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Isaac Asimov: 606 quotes30 likes

“Private profit is often hidden under a careful coating of great patriotism.”

The Roman Republic (1966), p. 128
General sources

“It is the nature of science that answers automatically pose new and more subtle questions.”

The Wellsprings of Life (1960), p. 141
General sources

“Predicting the future is a hopeless, thankless task, with ridicule to begin with and, all too often, scorn to end with.”

Isaac Asimov

"The World of 1990" in The Diners' Club Magazine, January 1965
General sources

“The stars, like dust, encircle me
In living mists of light;
And all of space I seem to see
In one vast burst of sight.”

Isaac Asimov

Source: Empire novels (1950–1952), The Stars, Like Dust (1951), Chapter 3 “Chance and the Wrist Watch” (p. 30)

“Truth is a discredited commodity among diplomats.”

Isaac Asimov book The Currents of Space

Source: Empire novels (1950–1952), The Currents of Space (1952), Chapter 6 “The Ambassador” (p. 64)

“No matter how outrageous a lie may be, it will be accepted if stated loudly enough and often enough.”

Isaac Asimov

The Near East (1968), p. 31
General sources

“Ideas are cheap. It's only what you do with them that counts.”

Isaac Asimov

"The Secrets of the Universe" (1989) (essay reprinted in The Secret of the Universe (1992), p. 167)
General sources

“It is surely better to be wronged than to do wrong.”

Isaac Asimov book In Memory Yet Green

In Memory Yet Green (1979), p. 175
General sources

“Scientific writing is abhorrently stylized and places a premium on poor quality.”

Isaac Asimov book Buy Jupiter and Other Stories

Buy Jupiter and Other Stories (1975), p. 82
General sources

“There is a kind of selective memory that afflicts men when they view the past. They see the good and overlook the evil.”

Isaac Asimov

Source: The Roman Empire (1967), p. 191

“It seems to be almost an invariable rule that as real power declines, the symbols of power multiply and intensify in compensation.”

Isaac Asimov

Source: The Roman Empire (1967), p. 176

“Ten years on the moon could tell us more about the universe than a thousand years on the earth might be able to.”

Isaac Asimov

What Can We Expect of the Moon?" in The American Legion Magazine, March 1965
General sources

“This - this - was my life's work. My past - humanity's future. Foundation. So beatiful. So alive. And nothing can...Dors!”

Isaac Asimov book Forward the Foundation

The Foundation series (1951–1993), Forward the Foundation (1993)
Source: Part 5 "Epilogue", Hari Seldon's last words

“Old memories - really old - are almost all in the mountain roots where it takes time to dig them out.”

Isaac Asimov book Foundation and Earth

The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation and Earth (1986)
Source: Part 1 "Gaia", Chapter 1 "The Search Begins" section 4, p. 19

“To us, all life is a series of accidents to be met with improvisations. To them, all life is purposive and should be met with precalculation.”

Isaac Asimov book Second Foundation

Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Second Foundation (1953), Chapter 16 "Beginning of War"

“No matter how the conomy and sociology of the neighbouring sectors of the Galaxy changes, there was always an elite; and it is always the characteristic of an elite that it possesses leisure as the great reward of its elite-hood.”

Isaac Asimov book Second Foundation

Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Second Foundation (1953), Chapter 12 "Lord"

“One should cultivate an innocence, an awareness of self, and an unselfconsciousness of self which leaves one nothing to hide.”

Isaac Asimov book Second Foundation

Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Second Foundation (1953), Chapter 8 "Seldon's Plan"

“Your emotions are, of course, only the children of your background and are not to be condemned - merely changed.”

Isaac Asimov book Second Foundation

Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Second Foundation (1953)

“Finished products are for decadent minds.”

Isaac Asimov book Second Foundation

Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Second Foundation (1953)

“There can never be a man so lost as one who is lost in the vast and intricate corrdiors of his own lonely mind, where none may reach and none may save. There never was a man so helpless as one who cannot remember.”

Isaac Asimov book Pebble in the Sky

Source: Empire novels (1950–1952), Pebble in the Sky (1950), Chapter 5 "The Involuntary Volunteer" (p. 57)