336 quotes
I resented much modern poetry, because I couldn’t understand it (and, worse yet, there was nothing about it that gave me the urge to try to understand it) and because I despised its freewheeling notions of what a poem should look like.
I. Asimov: A Memoir (1994)
An observer studying the Solar system dispassionately, and finding himself capable of bringing the four giant planets to his notice, could reasonably say that the Solar system consisted of one star, four planets, and some traces of debris.
To me, however, death is merely death, and a person who was alive is gone, and although sorrow and loneliness may devour you as a result, it should not be put on public display, any more than it must. I realize that this is not a popular view and will not prevail.
I. Asimov: A Memoir (1994)
The whole business is the crudest sort of stratagem, since we have no way of foreseeing it to the end. It is a mere paying out of rope on the chance that somewhere along the length of it will be a noose.
The Foundation series (1951)
[Writing] is an addiction more powerful than alcohol, than nicotine, than crack. I could not conceive of not writing.
Nonsense. You are a military man and should know better. If there is one science into which man has probed continuously and successfully, it is that of military technology. No potential weapon would remain unrealized for ten thousand years.
Empire novels (1950)
“You are an important man–”
Ralston snorted.
“You do not consider that to be so?” asked Blaustein.
“No, I don’t. There are no important men, any more than there are important individual bacteria.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I don’t expect you to.”
The Complete Stories, Volume 1 (1990)
It is very likely that there are many, many planets carrying life, even intelligent life, throughout the universe, because there are so many stars. By sheer chance, even if those chances are small, a great many life forms and a great many intelligences may exist.
“He seemed so pleasant, so friendly, so grateful for little favors. How could I know that underneath it all he was a vicious, libelous hellhound.”
George said, “But he was a critic. How could he be anything else? You train for the post by maligning your mother.”
Azazel (1988)
I don't know of any science fiction writer who really attempts to be a prophet. Such authors accomplish their tasks not by being correct in their predictions, necessarily, but merely by hammering home—in story after story—the notion that life is going to be different.
[S]cientists have pushed back the horizon of time from the biblical 6,000 years to 4,600,000,000 years for the age of Earth—a 760,000-fold increase.
Exploring the Earth and the Cosmos (1982)
“As for status, that’s the sort of push and pull I’d just as soon avoid. I’ve seen many people with status, but I’m still looking for a happy one. Status won’t sit still under you; you have to continually fight to keep from sinking.
The Foundation series (1951)
“At least try to see my motives. Granted that I was foolish—criminally foolish—can’t you understand? Can’t you try not to hate me?”
She said softly, “I have tried not to love you and, as you see, I have failed.”
Empire novels (1950)
I simply don't think it is reasonable to use IQ tests to produce results of questionable value, which may then serve to justify racists in their own minds and to help bring about the kinds of tragedies we have already witnessed earlier in this century.
If, as I maintain and firmly believe, there is no objective definition of intelligence, and what we call intelligence is only a creation of cultural fashion and subjective prejudice, what the devil is it we test when we make use of an intelligence test?
We face eternity now. We have no universe left, no outside phenomena, no emotions, no passions. Nothing but ourselves and thought. We face an eternity of introspection, when all through history we have never known what to do with ourselves on a rainy Sunday.
The Complete Stories, Volume 1 (1990)
“There’s danger of violence?”
“The Fundamentalists threaten it, so I suppose there is, in a theoretical sense. But I don’t really expect it. The Fundies have no real power. They’re just the continuous irritant factor that might stir up a riot after a while.”
Robot series (1950)
When I was young, all youngsters wore caps.… Now they are gone, all gone. The story I’ve heard was that caps were always worn by the bad guys in the early gangster movies, and the American public, never notable for thinking for themselves, therefore rejected them.
I. Asimov: A Memoir (1994)
Plowboy: You truly feel that all the major changes in history have been caused by science and technology?
Mother Earth News interview (1980)
This - this - was my life's work. My past - humanity's future. Foundation. So beatiful. So alive. And nothing can...Dors!
The Foundation series (1951)