336 quotes
I am not a visual person. I have spent so many bounded years in my childhood that I have grown used to having books as my window on reality.
In Joy Still Felt (1980)
Daneel rose. He was alone - and with a Galaxy to care for.
Robot series (1950)
Titles are an important part of a story and I take considerable care in choosing one. In fact, I cannot start a story until I have chosen a title.
Banquets of the Black Widowers (1984)
The unwritten motto of United States Robot and Mechanical Men Corp. was well-known: “No employee makes the same mistake twice. He is fired the first time.”
Robot series (1950)
I believe that only scientists can understand the universe. It is not so much that I have confidence in scientists being right, but that I have so much in nonscientists being wrong.
He could almost wish he were superstitious. He could then console himself with the thought that the casual meaningless meeting had really been directed by a knowing and purposeful Fate.
The Complete Stories, Volume 1 (1990)
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, but the world as it will be ...
“Such unsubtle escapism! Really, Dr. Fara, such folly smacks of genius. A lesser mind would be incapable of it."
The Foundation series (1951)
We cannot afford enemies any more... Within a generation or two human society will be in total destructive disarray.
Isaac Asimov (1977)
Riots! What do I care about riots now? - What do I care about anything now?
The Foundation series (1951)
The undramatic fact is that I just think and think and think until I have something [for a story], and there is nothing marvelous or artistic about the phenomenon.
In Memory Yet Green (1979)
Someone once asked me, "If you had your choice, Dr. Asimov, would it be women or writing?" My answer was, "Well, I can write for twelve hours at a time without getting tired."
Just Say 'No! (1989)
Remember, you once said, Lije, that people sometimes mistake their own shortcomings for those of society and want to fix the Cities because they don’t know how to fix themselves.
Robot series (1950)
I received the fundamentals of my education in school, but that was not enough. My real education, the superstructure, the details, the true architecture, I got out of the public library.
I. Asimov: A Memoir (1994)
But suppose we were to teach creationism. What would be the content of the teaching? Merely that a creator formed the universe and all species of life ready-made? Nothing more? No details?
He is a dreamer of ancient times, or rather, of the myths of what ancient times used to be. Such men are harmless in themselves, but their queer lack of realism makes them fools for others.
The Foundation series (1951)
Now any dogma, based primarily on faith and emotionalism, is a dangerous weapon to use on others, since it is almost impossible to guarantee that the weapon will never be turned on the user.
The Foundation series (1951)
The trouble is that I am one of the common breed of human being who finds it very easy to strew noble little homilies far and wide but considerably less easy to follow those homilies himself.
I. Asimov: A Memoir (1994)
I tell you I know the type of people that become Medievalists. They’re soft, dreamy people who find life too hard for them here and get lost in an ideal world of the past that never really existed.
Robot series (1950)
It is my own experience ... that commentators are far more ingenious at finding meaning than authors are at inserting it.
The Annotated Gulliver's Travels (1980)