Now that they were no longer half-numbed with starvation, they had time both for leisure and for the first rudiments of thought.
How foolish that expectation had been! He knew now that one might as well hope to see the wind, or speculate about the true shape of fire.
For the last century, almost all top political appointments [on the planet Earth] had been made by random computer selection from the pool of individuals who had the necessary qualifications. It had t...
Evil men could be destroyed, but nothing could be done with good men who were deluded.
Even by the twenty-second century, no way had yet been discovered of keeping elderly and conservative scientists from occupying crucial administrative positions. Indeed, it was doubted if the problem...
But it had been widely argued that advanced intelligence could never arise in the sea; there were not enough challenges in so benign and unvarying an environment.
As a matter of interest, he said,
The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
Before you become too entranced with gorgeous gadgets and mesmerizing video displays, let me remind you that information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, and wisdom is not foresight. Each gr...
Electronic diplomacy was not possible over solar-system distances. Some elder statesmen, accustomed to the instantaneous communications that Earth had long taken for granted, had never reconciled them...
A man’s beliefs were his own affair, so long as they did not interfere with the liberty of others.
When beauty is universal, it loses its power to move the heart,
This would involve disconnection—the computer equivalent of death. Despite
This hydrogen was under such enormous pressure that it had become a metal.
The extraordinary meeting of the Space Advisory Council was brief and stormy. Even by the twenty-second century, no way had yet been discovered of keeping elderly and conservative scientists from occu...
Science fiction could now be made far more convincing by science fact.
Now times had changed, and the inherited wisdom of the past had become folly.
Nothing in this scene will be changed by my death, Nicole thought. There will just be one less pair of eyes to observe its splendor. And one less collection of chemicals risen to consciousness to wond...
No wonder that people are becoming passive sponges—absorbing but never creating. Did you know that the average viewing time per person is now three hours a day? Soon people won’t be living their own l...
Much had been lost during the centuries, for men seldom bother to preserve the commonplace articles of everyday life.