Isaac Asimov Quotes
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Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.
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To Mankind And the hope that the war against folly may someday be won, after all.
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It is because you yourself fear the propaganda created, after all, only by the stupidity of your own bigots.
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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.
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To insult someone we call him 'bestial. For deliberate cruelty and nature, 'human' might be the greater insult.
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I don't expect to live forever, but I do intend to hang on as long as possible.
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There are no happy endings in history, only crisis points that pass.
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If there is a misuse of power, it is on her part. My crime is that I have never labored to make myself popular - I admit that much - and I have paid too little attention to fools who are old enough to be senile but young enough to have power.
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The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'
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Attributed in the 'quote of the day' source code of the 'Fortune' computer program (June 1987); more at 'The Most Exciting Phrase in Science Is Not ‘Eureka!’ But ‘That’s funny …’' at Quote Investigator
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Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest.
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There's something about a pious man such as he. He will cheerfully cut your throat if it suits him, but he will hesitate to endanger the welfare of your immaterial and problematical soul.
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Korell is that frequent phenomenon in history: the republic whose ruler has every attribute of the absolute monarch but the name. It therefore enjoyed the usual despotism unrestrained even by those two moderating influences in the legitimate monarchies: regal 'honor' and court etiquette.
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A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
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The house was somehow very lonely at night and Dr. Darell found that the fate of the Galaxy made remarkably little difference while his daughter’s mad little life was in danger.
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It is well-known that the friend of a conqueror is but the last victim.
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The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.
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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.
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Pelorat sighed. 'I will never understand people.' 'There’s nothing to it. All you have to do is take a close look at yourself and you will understand everyone else. We’re in no way different ourselves... You show me someone who can’t understand people and I’ll show you someone who has built up a false image of himself.'
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Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.
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I know nothing of that directly; I only know what I have been told by other young ones who couldn’t have known directly either. I want to find out the truth about them and the wanting has grown until there is more of curiosity in me than fear.
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There is nothing so eternally adhesive as the memory of power.
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'That insufferable, dull-witted donkey! That-' Hardin broke in: 'Not at all. He’s merely the product of his environment. He doesn’t understand much except that ‘I got a gun and you ain’t.’ '
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'Such unsubtle escapism! Really, Dr. Fara, such folly smacks of genius. A lesser mind would be incapable of it.'