Isaac Asimov quote: "The temptation was great to muster what force we could and put up a fight. It's the easiest way out, and the most satisfactory to self-respect--but, nearly invariably, the stupidest. "

It is not only the living who are killed in war.
ISAAC ASIMOV

John Dalton's records, carefully preserved for a century, were destroyed during the World War II...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophe...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Dalton's records, carefully preserved for a century, were destroyed during the World War II bomb...
ISAAC ASIMOV

I don't expect to live forever, but I do intend to hang on as long as possible.
ISAAC ASIMOV

The true delight is in the finding out rather than in the knowing.
ISAAC ASIMOV

Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right.
ISAAC ASIMOV

A subtle thought that is in error may yet give rise to fruitful inquiry that can establish truths of...
ISAAC ASIMOV

If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little fas...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Every period of human development has had its own particular type of human conflict---its own variet...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right.
ISAAC ASIMOV

Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light w...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.
ISAAC ASIMOV

Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.
ISAAC ASIMOV

I write for the same reason I breathe - because if I didn't, I would die.
ISAAC ASIMOV

You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a...
ISAAC ASIMOV

It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish when faced boldly.
ISAAC ASIMOV

Imagine the people who believe such things and who are not ashamed to ignore, totally, all the patie...
ISAAC ASIMOV

I am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it. I've been an atheist for years and y...
ISAAC ASIMOV

There is nothing frightening about an eternal dreamless sleep. Surely it is better than eternal torm...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophe...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Science can be introduced to children well or poorly. If poorly, children can be turned away from sc...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Though science can cause problems, it is not by ignorance that we will solve them.
ISAAC ASIMOV

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

At two-tenths the speed of light, dust and atoms might not do significant damage even in a voyage of...
ISAAC ASIMOV

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

John Dalton's records, carefully preserved for a century, were destroyed during the World War II bom...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Suppose that we are wise enough to learn and know -- and yet not wise enough to control our learning...
ISAAC ASIMOV

I
ISAAC ASIMOV

Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right.
ISAAC ASIMOV

The first law of dietetics seems to be if it tastes good, its bad for you.
ISAAC ASIMOV

It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No...
ISAAC ASIMOV

When asked what he would do if he only had six months to live: Type faster.
ISAAC ASIMOV

If the doctor told me I had six minutes to live, I'd type a little faster.
ISAAC ASIMOV

Although the time of death is approaching me, I am not afraid of dying and going to Hell or (what wo...
ISAAC ASIMOV

If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of t...
ISAAC ASIMOV

We can make inspired guesses, but we don
ISAAC ASIMOV

Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smooth...
ISAAC ASIMOV

I do not fear computers. I fear lack of them.
ISAAC ASIMOV

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

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' ...
ISAAC ASIMOV

When the lay public rallies round to an idea that is denounced by distinguished by elderly scientist...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what's right.
ISAAC ASIMOV

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

Nothing interferes with my concentration. You could put on an orgy in my office and I wouldn't look ...
ISAAC ASIMOV

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' ...
ISAAC ASIMOV

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

I am the beneficiary of a lucky break in the genetic sweepstakes.
ISAAC ASIMOV

Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is
ISAAC ASIMOV

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' ...
ISAAC ASIMOV

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

Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevi...
ISAAC ASIMOV

A subtle thought that is in error may yet give rise to fruitful inquiry that can establish truths o...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Nonviolence doesn't always work -- but violence never does.
ISAAC ASIMOV

It is the obvious which is so difficult to see most of the time. People say 'It's as plain as the no...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Jokes of the proper kind, properly told, can do more to enlighten questions of politics, philosophy...
ISAAC ASIMOV

To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today
ISAAC ASIMOV

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' ...
ISAAC ASIMOV

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-int...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural l...
ISAAC ASIMOV

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

Creationists make it sound as though a 'theory' is something you dreamt up after being drunk...
ISAAC ASIMOV

It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevit...
ISAAC ASIMOV

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eurek...
ISAAC ASIMOV

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-int...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.
ISAAC ASIMOV

Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.
ISAAC ASIMOV

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
ISAAC ASIMOV

I don't believe in an afterlife, so I don't have to spend my whole life fearing hell, or fea...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to be lost under the burden o...
ISAAC ASIMOV

And above all things, never think that you're not good enough yourself. A man should never think...
ISAAC ASIMOV

I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.
ISAAC ASIMOV

To him, a stilted geometric love of arrangement was “system,” and indefatigable and feverish int...
ISAAC ASIMOV

If I had felt then as I feel now, or as I felt a few years after I had married her, nothing could po...
ISAAC ASIMOV

The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers w...
ISAAC ASIMOV

To insult someone we call him 'bestial. For deliberate cruelty and nature, 'human' might...
ISAAC ASIMOV

From my close observation of writers... they fall into two groups: 1) those who bleed copiously and ...
ISAAC ASIMOV

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

People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.
ISAAC ASIMOV

When I read about the way in which library funds are being cut and cut, I can only think that Americ...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Any planet is 'Earth' to those that live on it.
ISAAC ASIMOV

Don't you believe in flying saucers, they ask me? Don't you believe in telepathy? — in ancient ast...
ISAAC ASIMOV

It takes more than capital to swing business. You've got to have the A. I. D. degree to get by -...
ISAAC ASIMOV

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not "Eureka!" ...
ISAAC ASIMOV

No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is,...
ISAAC ASIMOV

One, a robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm;...
ISAAC ASIMOV

If I could trace my origins to Judas Maccabaeus or King David, that would not add one inch to my sta...
ISAAC ASIMOV

If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster.
ISAAC ASIMOV

How I want a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics!
ISAAC ASIMOV

I don't believe in an afterlife, so I don't have to spend my whole life fearing hell, or fearing hea...
ISAAC ASIMOV

A robot may not injure humanity, or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm. [The Zeroth L...
ISAAC ASIMOV

A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with t...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Creationists make it sound like a 'theory' is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night.
ISAAC ASIMOV

Creationists make it sound as though a 'theory' is something you dreamt up after being drunk all nig...
ISAAC ASIMOV

From my close observation of writers...they fall into two groups: 1) those who bleed copiously and v...
ISAAC ASIMOV

It seems to me that God is a convenient invention of the human mind
ISAAC ASIMOV

I prefer rationalism to atheism. The question of God and other objects-of-faith are outside reason a...
ISAAC ASIMOV

To insult someone we call him "bestial." For deliberate cruelty and nature, "human" might be the gre...
ISAAC ASIMOV

It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish when faced boldly
ISAAC ASIMOV

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds the most discoveries, is not 'Eure...
ISAAC ASIMOV

[Its nearest rival, I discovered, is The Last Question by science fiction maestro Isaac Asimov. This...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Well, I can type all day without getting tired. [In response to a question as to which he preferred,...
ISAAC ASIMOV

He had read much, if one considers his long life; but his contemplation was much more than his readi...
ISAAC ASIMOV

I have been told that a young would-be composer wrote to Mozart asking advice as to how to compose a...
ISAAC ASIMOV

What I will be remembered for are the Foundation Trilogy and the Three Laws of Robotics. What I want...
ISAAC ASIMOV

It takes more than capital to swing business. You've got to have the A. I. D. degree to get by - Adv...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to be lost under the burden o...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Suppose that we are wise enough to learn and know - and yet not wise enough to control our learning ...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Early in my school career, I turned out to be an incorrigible disciplinary problem. I could understa...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Meanwhile, fears of universal disaster sank to an all-time low over the world
ISAAC ASIMOV

Some readers may realize that this story, first published in 1956, has been overtaken by events. In ...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Meanwhile, fears of universal disaster sank to an all time low over the world.
ISAAC ASIMOV

Suppose that we are wise enough to learn and know—and yet not wise enough to control our learning ...
ISAAC ASIMOV

I have never, in all my life, not for one moment, been tempted toward religion of any kind. The fact...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Once, when a religionist denounced me in unmeasured terms, I sent him a card saying, "I am sure you ...
ISAAC ASIMOV

...the rotten tree-trunk, until the very moment when the storm-blast breaks it in two, has all the a...
ISAAC ASIMOV

I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independen...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Postulates are based on assumption and adhered to by faith. Nothing in the Universe can shake them.
ISAAC ASIMOV

You can prove anything you want by coldly logical reason---if you pick the proper postulates.
ISAAC ASIMOV

They won't listen. Do you know why? Because they have certain fixed notions about the past. Any chan...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophe...
ISAAC ASIMOV

A number of years ago, when I was a freshly-appointed instructor, I met, for the first time, a certa...
ISAAC ASIMOV

All sorts of computer errors are now turning up. You'd be surprised to know the number of doctors wh...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Scientific apparatus offers a window to knowledge, but as they grow more elaborate, scientists spend...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural l...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived.
ISAAC ASIMOV

No one can possibly have lived through the Great Depression without being scarred by it. No amount o...
ISAAC ASIMOV

In life, unlike chess, the game continues after checkmate.
ISAAC ASIMOV

I sit here and think, with more than a little astonishment, that I have been writing and publishing ...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Jokes of the proper kind, properly told, can do more to enlighten questions of politics, philosophy,...
ISAAC ASIMOV

In life, unlike chess, the game continues after checkmate
ISAAC ASIMOV

True literacy is becoming an arcane art and the United States is steadily dumbing down.
ISAAC ASIMOV

It is a curious fact that innumerable readers have asked me if I wrote this story. They seem never t...
ISAAC ASIMOV

When, however, the lay public rallies round an idea that is denounced by distinguished but elderly s...
ISAAC ASIMOV

The vast majority, who believe in astrology and think that the planets have nothing better to do tha...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Night was a wonderful time in Brooklyn in the 1930s. Air conditioning was unknown except in movie ho...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Then Priss arrived, dragging a volume of colorlessness in with him, a drabness that was unaffected b...
ISAAC ASIMOV

And above all things, never think that you're not good enough yourself. A man should never think tha...
ISAAC ASIMOV

A horse having a wolf as a powerful and dangerous enemy lived in constant fear of his life. Being dr...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Encyclopedias don’t win wars.
ISAAC ASIMOV

Lord Dorwin, gentlemen, in five days of discussion didn’t say one damned thing, and said it so you...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Fighting and scars are part of a trader's overhead. But fighting is only useful when there's money a...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Don't you see? It's Galaxy-wide. It's a worship of the past. It's a deterioration - a stagnation!
ISAAC ASIMOV

To succeed, planning alone is insufficient. One must improvise as well.’ I’ll improvise.
ISAAC ASIMOV

...Childishness comes almost as naturally to a man as to a child...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Past glories are poor feeding.
ISAAC ASIMOV

You mean that this is a matter of patriotism and traders aren't patriotic?"
"Notoriously not. P...
ISAAC ASIMOV

But you haven't tried. You haven't tried once. First you refused to admit that there was a menace at...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Scientific method, hell! No wonder the Galaxy was going to pot.
ISAAC ASIMOV

The Three Theorems of Psychohistorical Quantitivity:

The population under scrutiny is obl...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent
ISAAC ASIMOV

A fire-eater must eat fire even if he has to kindle it himself.
ISAAC ASIMOV

Weak emperors mean strong viceroys.
ISAAC ASIMOV

It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish when faced boldly,
ISAAC ASIMOV

It is remarkable, Hardin, how the religion of science has grabbed hold.
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Scientific truth is beyond loyalty and disloyalty.
ISAAC ASIMOV

The fall of Empire, gentlemen, is a massive thing, however, and not easily fought. It is dictated by...
ISAAC ASIMOV

I wanted to be a psychological engineer, but we lacked the facilities, so I did the next best thing ...
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It is the chief characteristic of the religion of science that it works.
ISAAC ASIMOV

It was childish to feel disappointed, but childishness comes almost as naturally to a man as to a ch...
ISAAC ASIMOV

To succeed, planning alone is insufficient. One must improvise as well.
ISAAC ASIMOV

If you're born in a cubicle and grow up in a corridor, and work in a cell, and vacation in a crowded...
ISAAC ASIMOV

All normal life, Peter, consciously or otherwise, resents domination. If the domination is by an inf...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Of course, the reader might argue that I was as stubborn in my viewpoint as they were in theirs. Yes...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Aimless extension of knowledge, however, which is what I think you really mean by the term curiosity...
ISAAC ASIMOV

... you just can't differentiate between a robot and the very best of humans.
ISAAC ASIMOV

The Three Laws of Robotics:

1: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction,...
ISAAC ASIMOV

After a long time, I decided that the Three Laws govern the manner in which my positronic pathways b...
ISAAC ASIMOV

Isaac Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics"

A robot may not injure a human being or, through ...
ISAAC ASIMOV

The temptation was great to muster what force we could and put up a fight. It's the easiest way out, and the most satisfactory to self-respect--but, nearly invariably, the stupidest.

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Isaac Asimov

The temptation was great to muster what force we could and put up a fight. It's the easiest way out, and the most satisfactory to self-respect--but, nearly invariably, the stupidest.

Isaac Asimov

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