Isaac Asimov: Trending quotes

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Isaac Asimov: 606 quotes30 likes

“It is well-known that the friend of a conqueror is but the last victim.”

Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation and Empire (1952), Chapter 22 “Death on Neotrantor”

“Happiness is doing it rotten your own way.”

I. Asimov: A Memoir (1994)

“I fear my ignorance.”

Isaac Asimov book The Gods Themselves

Section 3 “...contend in vain?”, Chapter 3 (p. 187)
The Gods Themselves (1972)

“Although the time of death is approaching me, I am not affraid of dying and going to hell or (what would be considered worse) going to a popularized version of heaven. I expect death to be nothingness and for removing me from all possible fears of death, I am thankful to atheism.”

“Emotionally, I am an atheist. I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn't that I don't want to waste my time. z Free Inquiry, jar 1982”

“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.”

“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.”

The Near East (1968), p. 260
General sources

“The job of science will never be done, it will just sink deeper and deeper into never-ending complexity.”

"The Secrets of the Universe" (1989) (essay reprinted in The Secret of the Universe (1992), p. 168)
General sources

“The best way to describe anyone is to give an example of the kind of thing he would do.”

In Joy Still Felt (1980), p. 499
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“Necessity makes a joke of civilization.”

In Joy Still Felt (1980), p. 124
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“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), p. 16
General sources

“Certain success evicts one from the paradise of winning against the odds.”

Isaac Asimov book In Memory Yet Green

In Memory Yet Green (1979), p. 420
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“There is less trouble and trauma involved in writing a new piece than in trying to salvage an unsatisfactory old one.”

Isaac Asimov book In Memory Yet Green

In Memory Yet Green (1979), p. 200
General sources

“Science Digest asked me to see the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind and write an article for them on the science it contained. I saw the picture and was appalled. I remained appalled even after a doctor’s examination had assured me that no internal organs had been shaken loose by its ridiculous soundwaves. (If you can’t be good, be loud, some say, and Close Encounters was very loud.) … Hollywood must deal with large audiences, most of whom are utterly unfamiliar with good science fiction. It has to bend to them, meet them at least half-way. Fully appreciating that, I could enjoy Planet of the Apes and Star Wars.”

Star Wars was entertainment for the masses and did not try to be anything more. Leave your sophistication at the door, get into the spirit, and you can have a fun ride. … Seeing a rotten picture for the special effects is like eating a tough steak for the smothered onions, or reading a bad book for the dirty parts. Optical wizardry is something a movie can do that a book can’t but it is no substitute for a story, for logic, for meaning. It is ornamentation, not substance. In fact, whenever a science fiction picture is praised overeffusively for its special effects, I know it’s a bad picture. Is that all they can find to talk about? <br class="br">"Editorial: The Reluctant Critic", in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Vol. 2, Issue 6, (12 November 1978) https://archive.org/stream/Asimovs_v02n06_1978-11-12/ <br class="br">General sources

“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.”

The Dark Ages (1968), p. 188
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“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.”

The Near East (1968), p. 33
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“Religion is more conservative than any other aspect of human life.”

The Near East (1968), p. 14
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“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.”

General sources

“Start with a planet like the earth, with a complement of simple compounds bound to exist upon it, add the energy of a nearby sun, and you are bound to end with nucleic acids. You can't avoid it.”

"Constructing a Man" in Is Anyone There? (1967), p. 93
General sources

“I don't believe in flying saucers... The energy requirements of interstellar travel are so great that it is inconceivable to me that any creatures piloting their ships across the vast depths of space would do so only in order to play games with us over a period of decades.”

"On Flying Saucers" in Is Anyone There? (1967), pp. 215–216
General sources