Isaac Asimov Quotes

It amounts to a diseased attitude—a conditioned reflex that shunts aside the independence of your minds whenever it is a question of opposing authority.

In all the known history of Mankind, advances have been made primarily in physical technology; in the capacity of handling the inanimate world about Man. Control of self and society has been left to t...

The Scientist - with capital letters and no smile.

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

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

All sorts of computer errors are now turning up. You'd be surprised to know the number of doctors who claim they are treating pregnant men.

Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not.

For what could any Entity, conscious of eternal existence, want – but an end?

It lasted for a long time, I believe.A very long time. It was a great success, but even great successes come to a natural end.

There was something ghost-like and insubstantial about gases to these early chemists. They called liquids that turned into gases easily, "spirits." Methyl alcohol, they called "wood spirit"; ethyl alc...

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

There never can be a man so lost as one who is lost in the vast and intricate corridors of his own lonely mind, where none may reach and none may save.

I think you are wrong, partner Elijah. My briefing on human characteristics here among the people of Earth includes the information that, unlike the men of the Outer Worlds, they are trained from birt...

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

And just how did you arrive at that remarkable conclusion, Mr. Mayor?In a rather simple way. It merely required the use of that much-neglected commodity -- common sense. You see, there is a branch of...

It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, b...

Stoop, then, or you will be beaten to your knees. Stoop voluntarily, and you may save a remnant. You have depended on metal and power and they have sustained you as far as they could. You have ignored...

I don't know. How did Beethoven hear the Ninth Symphony in his head before he wrote it down? The brain's a pretty good computer, too, isn't it?

Any system which allows men to choose their own future will end by choosing safety and mediocrity, and in such a Reality the stars are out of reach.

To him, a stilted geometric love of arrangement was system, and indefatigable and feverish interest in the pettiest facets of day-to-day bureaucracy was industry, indecision when right was caution, an...