Isaac Asimov quotes - page 14

University President Why is it that you physicists always require so much expensive equipment Now the Department of Mathematics requires nothing but money for paper, pencils, and erasers ... and the Department of Philosophy is better still. It doesn't even ask for erasers. (Isaac Asimov)
If you suspect that my interest in the Bible is going to inspire me with sudden enthusiasm for Judaism and make me a convert of mountain-moving fervor and that I shall suddenly grow long earlocks and learn Hebrew and go about denouncing the heathen - you little know the effect of the Bible on me. Properly read, it is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived. View quote
Isaac Asimov
The greatest inventors are unknown to us. Someone invented the wheel - but who. View quote
Isaac Asimov
The Master created humans first as the lowest type, most easily formed. Gradually, he replaced them by robots, the next higher step, and finally he created me, to take the place of the last humans. View quote
Isaac Asimov
You can prove anything you want by coldly logical reason---if you pick the proper postulates. View quote
Isaac Asimov
Scientific apparatus offers a window to knowledge, but as they grow more elaborate, scientists spend ever more time washing the windows. View quote
Isaac Asimov
At two-tenths the speed of light, dust and atoms might not do significant damage even in a voyage of 40 years, but the faster you go, the worse it is space begins to become abrasive. When you begin to approach the speed of light, hydrogen atoms become cosmic-ray particles, and they will fry the crew.... So 60,000 kilometers per second may be the practical speed limit for space travel. View quote
Isaac Asimov
(but, in rebuttal) When, however, the lay public rallies round an idea that is denounced by distinguished but elderly scientists and supports that idea with great fervor and emotion the distinguished but elderly scientists are then, after all, probably right. View quote
Isaac Asimov
I am the beneficiary of a lucky break in the genetic sweepstakes. View quote
Isaac Asimov
Naturally, there's got to be a limit for I don't expect to live forever, but I do intend to hang on as long as possible. View quote
Isaac Asimov
It is remarkable, Hardin, how the religion of science has grabbed hold. (Isaac Asimov)
Nothing interferes with my concentration. You could put on an orgy in my office and I wouldn't look up. Well, maybe once. View quote
Isaac Asimov
Our statesmen, our businessmen, our everyman must take on a science fictional way of thinking. View quote
Isaac Asimov
It is always useful, you see, to subject the past life of reform politicians to rather inquisitive research. View quote
Isaac Asimov
Science does not promise absolute truth, nor does it consider that such a thing necessarily exists. Science does not even promise that everything in the universe is amenable to the scientific process. View quote
Isaac Asimov
It is important to remember that the viciousness and wrongs of life stick out very plainly but that even at the worst times there is a great deal of goodness, kindness, and day-to-day decency that goes unnoticed and makes no headlines. View quote
Isaac Asimov
It seemed to him [Euphemius] it would be a brilliant notion to call in an outside force to fight on his behalf. This same brilliant notion has occurred to participants in civil wars uncounted times in history and it has ended in catastrophe just about every time, since those called in invariably take over for themselves. Of all history's lessons, this seems to be the plainest, and the most frequently ignored. View quote
Isaac Asimov
Science fiction may be defined as that branch of literature which deals with the response of human beings to advances in science and technology. Actual change in science and technology, occurring quickly enough and striking deeply enough to affect a human being in the course of his normal lifetime, is a phenomenon peculiar to the world only since the Industrial Revolution ... The first well-known writer who responded to this new factor in human affairs by dealing regularly with science fiction, by studying the effect of additional scientific advance upon mankind ... was Jules Verne. In the English language, the early master was H. G. Wells. Between them, they laid the foundation for every theme upon which science fiction writers have been ringing variations ever since. View quote
Isaac Asimov
In memory yet green, in joy still felt, The scenes of life rise sharply into view. We triumph; Life's disasters are undealt, And while all else is old, the world is new. View quote
Isaac Asimov
Weisinger, a couple of years ago, made up the following story: "Isaac Asimov was asked how Superman could fly faster than the speed of light, which was supposed to be an absolute limit. To this Asimov replied, 'That the speed of light is a limit is a theory; that Superman can travel faster than light is a fact.'" View quote
Isaac Asimov
Writing is hard work. The fact that I love doing it doesn't make it less hard work. People who love tennis will sweat themselves to exhaustion playing it, and the love of the game doesn't stop the sweating. The casual assumption that writers are unemployed bums because they don't go to the office and don't have a boss is something every writer has to live with. I have never known a writer who hasn't suffered as a result of this, hasn't resented it, and hasn't dreamed of murdering the next person who says "Boy, you've sure got it made. You just sit there and toss off a story or something whenever you feel like it." (Isaac Asimov)
Of all the books I have ever worked on, I think Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare gave me the most pleasure, day in, day out. For months and months I lived and thought Shakespeare, and I don't see how there can be any greater pleasure in the world-any pleasure, that is, that one can indulge in for as much as ten hours without pause, day after day indefinitely. View quote
Isaac Asimov
The light signal above the telecaster flashed to life again. "What do you want now?” It was the calm, impersonal voice of the receptionist below that answered him. "A messenger from the government, sir.” "Damn the government! Tell them I'm dead.”. View quote
Isaac Asimov
It is remarkable,” mused Graham, "the intensity with which I am not listening and the distinctness with which I do not hear a word you say. View quote
Isaac Asimov
There was a stiffening to the jaw. When caught off-guard, professors can act just like people. View quote
Isaac Asimov