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Isaac Asimov Quotes - Page 10

All Quotes Army Art Atheism Atheist Business Change Children Choices Coincidence Creativity Curiosity Death Democracy Desire Diversity Dying Earth Education Effort Evolution Fear Feelings Fighting Funny Future Giving Heart Heaven History Humanity Ignorance Imagination Insecurity Inspirational Intuition Knowledge Learning Life Literature Love Lying Math Memories Moon Motivational Overpopulation Past Peace Philosophy Prophet Rage Rain Reading Reality Rejection Religion Running School Science Sleep Speed Stupidity Suffering Technology Today Truth Understanding Universe War Winning Wisdom Work Out Writing

Night will always be a time of fear and insecurity, and the heart will sink with the sun.

Night will always be a time of fear and insecurity, and the heart will sink with the sun.

Heart, Night, Insecurity

Isaac Asimov (2008). “The Stars, Like Dust”, p.96, Macmillan

Even as a youngster, though, I could not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presented danger, the solution was ignorance. To me, it always seemed that the solution had to be wisdom. You did not refuse to look at danger, rather you learned how to handle it safely.

Believe, Ignorance, Looks

Isaac Asimov (2011). “The Naked Sun”, p.8, Spectra

Why is it, I wonder, that anyone who displays superior athletic ability is an object of admiration to his classmates, while one who displays superior mental ability is an object of hatred?

Hatred, Athletic, Admiration

Isaac Asimov (2009). “I, Asimov: A Memoir”, p.18, Bantam

There is nothing frightening about an eternal dreamless sleep. Surely it is better than eternal torment in Hell and eternal boredom in Heaven.

Death, Sleep, Boredom

Isaac Asimov (2009). “I, Asimov: A Memoir”, p.480, Bantam

Considering what human beings do and have done to human beings (and to other living things as well) ... I can never imagine what the devil people think computers can add to the horrors.

Thinking, People, Devil

Isaac Asimov (1977). “The beginning and the end”, Pocket

Many adults, whether consciously or unconsciously, find it beneath their adult dignity to do anything as childish as read a book, think a thought, or get an idea. Adults are rarely embarrased at having forgotten what little algebra or geography they once learned

Book, Thinking, Ideas

If you suspect that my interest in the Bible is going to inspire me with sudden enthusiasm for Judaism and make me a convert of mountain-moving fervor and that I shall suddenly grow long earlocks and learn Hebrew and go about denouncing the heathen - you little know the effect of the Bible on me. Properly read, it is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived.

Moving, Long, Inspire

"Notes for a Memoir: On Isaac Asimov, Life, and Writing". Book by Janet Asimov, p. 58, 2006.

Suppose that we are wise enough to learn and know - and yet not wise enough to control our learning and knowledge, so that we use it to destroy ourselves? Even if that is so, knowledge remains better than ignorance. It is better to know - even if the knowledge endures only for the moment that comes before destruction - than to gain eternal life at the price of a dull and swinish lack of comprehension of a universe that swirls unseen before us in all its wonder. That was the choice of Achilles, and it is mine, too.

Life, Wise, Wisdom

"The New Hugo Winners". Book by Isaac Asimov et al., p. 215, 1989.

And [Asimov]'ll sign anything, hardbacks, softbacks, other people's books, scraps of paper. Inevitably someone handed him a blank check on the occasion when I was there, and he signed that without as much as a waver to his smile — except that he signed: 'Harlan Ellison.

Book, People, Paper

Isaac Asimov (1976). “Murder at the ABA: A Puzzle in Four Days and Sixty Scenes”

It's the writing that teaches you.

Writing, Teach

How often people speak of art and science as though they were two entirely different things, with no interconnection. That is all wrong. The true artist is quite rational as well as imaginative and knows what he is doing; if he does not, his art suffers. The true scientist is quite imaginative as well as rational, and sometimes leaps to solutions where reason can follow only slowly; if he does not, his science suffers.

Art, Two, People

"The Roving Mind". Book by Isaac Asimov. Chapter 25, 1983.

The energy requirements for interstellar travel are so great that it is inconceivable to me that any creatures piloting their ships across the vast depths of space would do so only in order to play games with us over a period of decades. If they want to make contact, they would make contact; if not, they would save their energy and go elsewhere.

Order, Games, Play

Isaac Asimov (1976). “The planet that wasn't”, Doubleday Books

I expect death to be nothingness and, for removing me from all possible fears of death, I am thankful to atheism.

Atheist, Religion, Atheism

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.

Business, Swings, Degrees

They don't want equal time - they want all the time there is.

Want, Equal

I don’t believe in extraordinary concatenations of coincidence.

Believe, Coincidence, Don't Believe

Isaac Asimov (2012). “Foundation's Edge”, p.283, Spectra

Saying something is 'too bad' is easy. You say you disapprove, which makes you a nice person, and then you can go about your business and not be interested anymore. It's a lot worse than 'too bad.' It's against everything decent and natural.

Nice, Easy, Natural

Isaac Asimov (2012). “Prelude to Foundation”, p.344, Spectra

Suppose we were to teach creationism. What would be the content of the teaching? Merely that a creator formed the universe and all species of life ready-made? Nothing more? No details?

Teaching, Details, Would Be

"The Dangerous Myth of Creationism". "Penthouse" Magazine, January 1982.

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.

Fall, Gentleman, Curiosity

Isaac Asimov (1986). “Foundation Trilogy”, Del Rey

If I had felt then as I feel now, or as I felt a few years after I had married her, nothing could possibly have persuaded me to marry a woman who smoked. Dates, yes. Sexual adventures, yes. But to pin myself permanently inside closed quarters with a smoker? Never. Never. Never. Beauty wouldn't count, sweetness wouldn't count, suitability in every other respect wouldn't count.

Adventure, Years, Smoking

It was obvious that bigotry was never a one-way operation, that hatred bred hatred!

Racism, Hatred, Way

Isaac Asimov (2010). “Pebble in the Sky”, p.71, Macmillan

I can't bear to hear a human being spoken of with contempt just because of his group identification...It's these respectable people here who create those hooligans out there.

People, Bears, Groups

A good question is, of course, the key by which infinite answers can be educed.

Inspirational, Wise, Wisdom

Isaac Asimov (2012). “Foundation's Edge”, p.259, Spectra

People are entirely too disbelieving of coincidence.

People, Coincidence, Arcane

Isaac Asimov (1976). “The planet that wasn't”, Doubleday Books

The greatest inventors are unknown to us. Someone invented the wheel - but who?

Wheels, Inventor

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