Isaac Asimov Quotes - Page 12

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• John Dalton's records, carefully preserved for a century, were destroyed during the World War II bombing of Manchester. It is not only the living who are killed in war.

  Isaac Asimov

  War, Records, World

  17 Copy quote

• How many people is the earth able to sustain?

  Isaac Asimov

  People, Earth, Able

  1971 Der Spiegel.

  6 Copy quote

• The fall of Empire, gentlemen, is a massive thing, however, and not easily fought. It is dictated by a rising bureaucracy, a receding initiative, a freezing of caste, a damming of curiosity — a hundred other factors. It has been going on, as I have said, for centuries, and it is too majestic and massive a movement to stop.

  Isaac Asimov

  Fall, Gentleman, Curiosity

  Isaac Asimov (1986). “Foundation Trilogy”, Del Rey

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• It's not so much what you have to learn if you accept weird theories, it's what you have to UNlearn.

  Isaac Asimov

  Learning, Accepting, Theory

  9 Copy quote

• All roads lead to Trantor, says the old proverb, and that is where all stars end.

  Isaac Asimov

  Stars, Ends, All Stars

  "Second Foundation".

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• [Social] science fiction is that branch of literature which is concerned with the impact of scientific advance on human beings.

  Isaac Asimov

  Impact, Fiction, Literature

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• [A]ll knowledge is one. When a light brightens and illuminates a corner of a room, it adds to the general illumination of the entire room. Over and over again, scientific discoveries have provided answers to problems that had no apparent connection with the phenomena that gave rise to the discovery.

  Isaac Asimov

  Light, Discovery, Illumination

  Isaac Asimov (1992). “Atom: Journey Across the Subatomic Cosmos”, Plume Books

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• One might suppose that reality must be held to at all costs. However, though that may be the moral thing to do, it is not necessarily the most useful thing to do. The Greeks themselves chose the ideal over the real in their geometry and demonstrated very well that far more could be achieved by consideration of abstract line and form than by a study of the real lines and forms of the world; the greater understanding achieved through abstraction could be applied most usefully to the very reality that was ignored in the process of gaining knowledge.

  Isaac Asimov

  Real, Math, Understanding

  7 Copy quote

• I was once being interviewed by Barbara Walters. In between two of the segments she asked me: "But what would you do if the doctor gave you only six months to live?" I said, "Type faster." This was widely quoted, but the "six months" was changed to "six minutes," which bothered me. It's "six months."

  Isaac Asimov

  Doctors, Two, Six Months

  "Asimov Laughs Again: More Than 700 Favorite Jokes, Limericks and Anecdotes". Book by Isaac Asimov, 1992.

  4 Copy quote

• What I will be remembered for are the Foundation Trilogy and the Three Laws of Robotics. What I want to be remembered for is no one book, or no dozen books. Any single thing I have written can be paralleled or even surpassed by something someone else has done. However, my total corpus for quantity, quality and variety can be duplicated by no one else. That is what I want to be remembered for.

  Isaac Asimov

  Book, Writing, Law

  Isaac Asimov (1995). “Yours, Isaac Asimov: A Lifetime of Letters”, Doubleday Books

  4 Copy quote

• All life is nucleic acid; the rest is commentary.

  Isaac Asimov

  Acid, Life Is, Commentary

  "The Relativity of Wrong". Book by Isaac Asimov, 1988.

  6 Copy quote

• Writing is my only interest. Even speaking is an interruption.

  Isaac Asimov

  Writing, Interest, Interruptions

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• However, I continue to try and I continue, indefatigably, to reach out. There's no way I can single-handedly save the world or, perhaps, even make a perceptible difference - but how ashamed I would be to let a day pass without making one more effort.

  Isaac Asimov

  Differences, Effort, Trying

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• All normal life, Peter, consciously or otherwise, resent domination. If the domination is by an inferior, or by a supposed inferior, the resentment becomes stronger.

  Isaac Asimov

  Stronger, Normal, Resentment

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• The vast majority, who believe in astrology and think that the planets have nothing better to do than form a code that will tell them whether tomorrow is a good day to close a business deal or not, become all the more excited and enthusiastic.

  Isaac Asimov

  Believe, Good Day, Thinking

  8 Copy quote

• Science is dangerous. There is no question but that poison gas, genetic engineering, and nuclear weapons and power stations are terrifying. It may be that civilization is falling apart and the world we know is coming to an end. In that case, why no turn to religion and look forward to the Day of Judgment, ... [being] lifted into eternal bliss ... [and] watching the scoffers and disbelievers writhe forever in torment.

  Isaac Asimov

  Fall, Science, Engineering

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• But life is glorious when it is happy; days are carefree when they are happy; the interplay of thought and imagination is far and superior to that of muscle and sinew. Let me tell you, if you don't know it from your own experience, that reading a good book, losing yourself in the interest of words and thoughts, is for some people (me, for instance) an incredible intensity of happiness.

  Isaac Asimov

  Book, Reading, People

  Isaac Asimov (2009). “I, Asimov: A Memoir”, p.58, Bantam

  7 Copy quote

• It is the invariable lesson to humanity that distance in time, and in space as well, lends focus. It is not recorded, incidentally, that the lesson has ever been permanently learned.

  Isaac Asimov

  Distance, Space, Focus

  Isaac Asimov (2004). “Foundation and Empire”, p.111, Spectra

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• Science does not promise absolute truth, nor does it consider that such a thing necessarily exists. Science does not even promise that everything in the Universe is amenable to the scientific process.

  Isaac Asimov

  Truth, Promise, Doe

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• Writing is a lonely job. Even if a writer socializes regularly, when he gets down to the real business of his life, it is he and his type writer or word processor. No one else is or can be involved in the matter.

  Isaac Asimov

  Lonely, Jobs, Real

  Isaac Asimov (2009). “I, Asimov: A Memoir”, p.134, Bantam

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• In a properly automated and educated world, then, machines may prove to be the true humanizing influence. It may be that machines will do the work that makes life possible and that human beings will do all the other things that make life pleasant and worthwhile

  Isaac Asimov

  Machines, World, May

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• I consider violence an uneconomical way of attaining an end. There are always better substitutes, though they may sometimes be a little less direct.

  Isaac Asimov

  May, Littles, Way

  Isaac Asimov (1986). “Foundation Trilogy”, Del Rey

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• The human mind works at low efficiency. Twenty percent is the figure usually given. When, momentarily, there is a flash of greater power, it is termed a hunch, or insight, or intuition.

  Isaac Asimov

  Intuition, Mind, Twenties

  Isaac Asimov (1986). “Foundation Trilogy”, Del Rey

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• Tens of millions of Americans who neither know or understand the actual arguments for, or even against, evolution, march in the Army of the Night with their Bibles held high

  Isaac Asimov

  Army, Night, Evolution

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• It is in meeting the great tests that mankind can most successfully rise to great heights. Out of danger and restless insecurity comes the force that pushes mankind to newer and loftier conquests.

  Isaac Asimov

  Insecurity, Height, Tests

  Isaac Asimov (2010). “The End of Eternity”, p.246, Macmillan

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