Isaac Asimov Quotes

If all human beings understood history, they might cease making the same stupid mistakes over and over.

When I die I won't go to heaven or hell; there will just be nothingness.

Never judge your own writing. You're not fit to do so.

You can't assert an answer just because it's not something else.

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

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

The dangers that face the world can, every one of them, be traced back to science. The salvations that may save the world will, every one of them, be traced back to science.

We're forever teetering on the brink of the unknowable, and trying to understand what can't be understood.

The essential building block is...the true love that is impossible to define for those who have never experienced it and unnecessary to define for those who have.

There is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer.

The history of science is full of revolutionary advances that required small insights that anyone might have had, but that, in fact, only one person did.

Experimentation is the least arrogant method of gaining knowledge. The experimenter humbly asks a question of nature.

If you ask for too much, you lose even that which you have.

It is the chief characteristic of the religion of science that it works.

Naturally, there's got to be a limit for I don't expect to live forever, but I do intend to hang on as long as possible.

What would I do if I knew I only had six months to live? Type faster.

Arthur Clarke says that I am first in science and second in science fiction in accordance with an agreement we have made. I say he is first in science fiction and second in science.

I don't think I've ever held a racket in my hand ... There's got to be somebody in the US who isn't trying to play tennis and stinking up the court.

To introduce something altogether new would mean to begin all over, to become ignorant again, and to run the old, old risk of failing to learn.

Humanity is cutting down its forests, apparently oblivious to the fact that we may not be able to live without them.

That's the harm of Close Encounters: that it convinces tens of millions that that's what just science fiction is.

We all know we fall. Newton's discovery was that the moon falls, too-and by the same rule that we do.

In the presence of total Darkness, the mind finds it absolutely necessary to create light.

Economics is on the side of humanity now.

There was this superstitious fear on the part of the pygmies of the present for the relics of the giants of the past.

God, how that stings! I've spent a lifetime loving science fiction and now I find that you must expect nothing of something that's just science fiction.

It is remarkable, Hardin, how the religion of science has grabbed hold.

I wanted to be a psychological engineer, but we lacked the facilities, so I did the next best thing - I went into politics. It's practically the same thing.

One of Walt Whitman's best-known poems is this one: When I heard the learn'd astronomer,.... The trouble is, Whitman is talking through his hat, but the poor soul didn't know any better

Author's Notes: This story starts with section 6. This is not a mistake. I have my own subtle reasoning. So, just read, and enjoy.

Fertility is hereditary. If your parents didn't have any children, neither will you. I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.

So, then, what is style? There are two chief aspects of any piece of writing: 1) what you say and 2) how you say it. The former is "content" and the latter is "style."

We are all victimized by the natural perversity of inanimate objects...and the assorted human beings who perpetuate and maintain this perversity.

The facts, gentlemen, and nothing but the facts, for careful eyes are narrowly watching.

It was easy to cover up ignorance by the mystical word "intuition.

If there is a category of human being for whom his work ought to speak for itself, it is the writer.

When I feel difficulty coming on, I switch to another book I'm writing. When I get back to the problem, my unconscious has solved it.

I can't bear to hear a human being spoken of with contempt just because of his group identification...It's these respectable people here who create those hooligans out there.

Love life seems to be that factor which requires the largest quantity of magical tinkering.

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

Why this reluctance to make the change? We fear the process of reeducation.

There is no Master but the Master,” he said, “and QT-1 is his prophet.

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

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

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

Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.

My feeling is, quite simply, that if there is a God, He has done such a bad jobthat he isn't worth discussing.

Above all, never think you're not good enough. Never think that. In life people will take you at your own reckoning.

Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in.

People think of education as something they can finish.