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“We cannot afford enemies any more … Within a generation or two human society will be in total destructive disarray.”

Isaac Asimov

As quoted in Isaac Asimov (1977) by Joseph D. Olander and Martin Harry Greenberg, p. 165 http://books.google.com/books?id=8HCwAAAAIAAJ&amp;q=%22Babies+are+the+enemies+of+the+human+race%22&amp;dq=%22Babies+are+the+enemies+of+the+human+race%22&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=i9ldVKqOM_jLsATbvYCgDA&amp;ved=0CCwQ6AEwAw <br class="br">General sources <br class="br">Context: We cannot afford enemies any more … Within a generation or two human society will be in total destructive disarray. Heaven knows how bad it will be. The most optimistic view I can take is this: Things will get so bad within a dozen years that it will become obvious … that we must, whether were like each other or not, work together. We have no choice in the matter. … Technologically, we can stop overpopulation, but we have to persuade people to accept the technology. … Babies are the enemies of the human race … Let&#x27;s consider it this way: by the time the world doubles its population, the amount of energy we will be using will be increased sevenfold which means probably the amount of pollution that we are producing will also be increased sevenfold. If we are now threatened by pollution at the present rate, how will we be threatened with sevenfold pollution by, say, 2010 A. D., distributed among twice the population? We&#x27;ll be having to grow twice the food out of soil that is being poisoned at seven times the rate.

“[Creationists] make it sound as though a "theory" is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night.”

Isaac Asimov

Often attributed as remarks to the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) (1980)
General sources

“To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today.”

Isaac Asimov

&quot;The “Threat” of Creationism&quot; http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/azimov_creationism.html in New York Times Magazine (14 June 1981)&lt;!-- reprinted Science and Creationism (1984) edited by M. F. Ashley Montagu, p. 184 --&gt; <br class="br">General sources <br class="br">Context: There are many aspects of the universe that still cannot be explained satisfactorily by science; but ignorance only implies ignorance that may someday be conquered. To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today.

“I prefer rationalism to atheism. The question of God and other objects-of-faith are outside reason and play no part in rationalism, thus you don't have to waste your time in either attacking or defending.”

Isaac Asimov

“They won't listen. Do you know why? Because they have certain fixed notions about the past. Any change would be blasphemy in their eyes, even if it were the truth. They don't want the truth; they want their traditions.”

Isaac Asimov book Pebble in the Sky

Source: Pebble in the Sky

“Jokes of the proper kind, properly told, can do more to enlighten questions of politics, philosophy, and literature than any number of dull arguments.”

Isaac Asimov

“People think of education as something they can finish.”

Isaac Asimov

“Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest.”

Isaac Asimov

“There never can be a man so lost as one who is lost in the vast and intricate corridors of his own lonely mind, where none may reach and none may save.”

Isaac Asimov book Pebble in the Sky

Source: Pebble in the Sky

“The easiest way to solve a problem is to deny it exists.”

Isaac Asimov book The Gods Themselves

Section 3, Chapter 10, p. 236
The Gods Themselves (1972)

““You can prove anything you want by coldly logical reason—if you pick the proper postulates. We have ours and Cutie has his.”
“Then let’s get at those postulates in a hurry. The storm’s due tomorrow.”
Powell sighed wearily. “That’s where everything falls down. Postulates are based on assumptions and adhered to by faith. Nothing in the Universe can shake them. I’m going to bed.””

Isaac Asimov book I, Robot

Source: I, Robot (1950), “Reason”, p. 63

“It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety.”

Isaac Asimov book Foundation

Part III, The Mayors, section 2
Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation (1951)

“All the hundreds of millions of people who, in their time, believed the Earth was flat never succeeded in unrounding it by an inch.”

Isaac Asimov

“All evil is good become cancerous.”

Isaac Asimov

“There is nothing frightening about an eternal dreamless sleep. Surely it is better than eternal torment in Hell and eternal boredom in Heaven.”

Isaac Asimov

“Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.”

Isaac Asimov

“If you're born in a cubicle and grow up in a corridor, and work in a cell, and vacation in a crowded sun-room, then coming up into the open with nothing but sky over you might just give you a nervous breakdown.”

Isaac Asimov book Foundation

Source: Foundation

“We're forever teetering on the brink of the unknowable, and trying to understand what can't be understood.”

Isaac Asimov book The Caves of Steel

Source: The Caves of Steel