Isaac Asimov Quotes
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The Law of conservation of energy tells us we can't get something for nothing, but we refuse to believe it.
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Radiation, unlike smoking, drinking, and overeating, gives no pleasure, so the possible victims object.
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'Science Fiction, 1938' Nebula Winners 14 (1980) edited by Frederick J. Pohl, p. 97
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When you write a short story ... you had better know the ending first. The end of a story is only the end to the reader. To the writer, it's the beginning. If you don't know exactly where you're going every minute you're writing, you'll never get there - or anywhere.
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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.'
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The unwritten motto of United States Robot and Mechanical Men Corp. was well-known: 'No employee makes the same mistake twice. He is fired the first time.'
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'Reason', p. 63
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Milton Ashe is not the type to marry a head of hair and a pair of eyes.
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I don’t like anything that’s got to be. I want to know why.
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The history of science is full of revolutionary advances that required small insights that anyone might have had, but that, in fact, only one person did.
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Economics is on the side of humanity now.
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Asimov: I don't know of any science fiction writer who really attempts to be a prophet. Such authors accomplish their tasks not by being correct in their predictions, necessarily, but merely by hammering home-in story after story-the notion that life is going to be different.
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'It seems an uncommonly woundabout and hopelessly wigmawolish method of getting anywheahs.'
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Plowboy: In your opinion, what are mankind's prospects for the near future?
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'Fifty years,' I hackneyed, 'is a long time.' 'Not when you’re looking back at them,' she said. 'You wonder how they vanished so quickly.'
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The facts, gentlemen, and nothing but the facts, for careful eyes are narrowly watching.
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There is more to a science fiction story than the science it contains. There is also the story.
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Hypocrisy is a universal phenomenon. It ends with death, but not before.
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A fire eater must eat fire even if he has to kindle it himself.
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The military mind remains unparalleled as a vehicle of creative stupidity.
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Consider the most famous pure dystopian tale of modern times, 1984, by George Orwell (1903-1950), published in 1948 (the same year in which Walden Two was published). I consider it an abominably poor book. It made a big hit (in my opinion) only because it rode the tidal wave of cold war sentiment in the United States.
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A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
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'Stories grow by accretion. Tales accumulate - like dust. The longer the time lapse, the dustier the history - until it degenerates into fables.' Pelorat said, 'We historians are familiar with the process, Dom. There is a certain preference for the fable. The falsely dramatic drives out the truly dull.'
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To succeed, planning alone is insufficient. One must improvise as well.