Man.
Death
Suicide
Men
Certainly The Game Is Rigged. Don't Let That Stop You; If You Don't Bet You Can't Win.
Life And Love
Winning
Games
Sex Without Love Is Merely Healthy Exercise.
Love
Sex
Exercise
Some People Insist That "mediocre" Is Better Than "best." They Delight In Clipping Wings Because They Themselves Can't Fly. They Despise Brains Because They Have None.
Wings
People
Brain
Thou Art God, I Am God. All That Groks Is God.
Art
Secrecy Is The Keystone To All Tyranny. Not Force, But Secrecy And Censorship. When Any Government Or Church For That Matter, Undertakes To Say To Its Subjects, "this You May Not Read, This You Must Not Know," The End Result Is Tyranny And Oppression, No Matter How Holy The Motives. Mighty Little Force Is Needed To Control A Man Who Has Been Hoodwinked In This Fashion; Contrariwise, No Amount Of Force Can Control A Free Man, Whose Mind Is Free. No, Not The Rack Nor The Atomic Bomb, Not Anything. You Can't Conquer A Free Man; The Most You Can Do Is Kill Him.
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Atheist
Freedom
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War
Cities
You Can Have Peace. Or You Can Have Freedom. Don't Ever Count On Having Both At Once.
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Peace
Freedom
The Saddest Thing About Ephemerals Was That Their Little Lives Rarely Held Time Enough For Love.
Love
Life
Littles
An Animal So Poor In Spirit That He Won't Even Fight On His Own Behalf Is Already An Evolutionary Dead End; The Best He Can Do For His Breed Is To Crawl Off And Die, And Not Pass On His Defective Genes.
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Animal
Spirit
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Happiness
Children
Lying
Remember This: Once The Human Race Is Established On More Than One Planet And Especially, In More Than One Solar System, There Is No Way Now Imaginable To Kill Off The Human Race.
Race
Space
Way
The Human Race Divides Politically Into Those Who Want People To Be Controlled And Those Who Have No Such Desire.
Race
People
Desire
Each Man Is His Own Prisoner, In Solitary Confinement For Life.
Men
Prison
Solitary
Certain Types Of Loudmouthism Should Be A Capital Offense Among Decent People.
People
Should
Type
A Poet Who Reads His Verse In Public May Have Other Nasty Habits.
Art
Poetry
May
In Handling A Stinging Insect, Move Very Slowly.
Moving
Insects
Have You Ever Known Me To Be Rude To A Lady?" "i Have Seen You Be Intentionally Rude To A Woman. I Have Never Seen You Be Rude To A Lady.
Rude
Known
...a Book Need Never Die And Should Not Be Killed; Books Were The Immortal Part Of Man.
Book
Men
Needs
The Two Highest Achievements Of The Human Mind Are The Twin Concepts Of "loyalty" And "duty". Whenever These Twin Concepts Fall Into Disrepute, Get Out Of There Fast! You May Possibly Save Yourself, But It Is Too Late To Save That Society. It Is Doomed.
Loyalty
Fall
Two
The Ordinary Bloke Will Not Voluntarily Pay For "art" That Leaves Him Unmoved--if He Does Pay For It, The Money Has To Be Conned Out Of Him, By Taxes And Such.
Art
Ordinary
Doe
Never Crowd Youngsters About Their Private Affairs - Sex Especially. When They Are Growing Up, They Are Nerve Ends All Over, And Resent (quite Properly) Any Invasion Of Their Privacy. Oh, Sure, They'll Make Mistakes - But That's Their Business, Not Yours. (you Made Your Own Mistakes, Did You Not?)
Sex
Business
Growing Up
Democracy Can Survive Anything Except Democrats
Democracy
Politics
Democrat
No Storyteller Has Been Able To Dream Up Anything As Fantastically Unlikely As What Really Does Happen In This Mad Universe.
Dream
Science
Mad
Every General Prohibition Creates Its Bootleggers.
Prohibition
You Don’t Pay Back, You Pay Forward.
Pay
Every Time We Killed A Thousand Bugs At A Cost Of One M.i. It Was A Net Victory For The Bugs. We Were Learning, Expensively, Just How Efficient A Total Communism Can Be When Used By A People Actually Adapted To It By Evolution; The Bug Commisars Didn't Care Any More About Expending Soldiers Than We Cared About Expending Ammo. Perhaps We Could Have Figured This Out About The Bugs By Noting The Grief The Chinese Hegemony Gave The Russo-anglo-american Alliance; However The Trouble With 'lessons From History' Is That We Usually Read Them Best After Falling Flat On Our Chins.
Grief
Fall
People
Any Government Will Work If Authority And Responsibility Are Equal And Coordinate. This Does Not Insure “good” Government, It Simply Insures That It Will Work. But Such Governments Are Rare — Most People Want To Run Things, But Want No Part Of The Blame. This Used To Be Called The “backseat Driver” Syndrome.
Running
Responsibility
Government
If Tempted By Something That Feels 'altruistic,' Examine Your Motives And Root Out That Self-deception. Then, If You Still Want To Do It, Wallow In It!
Roots
Self
Deception
Patriotism Is Not 'my Country Right Or Wrong'; Patriotism Means Loving The Ideals For Which America Stands And Having The Courage To Speak Up When These Ideals Are Distorted For Personal Or Political Gain. The American Government Was Instituted To Be The Servant Of The People, Not Our Master.
Country
Mean
Government
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 Priestess Of Pan Priapus Celebrating The Vernal Equinox.
Cells
Two Sides
People
A Critic Is A Man Who Creates Nothing And Thereby Feels Qualified To Judge The Work Of Creative Men. There Is Logic In This; He Is Unbiased, He Hates All Creative People Equally.
Hate
Science
Men
The Power To Tax, Once Conceded, Has No Limits; It Continues Until It Destroys.
Mistress
Libertarian
Limits
Never Do Today What You Can Put Off Till Tomorrow If Tomorrow Might Improve The Odds.
Odds
Understanding
Delay
The Whole Principle (censorship) Is Wrong; It's Like Demanding That Grown Men Live On Skim Milk Because The Baby Can't Eat Steak.
Baby
Men
Principles
I'm Not Trying To Frighten You, But Only A Fool Makes Predictions Based On Ignorance; I Am Not That Sort Of Fool.
Ignorance
Trying
Fool
If Men Were The Automatons That Behaviorists Claim They Are, The Behaviorist Psychologists Could Not Have Invented The Amazing Nonsense Called 'behaviorist Psychology.'
Men
Psychology
Nonsense
Women Are Amazing Creatures-sweet, Soft, Gentle, And Far More Savage Than We Are.
Sweet
Savages
Gentle
Expertise In One Field Does Not Carry Over Into Other Fields. But Experts Often Think So. The Narrower Their Field Of Knowledge The More Likely They Are To Think So.
Knowledge
Science
Thinking
Once A Man Gets A Reputation As A Liar, He Might As Well Be Struck Dumb, For People Do Not Listen To The Wind.
Liars
Men
Wind
The Supreme Irony Of Life Is That Hardly Anyone Gets Out Of It Alive.
Life
Success
Inspire
Duty Is A Debt You Owe To Yourself To Fulfill Obligations You Have Assumed Voluntarily.
Debt
Duty
Obligation
It Seems To Me That The Secret Of True Happiness In Life Is To Know What You Are And Then Be Content To Be That, In Style, Head Up And Proud, And Not Yearn To Be Something Else.
Happy
Style
Secret
...revolutions Are Not Won By Enlisting The Masses. Revolution Is A Science For The Few Who Are Competent To Practice It. It Depends On Correct Organisation And Above All, On Communications.
Communication
Practice
Revolution
You Live And Learn. Or You Don't Live Long.
Learning
Long
Live And Learn
Any Group Is Weaker Than A Man Alone Unless They Are Perfectly Trained To Work Together.
Men
Working Together
Together
I Think That Science Fiction Has A Distinct Therapeutic Value Because All Of It Has As Its Primary Postulate That The World Does Change. I Cannot Overemphasize The Importance Of That Idea.
Thinking
Ideas
World
"i've Found Out Why People Laugh. They Laugh Because It Hurts So Much... Because It's The Only Thing That'll Make It Stop Hurting" ... "but That's Not All People Laugh At." "isn't It? Perhaps I Don't Grok All Its Fullness Yet. But Find Me Something That Really Makes You Laugh Sweetheart... A Joke, Or Anything Else- But Something That Gave You A A Real Belly Laugh, Not A Smile. Then We'll See If There Isn't A Wrongness Wasn't There." He Thought. "i Grok When Apes Learn To Laugh, They'll Be People."
Hurt
Real
People
The Golden Sunshine Of Italy Congealed Into Tears. Here's To Alcoholic Brotherhood ... Much More Suited To The Frail Human Soul, If Any, Than Any Other Sort.
Sunshine
Community
Soul
Was There Ever A Time When The Majority Was Right?
Time
Majority
Right Time
A Fake Fortuneteller Can Be Tolerated. But An Authentic Soothsayer Should Be Shot On Sight. Cassandra Did Not Get Half The Kicking Around She Deserved.
Sight
Fake
Kicking
The Profession Of Shaman Has Many Advantages. It Offers High Status With A Safe Livelihood Free Of Work In The Dreary, Sweaty Sense. In Most Societies It Offers Legal Privileges And Immunities Not Granted To Other Men. But It Is Hard To See How A Man Who Has Been Given A Mandate From On High To Spread Tidings Of Joy To All Mankind Can Be Seriously Interested In Taking Up A Collection To Pay His Salary; It Causes One To Suspect That The Shaman Is On The Moral Level Of Any Other Con Man. But It Is A Lovely Work If You Can Stomach It.
Men
Joy
Lovely
Working Because You Want To Is The Best Sort Of Play.
Play
Want
Writing Is Not Necessarily Something To Be Ashamed Of, But Do It In Private And Wash Your Hands Afterwards.
Writing
Hands
Ashamed
If You Wanted To Teach A Baby A Lesson, Would You Cut Its Head Off?
Baby
Cutting
Lessons
Must Be A Yearning Deep In Human Heart To Stop Other People From Doing As They Please. Rules, Laws - Always For Other Fellow. A Murky Part Of Us, Something We Had Before We Came Down Out Of Trees, And Failed To Shuck When We Stood Up.
Heart
Law
People
More People Worry Themselves To Death Than Bleed To Death.
People
Worry
All My Enemies Are Self-appointed.
Self
Enemy
A Monarch's Neck Should Always Have A Noose Around It. It Keeps Him Upright.
Necks
Should
Monarchs
Learning Isn't A Means To An End; It Is An End In Itself.
Learning
Mean
Experience
I Don't Trust A Man Who Talks About Ethics When He Is Picking My Pocket. But If He Is Acting In His Own Self-interest And Says So, I Have Usually Been Able To Work Out Some Way To Do Business With Him.
Men
Self
Work Out
If Satan Should Ever Replace God He Would Find It Necessary To Assume The Attributes Of Divinity.
Divinity
Assuming
Satan
Never Own More Than You Can Carry In Both Hands At A Dead Run.
Running
Hands
Women Will Forgive Anything. Otherwise, The Race Would Have Died Out Long Ago.
Funny
Forgiveness
Witty
If You Don't Like Yourself, You Can't Like Other People. -- Lazarus Long.
Love
Long
People
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