Isaac Asimov Quotes
-
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.
-
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.
-
A subtle thought that is in error may yet give rise to fruitful inquiry that can establish truths of great value.
-
It is because you yourself fear the propaganda created, after all, only by the stupidity of your own bigots.
-
Meanwhile, fears of universal disaster sank to an all time low over the world.
-
There are no happy endings in history, only crisis points that pass.
-
There is nothing so eternally adhesive as the memory of power.
-
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
-
If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster.
-
Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.
-
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.
-
Can the word ‘best’ mean anything at all, except to some particular person in some particular mood? Perhaps not - so if we allow the word to stand as an absolute, you, or you, or perhaps you, may be appalled at omissions or inclusions or, never having read me before, may even be impelled to cry out, ‘Good heavens, are those his best?’
-
'Ponyets! They sent you?' 'Pure chance,' said Ponyets, bitterly, 'or the work of my own personal malevolent demon.'
-
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.
-
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.
-
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
-
He had read much, if one considers his long life; but his contemplation was much more than his reading. He was wont to say that if he had read as much as other men he should have known no more than other men.
-
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.'
-
All mankind, right down to those you most despise, are your neighbors.
-
Tritt listened placidly, clearly understanding nothing, but content to be listening; while Odeen, transmitting nothing, was as clearly content to be lecturing.
-
Once you get it into your head that somebody is controlling events, you can interpret everything in that light and find no reasonable certainty anywhere.
-
To the rest of the Galaxy, if they are aware of us at all, Earth is but a pebble in the sky. To us it is home, and all the home we know.
-
For it is the chief characteristic of the religion of science, that it works, and that such curses as that of Aporat’s are really deadly.
-
Books … hold within them the gathered wisdom of humanity, the collected knowledge of the world's thinkers, the amusement and excitement built up by the imaginations of brilliant people. Books contain humor, beauty, wit, emotion, thought, and, indeed, all of life. Life without books is empty.