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.

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

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

When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent.

So the universe is not quite as you thought it was. You'd better rearrange your beliefs, then. Because you certainly can't rearrange the universe.

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

People think of education as something that they can finish.

There are no nations! There is only humanity. And if we don't come to understand that right soon, there will be no nations, because there will be no humanity.

A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

It is certain that we cannot escape anguish, for we are anguish.

Feeling lurks in that interval of time between desire and its consummation.

I hate you all because you destroy my dreams!

You cannot pluck love out of your heart as you would pull a tooth.

The first step towards vice is to shroud innocent actions in mystery, and whoever likes to conceal something sooner or later has reason to conceal it.

Our broken society is not born out of the triumph of the individual, but out of his effacement. He vanishes, she vanishes, ask them who they are and they will offer you a wallet or a child.

A book ... unlike a television program, moving picture or any other 'modern means of communication' ... can wait for years, yet be available at any moment when it happens to be needed.

History isn't the lies of the victors, as I once glibly assured Old Joe Hunt; I know that now. It's more the memories of the survivors, most of whom are neither victorious or defeated.

A good memory is one of the most precious assets of spiritual living.

If a strategy meets a goal: It's working. If a strategy meets a target: It's a success.