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At odd and unpredictable times, we cling in fright to the past.
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To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today.
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'Ponyets! They sent you?' 'Pure chance,' said Ponyets, bitterly, 'or the work of my own personal malevolent demon.'
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A subtle thought that is in error may yet give rise to fruitful inquiry that can establish truths of great value.
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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.
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I wouldn't give an astrologer the time of day.
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It is not only the living who are killed in war.
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'Is not all this an extraordinary concatenation of coincidence?' Pelorat said, 'If you list it like that-' 'List it any way you please,' said Trevize. 'I don’t believe in extraordinary concatenations of coincidence.'
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'Were I to use the wits the good Spirits gave me,' he said, 'then I would say this lady can not exist - for what sane man would hold a dream to be reality. Yet rather would I not be sane and lend belief to charmed, enchanted eyes.'
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I write for the same reason I breathe - because if I didn't, I would die.
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All mankind, right down to those you most despise, are your neighbors.
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Tritt listened placidly, clearly understanding nothing, but content to be listening; while Odeen, transmitting nothing, was as clearly content to be lecturing.
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A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
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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.
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I don't believe in an afterlife, so I don't have to spend my whole life fearing hell, or fearing heaven even more. For whatever the tortures of hell, I think the boredom of heaven would be even worse.
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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.
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Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
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The fact that the general incidence of leukemia has doubled in the last two decades may be due, partly, to the increasing use of x-rays for numerous purposes. The incidence of leukemia in doctors, who are likely to be so exposed, is twice that of the general public. In radiologists … the incidence is ten times greater.
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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.
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Surely there is no language more majestic than that of Shakespeare, Milton, and the King James Bible, and if I am to have one language that I know as only a native can know it, I consider myself unbelievably fortunate that it is English.
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I consider one of the most important duties of any scientist the teaching of science to students and to the general public.
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Inspect every piece of pseudoscience and you will find a security blanket, a thumb to suck, a skirt to hold. What does the scientist have to offer in exchange? Uncertainty! Insecurity!
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If you're going to write a story, avoid contemporary references. They date a story and they have no staying power.
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When an old person dies who has been a part of your life, it is part of your youth that dies.