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Isaac Asimov Quotes about Science

All Isaac Asimov 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 quotes Sleep Speed Stupidity Suffering Technology Today Truth Understanding Universe War Winning Wisdom Work Out Writing

Science can amuse and fascinate us all, but it is engineering that changes the world.

Science can amuse and fascinate us all, but it is engineering that changes the world.

Change, Science, Engineering

There is no belief, however foolish, that will not gather its faithful adherents who will defend it to the death.

Death, Faith, Science

Isaac Asimov (1971). “the Stars in their Courses”

Science is uncertain. Theories are subject to revision; observations are open to a variety of interpretations, and scientists quarrel amongst themselves. This is disillusioning for those untrained in the scientific method, who thus turn to the rigid certainty of the Bible instead. There is something comfortable about a view that allows for no deviation and that spares you the painful necessity of having to think.

Science, Thinking, Views

Man's greatest asset is the unsettled mind.

Science, Men, Mind

Isaac Asimov (1992). “The Complete Stories”, Anchor Books

I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.

Believe, Independent, Science

Isaac Asimov (1982). “Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine”

Increasingly, our leaders must deal with dangers that threaten the entire world, where an understanding of those dangers and the possible solutions depends on a good grasp of science. The ozone layer, the greenhouse effect, acid rain, questions of diet and heredity. All require scientific literacy. Can Americans choose the proper leaders and support the proper programs if they themselves are scientifically illiterate? The whole premise of democracy is that it is safe to leave important questions to the court of public opinion - but is it safe to leave them to the court of public ignorance?

Rain, Ignorance, Science

"Combatting U.S. Scientific Illiteracy" by Isaac Asimov, articles.latimes.com. March 31, 1989.

Intelligence is an accident of evolution, and not necessarily an advantage.

Funny, Science, Evolution

When I read about the way in which library funds are being cut and cut, I can only think that American society has found one more way to destroy itself.

Ignorance, Cutting, Science

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

I am not a speed reader. I am a speed understander.

Inspirational, Life, Science

Isaac Asimov (1995). “Yours, Isaac Asimov: A Lifetime of Letters”, Doubleday Books

It is not so much that I have confidence in scientists being right, but that I have so much in nonscientists being wrong.

Science, Scientist, Have Confidence

"Quasar, Quasar, Burning Bright". Book by Isaac Asimov, p. 235, 1978.

Intelligence is an extremely subtle concept. It's a kind of understanding that flourishes if it's combined with a good memory, but exists anyway even in the absence of good memory. It's the ability to draw consequences from causes, to make correct inferences, to foresee what might be the result, to work out logical problems, to be reasonable, rational, to have the ability to understand the solution from perhaps insufficient information. You know when a person is intelligent, but you can be easily fooled if you are not yourself intelligent.

Memories, Science, Intelligent

"Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them.

Ignorance, Knowledge, Science

Isaac Asimov (1984). “Asimov's New guide to science”, Basic Books (AZ)

Where any answer is possible, all answers are meaningless.

Science, Answers, Possibility

Isaac Asimov (1977). “The road to infinity”, Doubleday Books

The law of conservation of energy tells us we can't get something for nothing, but we refuse to believe it.

Believe, Science, Law

"Isaac Asimov's Book of Science and Nature Quotations". 1988.

When people thought the earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together.

Atheist, Science, Epic

"The Relativity of Wrong". Book by Isaac Asimov, 1996.

To test a perfect theory with imperfect instruments did not impress the Greek philosophers as a valid way to gain knowledge.

Knowledge, Science, Perfect

Isaac Asimov (1968). “The Intelligent Man's Guide to the Physical Sciences”

Science is a mechanism, a way of trying to improve your knowledge of nature. It's a system for testing your thoughts against the universe, and seeing whether they match.

Knowledge, Science, Thinking

Interview with Bill Moyers on October 21, 1988. "Bill Moyers' World Of Ideas". Book by Bill D. Moyers, 1989.

Pierre Curie, a brilliant scientist, happened to marry a still more brilliant one-Marie, the famous Madame Curie-and is the only great scientist in history who is consistently identified as the husband of someone else.

Husband, Science, History

Isaac Asimov (1976). “Asimov on physics”, Doubleday Books

There is a single light of science, and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere.

Science, Light, Single Relationship

"Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

Thinking is the activity I love best, and writing to me is simply thinking through my fingers. I can write up to 18 hours a day. Typing 90 words a minute, I've done better than 50 pages a day. Nothing interferes with my concentration. You could put an orgy in my office and I wouldn't look up-well, maybe once.

Writing, Science, Love Is

I am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it. I've been an atheist for years and years, but somehow I felt it was intellectually unrespectable to say that one is an atheist, because it assumed knowledge that one didn't have. Somehow it was better to say one was a humanist or agnostic. I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't exist, but I so strongly suspect that he doesn't that I don't want to waste my time.

Atheist, Science, Years

Free Inquiry Journal, Spring 1982.

When, however, the lay public rallies round an idea that is denounced by distinguished but elderly scientists and supports that idea with great fervor and emotion - the distinguished but elderly scientists are then, after all, probably right.

Science, Ideas, Elderly

Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, 1977.

Radiation, unlike smoking, drinking, and overeating, gives no pleasure, so the possible victims object.

Drinking, Science, Giving

The Journal of NIH Research, 2, p. 30, 1990.

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

Science is dangerous. There is no question but that poison gas, genetic engineering, and nuclear weapons and power stations are terrifying. It may be that civilization is falling apart and the world we know is coming to an end. In that case, why no turn to religion and look forward to the Day of Judgment, ... [being] lifted into eternal bliss ... [and] watching the scoffers and disbelievers writhe forever in torment.

Fall, Science, Engineering

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