Isaac Asimov Quotes - Page 13

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• Early in my school career, I turned out to be an incorrigible disciplinary problem. I could understand what the teacher was saying as fast as she could say it, I found time hanging heavy, so I would occasionally talk to my neighbor. That was my great crime, I talked in school.

  Isaac Asimov

  Teacher, School, Science

  Isaac Asimov (2002). “It's Been a Good Life”, Pyr Books

  18 Copy quote

• Aimless extension of knowledge, however, which is what I think you really mean by the term curiosity, is merely inefficiency. I am designed to avoid inefficiency.” -R. Daneel Olivaw

  Isaac Asimov

  Mean, Thinking, Curiosity

  6 Copy quote

• As artists and traders in medieval cities began to form organizations, they instituted tough initiation ceremonies. Journeymen in Bergen, Norway, were shoved down a chimney, thrown three times into the sea, and soundly whipped. Such rites made belonging to the guild or corporation more precious to those who were accepted, and survived.

  Isaac Asimov

  Artist, Sea, Cities

  4 Copy quote

• The Tyranni rule fifty worlds; they are outnumbered hundreds to one. In such a position, simple force is insufficient. Devious methods, intrigue, assassination are their specialties. The net they weave across space is a wide one, and close-meshed. I can well believe that it extends across five hundred light-years to Earth.

  Isaac Asimov

  Believe, Simple, Space

  Isaac Asimov (2008). “The Stars, Like Dust”, p.28, Tor Books

  7 Copy quote

• It's your fiction that interests me. Your studies of the interplay of human motives and emotion.

  Isaac Asimov

  Fiction, Emotion, Study

  Isaac Asimov (1983). “The Robot Collection: The Robot Novels”, Doubleday Books

  4 Copy quote

• At two-tenths the speed of light, dust and atoms might not do significant damage even in a voyage of 40 years, but the faster you go, the worse it is--space begins to become abrasive. When you begin to approach the speed of light, hydrogen atoms become cosmic-ray particles, and they will fry the crew. ...So 60,000 kilometers per second may be the practical speed limit for space travel.

  Isaac Asimov

  Two, Hydrogen Atom, Space

  9 Copy quote

• I do not use airplanes. They strike me as unsporting. You can have an automobile accident-and survive. You can be on a sinking ship-and survive. You can be in an earthquake, fire, volcanic eruption, tornado, what you will-and survive. But if your plane crashes, you do not survive. And I say the heck with it.

  Isaac Asimov

  Funny, Airplane, Fire

  12 Copy quote

• What do you call that nice, shiny white metal they use to make sidings and airplanes out of? Aluminum, right? Aluminum, pronounced 'uh-LOO-mih-num', right? Anybody knows that! But do you know how the British spell it? 'Aluminium', pronounced 'Al-yoo-MIH-nee-um'. Ever hear anything so ridiculous? The French and Germans spell it 'aluminium', too, but they're foreigners who don't speak Earth-standard. You'd think the British, however, using our language, would be more careful

  Isaac Asimov

  Nice, Airplane, Thinking

  Isaac Asimov (1975). “Of matters great and small”

  6 Copy quote

• You wait for the war to happen like vultures. If you want to help, prevent the war. Don't save the remnants. Save them all.

  Isaac Asimov

  War, Waiting, Want

  Isaac Asimov (1990). “The Complete Stories”, Broadway Books

  16 Copy quote

• The Iranians are Moslems and the Iraqi are Moslems. Both are certain that there is no God but Allah and that Mohammed is his prophet and believe it with all their hearts. And yet, at the moment, Iraq doesn't trust Iran worth a damn, and Iran trusts Iraq even less than that. In fact, Iran is convinced that Iraq is in the pay of the Great Satan (that's God-fearing America, in case you've forgotten) and Iraq counters with the accusation that it is Iran who is in the pay of the Great Satan. Neither side is accusing the Godless Soviets of anything, which is a puzzle

  Isaac Asimov

  Believe, Heart, Iran

  4 Copy quote

• Humanity is cutting down its forests, apparently oblivious to the fact that we may not be able to live without them.

  Isaac Asimov

  Cutting, Tree, Humanity

  5 Copy quote

• I received the fundamentals of my education in school, but that was not enough. My real education, the superstructure, the details, the true architecture, I got out of the public library.

  Isaac Asimov

  Real, School, Library

  Isaac Asimov (2009). “I, Asimov: A Memoir”, p.54, Bantam

  8 Copy quote

• So, then, what is style? There are two chief aspects of any piece of writing: 1) what you say and 2) how you say it. The former is "content" and the latter is "style."

  Isaac Asimov

  Writing, Two, Style

  Isaac Asimov (1984). “Opus 300”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  4 Copy quote

• It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be. This, in turn, means that our statesmen, our businessmen, our every man must take on a science fictional way of thinking.

  Isaac Asimov

  Change, Business, Mean

  "My Own View". "The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction". Book edited by Robert Holdstock, 1978.

  8 Copy quote

• Whenever I have endured or accomplished some difficult task -- such as watching television, going out socially or sleeping -- I always look forward to rewarding myself with the small pleasure of getting back to my typewriter and writing something.

  Isaac Asimov

  Writing, Sleep, Typewriters

  8 Copy quote

• Self-education is a continuing source of pleasure to me, for the more I know, the fuller my life is and the better I appreciate my own existence

  Isaac Asimov

  Self, Appreciate, Life Is

  8 Copy quote

• If you were to insist I was a robot, you might not consider me capable of love in some mystic human sense, but you would not be able to distinguish my reactions from that which you would call love so what difference would it make?

  Isaac Asimov

  Differences, Robots, Might

  Isaac Asimov (2012). “Foundation's Edge”, p.420, Spectra

  4 Copy quote

• From my close observation of writers... they fall into two groups: 1) those who bleed copiously and visibly at any bad review, and 2) those who bleed copiously and secretly at any bad review.

  Isaac Asimov

  Funny, Fall, Writing

  Isaac Asimov (1995). “Gold: the final science fiction collection”, Harper Prism

  8 Copy quote

• If you're born in a cubicle and grow up in a corridor, and work in a cell, and vacation in a crowded sun-room, then coming up into the open with nothing but sky over you might just give you a nervous breakdown.

  Isaac Asimov

  Growing Up, Vacation, Cells

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

  9 Copy quote

• Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today - but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all.

  Isaac Asimov

  Writing, Essence, Fiction Stories

  "My Own View". "The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction". Book edited by Robert Holdstock, 1978.

  8 Copy quote

• With both people and computers on the job, computer error can be more quickly tracked down and corrected by people and, conversely, human error can be more quickly corrected by computers. What it amounts to is that nothing serious can happen unless human error and computer error take place simultaneously. And that hardly ever happens.

  Isaac Asimov

  Jobs, Errors, People

  7 Copy quote

• I am the beneficiary of a lucky break in the genetic sweepstakes.

  Isaac Asimov

  Lucky, Break, Heredity

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

  17 Copy quote

• There is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer.

  Isaac Asimov

  Meaningful, Data, Answers

  Isaac Asimov (1990). “The Complete Stories”, Broadway Books

  5 Copy quote

• Until I became a published writer, I remained completely ignorant of books on how to write and courses on the subject ... they would have spoiled my natural style; made me observe caution; would have hedged me with rules.

  Isaac Asimov

  Book, Writing, Ignorance

  8 Copy quote

• We're forever teetering on the brink of the unknowable, and trying to understand what can't be understood.

  Isaac Asimov

  Forever, Trying, Understood

  Isaac Asimov (2011). “Caves of Steel”, p.228, Spectra

  5 Copy quote

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