Isaac Asimov Quotes

Well, sir to say that when the impossible has been eliminated, whatever remains, however improbable, is the truth, is to make the assumption, usually justified, that everything that is to be considered has indeed been considered. Let us suppose we have considered ten factors. Nine are clearly impossible. Is the tenth, however improbable, therefore true? What if there were an eleventh factor, and a twelfth, & a thirteenth...

~ Isaac Asimov

All evil is good become cancerous.

~ Isaac Asimov

The young specialist in English Lit, having quoted me, went on to lecture 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.The young man then quoted with approval what Socrates had said on learning that the Delphic oracle had proclaimed him the wisest man in Greece. 'If I am the wisest man,' said Socrates, 'it is because I alone know that I know nothing.' The implication was that I was very foolish because I was under the impression I knew a great deal.Alas, none of this was new to me. (There is very little that is new to me; I wish my correspondents would realize this.) This particular theme was addressed to me a quarter of a century ago by John Campbell, who specialized in irritating me. He also told me that all theories are proven wrong in time.My answer to him was, 'John, 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.

~ Isaac Asimov

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.

~ Isaac Asimov

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.

~ Isaac Asimov

He slept that night the sleep of a successfully stubborn man.

~ Isaac Asimov

Good,” said the First Speaker. “And tell me, what do you think of all this. A finished work of art, is it not?”“Definitely!”“Wrong! It is not.” This, with sharpness. “It is the first lesson you must unlearn. The Seldon Plan is neither complete nor correct. Instead, it is merely the best that could be done at the time. Over a dozen generations of men have pored over these equations, worked at them, taken them apart to the last decimal place, and put them together again. They’ve done more than that. They’ve watched nearly four hundred years pass and against the predictions and equations, they’ve checked reality, and they have learned.

~ Isaac Asimov

...Changelessness is decay.A paradox. There is no decay without a change for the worse.Changelessness is a change for the worse...

~ Isaac Asimov

Some readers may realize that this story, first published in 1956, has been overtaken by events. In 1965, astronomers discovered that Mercury does not keep one side always to the Sun, but has a period of rotation of about fifty-four days, so that all parts of it are exposed to the sunlight at one time or another.Well, what can I do except say that I wish astronomers would get things right to begin with?And I certainly refuse to change the story to suit their whims.

~ Isaac Asimov

Every vice of the Empire has been repeated in the Foundation. Inertia! Our ruling class knows one law, nochange. Despotism! They know one rule, force. Maldistribution! They know one desire, to hold what istheirs.

~ Isaac Asimov

She's qualified all right. She understands robots like a sister—comes from hating human beings so much, I think.

~ Isaac Asimov

In the empty expanses of space, the wandering traders need men like myself to care for the spiritual side of a life so given over to commerce, and worldly pursuits.

~ Isaac Asimov

Where is the world whose people don't prefer a comfortable, warm, and well-worn belief, however illogical, to the chilly winds of uncertainty?

~ Isaac Asimov

And Elvex said, I was the man. - In Robot dreams (Short story)

~ Isaac Asimov

I tell you it's deadly when you start thinking your wife might be right.

~ Isaac Asimov

Even at the time, [he] felt his anger to be out of proportion to the cause, but it represented an accumulation of resentment.

~ Isaac Asimov

How then to enforce peace? Not by reason, certainly, nor by education. If a man could not look at the fact of peace and the fact of war and choose the former in preference to the latter, what additional argument could persuade him? What could be more eloquent as a condemnation of war than war itself?

~ Isaac Asimov

The human mind works at low efficiency. Twenty percent is the figure usually given. When, momentarily, there is a flash of greater power, it is termed a hunch, or insight, or intuition.

~ Isaac Asimov

Goodbye, Hari, my love. Remember always--all you did for me.”            -I did nothing for you.”            -You loved me and your love made me--human.

~ Isaac Asimov

To insult someone we call him 'bestial'. For deliberate cruelty and nature, 'human' might be the greater insult.

~ Isaac Asimov

There's probably no one so easily bribed, but he lacks even the fundamental honesty of honorable corruption. He doesn't stay bribed; not for any sum.

~ Isaac Asimov

Why do you think it is stupid to go to windows instead of to doors?”“Because you advertise what you’re trying to hide, silly. If I have a secret, I don’t put tape over my mouth and let everyone know I have a secret. I talk just as much as usual, only about something else. Didn’t you ever read any of the sayings of Salvor Hardin? He was our first Mayor, you know.”“Yes, I know.”“Well, he used to say that only a lie that wasn’t ashamed of itself could possibly succeed. He also said that nothing had to be true, but everything had to sound true. Well, when you come in through a window, it’s a lie that’s ashamed of itself and it doesn’t sound true.”“Then what would you have done?”“If I had wanted to see my father on top secret business, I would have made his acquaintance openly and seen him about all sorts of strictly legitimate things. And then when everyone knew all about you and connected you with my father as a matter of course, you could be as top secret as you wanted and nobody would ever think of questioning it.

~ Isaac Asimov

Bible: Various portions of it, when properly interpreted, contain a code of behaviour which many men consider best suited to the ultimate happiness of mankind.

~ Isaac Asimov

The stars, like dust, encircle meIn living mists of light;And all of space I seem to seeIn one vast burst of sight

~ Isaac Asimov

It will all stop someday, but not for billions of years. Many billions. Even the stars run down, you know. Entropy must increase.

~ Isaac Asimov

Weak emperors mean strong viceroys.

~ Isaac Asimov

To [the government] it didn't matter what happened to the American people as long as america in the abstract was kept strong.

~ Isaac Asimov

Isn't it sad that you can tell people that the ozone layer is being depleted, the forests are being cut down, the deserts are advancing steadily, that the greenhouse effect will raise the sea level 200 feet, that overpopulation is choking us, that pollution is killing us, that nuclear war may destroy us - and they yawn and settle back for a comfortable nap. But tell them that the Martians are landing, and they scream and run.

~ Isaac Asimov

Imagine that. Terrible, terrible, the way we have all bent to the yoke; the affection we have for the harness about us.

~ Isaac Asimov

It is a mistake,” he said, “to suppose that the public wants the environment protected or their lives saved and that they will be grateful to any idealist who will fight for such ends. What the public wants is their own individual comfort.

~ Isaac Asimov

The day of the week on which the tour took place was known to all workers. All devices in its path ought to have been carefully neutralized or locked, since it was unreasonable to expect human beings to withstand the temptation to handle knobs, keys, handles and pushbuttons.

~ Isaac Asimov

Scientist are human. Unraveling the knots of Nature's mysteries is a reward in itself; but even so, scientists like to hear the applause of the audience

~ Isaac Asimov

If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul.

~ Isaac Asimov

People who don't expect justice don't have to suffer disappointment.

~ Isaac Asimov

For a wise man, I have been told, once said, ‘Gratitude is best and most effective when it does not evaporate in empty phrases.’ But alas, my lady, I am but a mass of empty phrases, it would seem.

~ Isaac Asimov

It is the obvious which is so difficult to see most of the time. People say 'It's as plain as the nose on your face.' But how much of the nose on your face can you see, unless someone holds a mirror up to you?

~ Isaac Asimov

I grow grandiose, which is a good sign I should become prosaic.

~ Isaac Asimov

No one is so modest as not to believe himself a competent amateur sleuth...

~ Isaac Asimov

It is the writer who might catch the imagination of young people, and plant a seed that will flower and come to fruition.

~ Isaac Asimov

Humanists recognize that it is only when people feel free to think for themselves, using reason as their guide, that they are best capable of developing values that succeed in satisfying human needs and serving human interests.

~ Isaac Asimov