Isaac Asimov Quotes
Writer, Professor
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.
There is a single light of science, and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere.
People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.
I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'
It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.
The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.
If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them.
Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.
If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster.
The true delight is in the finding out rather than in the knowing.
Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right.
Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today - but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all.
And above all things, never think that you're not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. My belief is that in life people will take you at your own reckoning.
Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.
I don't believe in an afterlife, so I don't have to spend my whole life fearing hell, or fearing heaven even more. For whatever the tortures of hell, I think the boredom of heaven would be even worse.
No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.
Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not.
Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to be lost under the burden of juvenile folly and ignorant superstition.
Creationists make it sound as though a 'theory' is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night.
I am not a speed reader. I am a speed understander.
I don't expect to live forever, but I do intend to hang on as long as possible.
Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest.
To insult someone we call him 'bestial. For deliberate cruelty and nature, 'human' might be the greater insult.
To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today.
I write for the same reason I breathe - because if I didn't, I would die.
It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety.
It is not only the living who are killed in war.
A subtle thought that is in error may yet give rise to fruitful inquiry that can establish truths of great value.
He had read much, if one considers his long life; but his contemplation was much more than his reading. He was wont to say that if he had read as much as other men he should have known no more than other men.
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.
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.
I don't believe in personal immortality; the only way I expect to have some version of such a thing is through my books.
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.
Meanwhile, fears of universal disaster sank to an all time low over the world.
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.
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.
From my close observation of writers... they fall into two groups: 1) those who bleed copiously and visibly at any bad review, and 2) those who bleed copiously and secretly at any bad review.
All sorts of computer errors are now turning up. You'd be surprised to know the number of doctors who claim they are treating pregnant men.