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Isaac Asimov Quotes - Page 11

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

My feeling is that as far as creativity is concerned, isolation is required. Creation is embarrassing. For every new good idea you have, there are a hundred, ten thousand foolish ones.

My feeling is that as far as creativity is concerned, isolation is required. Creation is embarrassing. For every new good idea you have, there are a hundred, ten thousand foolish ones.

Creativity, Ideas, Feelings

It seems to me, Golan, that the advance of civilization is nothing but an exercise in the limiting of privacy.

Exercise, Civilization, Privacy

Isaac Asimov (2012). “Foundation's Edge”, p.106, Spectra

I received the fundamentals of my education in school, but that was not enough. My real education, the superstructure, the details, the true architecture, I got out of the public library. For an impoverished child whose family could not afford to buy books, the library was the open door to wonder and achievement, and I can never be sufficiently grateful that I had the wit to charge through that door and make the most of it.

Children, Real, Educational

Isaac Asimov (2009). “I, Asimov: A Memoir”, p.54, Bantam

Why ... did so many people spend their lives not trying to find answers to questions -- not even thinking of questions to begin with? Was there anything more exciting in life than seeking answers?

Thinking, People, Trying

Isaac Asimov (2012). “Prelude to Foundation”, p.281, Spectra

Naturally, since [the Sumerians] didn't know what caused the flood anymore than we do, they blamed the gods. (That's the advantage of religion. You're never short an explanation for anything.)

Fear, Atheism, Rage

Isaac Asimov (1989). “The Tyrannosaurus Prescription and 100 Other Essays”

I am not responsible for what other people think. I am responsible only for what I myself think, and I know what that is. No idea I've ever come up with has ever struck me as a divine revelation. Nothing I have ever observed leads me to think there is a God watching over me.

Fear, Thinking, Ideas

Isaac Asimov (1992). “Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine”

It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety.

Foundation, Pay, Reputation

Isaac Asimov (1951). “The foundation trilogy: three classics of science fiction”

However much the creationist leaders might hammer away at their scientific and philosophical points, they would be helpless and a laughing-stock if that were all they had. It is religion that recruits their squadrons. Tens of millions of Americans, who neither know nor understand the actual arguments for - of even against - evolution, march in the army of the night, their Bibles held high. And they are a strong and frightening force, impervious to, and immunized against, the feeble lance of mere reason.

Strong, Philosophical, Army

Even as a youngster, though, I could not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presented danger, the solution was ignorance.

Believe, Ignorance, Danger

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

How many people is the earth able to sustain?

People, Earth, Able

1971 Der Spiegel.

A scientist is as weak and human as any man, but the pursuit of science may ennoble him even against his will.

Science, Men, May

All roads lead to Trantor, says the old proverb, and that is where all stars end.

Stars, Ends, All Stars

"Second Foundation".

The young specialist in English Lit, ...lectured me severely on the fact that in every century people have thought they understood the Universe at last, and in every century they were proved to be wrong. It follows that the one thing we can say about our modern "knowledge" is that it is wrong.

People, Lasts, Facts

There is no merit to discipline under ideal circumstances. I must have it in the face of death or it is worthless.

Discipline, Faces, Merit

John 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.

War, Records, World

Flattery is useful when dealing with youngsters.

Flattery, Youngsters

Isaac Asimov (1951). “Foundation”

I prefer rationalism to atheism. The question of God and other objects-of-faith are outside reason and play no part in rationalism, thus you don't have to waste your time in either attacking or defending.

Play, Atheism, Waste

[Social] science fiction is that branch of literature which is concerned with the impact of scientific advance on human beings.

Impact, Fiction, Literature

Although the time of death is approaching me, I am not afraid of dying and going to Hell or (what would be considerably worse) going to the popularized version of Heaven. I expect death to be nothingness and, for removing me from all possible fears of death, I am thankful to atheism.

Death, Suicide, Atheist

Isaac Asimov (1992). “Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine”

It's not so much what you have to learn if you accept weird theories, it's what you have to UNlearn.

Learning, Accepting, Theory

The Earth faces environmental problems right now that threaten the imminent destruction of civilization and the end of the planet as a livable world. Humanity cannot afford to waste its financial and emotional resources on endless, meaningless quarrels between each group and all others. there must be a sense of globalism in which the world unites to solve the real problems that face all groups alike.

Real, Emotional, Civilization

Isaac Asimov (2009). “I, Asimov: A Memoir”, p.591, Bantam

Grip the nettle firmly and it will become a stick with which to beat your enemy.

Enemy, Sticks, Beats

Isaac Asimov (1979). “The far ends of time and earth”

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."

Doctors, Two, Six Months

"Asimov Laughs Again: More Than 700 Favorite Jokes, Limericks and Anecdotes". Book by Isaac Asimov, 1992.

One might suppose that reality must be held to at all costs. However, though that may be the moral thing to do, it is not necessarily the most useful thing to do. The Greeks themselves chose the ideal over the real in their geometry and demonstrated very well that far more could be achieved by consideration of abstract line and form than by a study of the real lines and forms of the world; the greater understanding achieved through abstraction could be applied most usefully to the very reality that was ignored in the process of gaining knowledge.

Real, Math, Understanding

All life is nucleic acid; the rest is commentary.

Acid, Life Is, Commentary

"The Relativity of Wrong". Book by Isaac Asimov, 1988.

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