Isaac Asimov quotes - page 9

Remarkable what a fragile flower romance is. A gun with a nervous operator behind it can spoil the whole thing. (Isaac Asimov)
Inspect every piece of pseudoscience and you will find a security blanket, a thumb to suck, a skirt to hold. What does the scientist have to offer in exchange? Uncertainty! Insecurity! View quote
Isaac Asimov
I fear my ignorance. View quote
Isaac Asimov
If I am right, then (religious fundamentalists) will not go to Heaven, because there is no Heaven. If they are right, then they will not go to Heaven, because they are hypocrites. View quote
Isaac Asimov
We can hope that the ways of peace will attract the Arabic nations, for their territory and opportunities are broad enough for immeasurable advance, if the energies vented in spleen, are turned instead to a modernisation of the technology, a restoration of the soil, and a renovation of the economic, social, and political structure of those great and venerable lands. View quote
Isaac Asimov
The job of science will never be done, it will just sink deeper and deeper into never-ending complexity. View quote
Isaac Asimov
The best way to describe anyone is to give an example of the kind of thing he would do. View quote
Isaac Asimov
Necessity makes a joke of civilization. View quote
Isaac Asimov
Certain success evicts one from the paradise of winning against the odds. View quote
Isaac Asimov
There is less trouble and trauma involved in writing a new piece than in trying to salvage an unsatisfactory old one. View quote
Isaac Asimov
Probably, the most-often-repeated lesson in history is that foreigners who are called in to help one side in a civil war take over for themselves. It is a lesson that seems never to be learned despite endless repetition. (Isaac Asimov)
It is by the Imperial Capital that contemporaries (and posterity, too) judge an Empire, and its magnificence impresses them mightily and leads them to judge the Emperor a great man and hero, even though it may all be based on robbery, and though the provinces of the Empire may be sunk in misery. View quote
Isaac Asimov
People who want to do so can lose weight most safely and permanently if they realize that above all they must be patient. ... It is better to eat a little less at each meal than impulse would suggest and to do that constantly. Add to this a little more exercise or activity than impulse suggests and keep that up constantly too. A few less calories taken in each day and a few more used up will decrease weight, slowly, to be sure, but without undue misery. And with better long-range results too. View quote
Isaac Asimov
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? View quote
Isaac Asimov
Generals are, as a matter of course, allowed to be far more idiotic than ordinary human beings are permitted to be. View quote
Isaac Asimov
In the world of today can there be peace anywhere until there is peace everywhere? View quote
Isaac Asimov
Generals are usually a conservative force who can be relied on to oppose social change. View quote
Isaac Asimov
Well, it was healthy to miss once in a while. It kept self-confidence balanced at a point safely short of arrogance. View quote
Isaac Asimov
No one is so modest as not to believe himself a competent amateur sleuth. View quote
Isaac Asimov
No matter how various the subject matter I write on, I was a science-fiction writer first and it is as a science-fiction writer that I want to be identified. View quote
Isaac Asimov
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. (Isaac Asimov)
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. View quote
Isaac Asimov
It is all too easy to forget that there are emotional motivations in history, as well as economic ones. View quote
Isaac Asimov
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. View quote
Isaac Asimov
[W]hen one plays for top prizes one must be prepared to pay top stakes. View quote
Isaac Asimov