Isaac Asimov Quotes
-
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.
-
If you're going to write a story, avoid contemporary references. They date a story and they have no staying power.
-
I suppose he’s entitled to his opinion, but I don’t suppose it very hard.
-
Now any dogma, based primarily on faith and emotionalism, is a dangerous weapon to use on others, since it is almost impossible to guarantee that the weapon will never be turned on the user.
-
It’s a poor atom blaster that won’t point both ways.
-
I believe that only scientists can understand the universe. It is not so much that I have confidence in scientists being right, but that I have so much in nonscientists being wrong.
-
It takes more than capital to swing business. You've got to have the A. I. D. degree to get by - Advertising, Initiative, and Dynamics.
-
If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster.
-
I accept nothing on authority. A hypothesis must be backed by reason, or else it is worthless.
-
The foundation of all technology is fire.
-
I fear my ignorance.
-
'You’re the U. S. Robot’s psychologist, aren’t you?' 'Robopsychologist, please.' 'Oh, are robots so different from men, mentally?' 'Worlds different.' She allowed herself a frosty smile, 'Robots are essentially decent.'
-
I recognize the necessity of animal experiments with my mind but not with my heart.
-
He is energetic only in evading responsibility.
-
I have always dealt with economic forces, rather than philosophic forces, but you can't split history into neat little non-overlapping divisions. For instance, religions tend to accumulate wealth when successful and that eventually tends to distort the economic development of a society.
-
The last question was asked for the first time, half in jest, on May 21, 2061, at a time when humanity first stepped into the light. The question came about as a result of a five dollar bet over highballs, and it happened this way…
-
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.
-
Writing is an addiction more powerful than alcohol, than nicotine, than crack. I could not conceive of not writing.
-
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?
-
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.'
-
Remarkable what a fragile flower romance is. A gun with a nervous operator behind it can spoil the whole thing.
-
Knowledge is indivisible. When people grow wise in one direction, they are sure to make it easier for themselves to grow wise in other directions as well. On the other hand, when they split up knowledge, concentrate on their own field, and scorn and ignore other fields, they grow less wise - even in their own field.
-
Societies create their own history and tend to wipe out lowly beginnings, either by forgetting them or inventing totally fictitious heroic rescues.
-
It seems to me, Golan, that the advance of civilization is nothing but an exercise in the limiting of privacy.