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Isaac Asimov Quotes
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Isaac Asimov was a Jewish-American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. He was known for his works of science fiction and popular science. Asimov was a prolific writer, and wrote or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards. His books have been published in 9 of the 10 major categories of the Dewey Decimal Classification.

Asimov wrote hard science fiction and, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, he was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers during his lifetime. Asimov's most famous work is the Foundation Series; his other major series are the Galactic Empire series and the Robot series. The Galactic Empire novels are explicitly set in earlier history of the same fictional universe as the Foundation series. Later, beginning with Foundation's Edge, he linked this distant future to the Robot and Spacer stories, creating a unified "future history" for his stories much like those pioneered by Robert A. Heinlein and previously produced by Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson. He wrote hundreds of short stories, including the social science fiction novelette "Nightfall", which in 1964 was voted by the Science Fiction Writers of America the best short science fiction story of all time. Asimov wrote the Lucky Starr series of juvenile science-fiction novels using the pen name Paul French.

Asimov also wrote mysteries and fantasy, as well as much nonfiction. Most of his popular science books explain scientific concepts in a historical way, going as far back as possible to a time when the science in question was at its simplest stage. He often provides nationalities, birth dates, and death dates for the scientists he mentions, as well as etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Examples include Guide to Science, the three-volume set Understanding Physics, and Asimov's Chronology of Science and Discovery, as well as works on astronomy, mathematics, history, William Shakespeare's writing, and chemistry.

Asimov was a long-time member and vice president of Mensa International, albeit reluctantly; he described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs". He took more joy in being president of the American Humanist Association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, a crater on the planet Mars, a Brooklyn elementary school, and a literary award are named in his honor.

✵ 1920 – 6. April 1992
Isaac Asimov photo
Isaac Asimov: 303   quotes 30   likes

Isaac Asimov Quotes

“It is a mistake,” he said, “to suppose that the public wants the environment protected or their lives saved and that they will be grateful to any idealist who will fight for such ends. What the public wants is their own individual comfort. We know that well enough from our experience in the environmental crisis of the twentieth century.”

Isaac Asimov book The Gods Themselves

Section 1, Chapter 7, p. 56; the book is set in the year 2100.
The Gods Themselves (1972)

Fight

“That is the most stupid thing yet. I tell you that I could despair of human intelligence when I see what can exist in men’s minds.”

Isaac Asimov book Pebble in the Sky

Source: Pebble in the Sky (1950), chapter 15 “The Odds That Vanished”, p. 136

Men , Stupidity , Intelligence , Despair

“For it is the chief characteristic of the religion of science, that it works, and that such curses as that of Aporat’s are really deadly.”

Isaac Asimov

Part III, The Mayors, section 7
The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation (1951)

Religion , Science

“The machine is only a tool after all, which can help humanity progress faster by taking some of the burdens of calculations and interpretations off its back. The task of the human brain remains what it has always been; that of discovering new data to be analyzed, and of devising new concepts to be tested.”

Isaac Asimov book I, Robot

“The Evitable Conflict”, p. 187
I, Robot (1950)

Help

“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?”

Isaac Asimov

"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/<!-- Asimovs_v02n06_1978-11-12_djvu.txt -->
General sources

War , Books , Way , Star

“There’s nothing like deduction. We’ve determined everything about our problem but the solution.”

Isaac Asimov book I, Robot

“Runaround”, p. 41; see above for the Three Laws of Robotics, also drawn from this story
I, Robot (1950)

Problem

“At odd and unpredictable times, we cling in fright to the past.”

Isaac Asimov

Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation’s Edge (1982), Chapter 1 “Councilman” section 1, p. 4

Time , Past

“Inertia! Our ruling class knows one law; no change. Despotism! They know one rule; force. Maldistribution! They know one desire; to hold what is theirs.”

Isaac Asimov

Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation and Empire (1952), Chapter 11 “Bride and Groom”; in part II, “The Mule” originally published under the same title in Astounding (November-December 1945)

Law , Change

“I consider one of the most important duties of any scientist the teaching of science to students and to the general public.”

Isaac Asimov

"Academe and I" (May 1972), in The Tragedy of the Moon (1973), p. 224
General sources

Science

“The dullness of fact is the mother of fiction.”

Isaac Asimov book Fact and Fancy

Fact and Fancy (1962), p. 11
General sources

“There is no way of being almost funny or mildly funny or fairly funny or tolerably funny. You are either funny or not funny and there is nothing in between. And usually it is the writer who thinks he is funny and the reader who thinks he isn't.”

Isaac Asimov book Buy Jupiter and Other Stories

Buy Jupiter and Other Stories (1975), p. 33
General sources

Way , Thinking

“Well, then, arrest him. You can accuse him of something or other afterward.”

Isaac Asimov

Part III, The Mayors, section 1; originally published as “Bridle and Saddle” in Astounding (June 1942)
The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation (1951)

“If an interaction is too weak to be detectable or to exert influence in any way, then by any operational definition, it doesn’t exist.”

Isaac Asimov book The Gods Themselves

Section 3, Chapter 12, p. 257
The Gods Themselves (1972)

Way

“There was no denying that he would always be conscious of the fact that an Earthman was an Earthman. He couldn’t help that. That was the result of a childhood immersed in an atmosphere of bigotry so complete that it was almost invisible, so entire that you accepted its axioms as second nature. Then you left it and saw it for what it was when you looked back.”

Isaac Asimov book Pebble in the Sky

Pebble in the Sky, chapter 7 “Conversation with Madmen?”, p. 58
Pebble in the Sky (1950)

Nature , Help , Childhood

“To be sure, the Bible contains the direct words of God. How do we know? The Moral Majority says so. How do they know? They say they know and to doubt it makes you an agent of the Devil or, worse, a Lbr-l Dm-cr-t. And what does the Bible textbook say? Well, among other things it says the earth was created in 4004 BC (Not actually, but a Moral Majority type figured that out three and a half centuries ago, and his word is also accepted as inspired.) The sun was created three days later. The first male was molded out of dirt, and the first female was molded, some time later, out of his rib. As far as the end of the universe is concerned, the Book of Revelation (6:13-14) says: "And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind." … Imagine the people who believe such things and who are not ashamed to ignore, totally, all the patient findings of thinking minds through all the centuries since the Bible was written. And it is these ignorant people, the most uneducated, the most unimaginative, the most unthinking among us, who would make themselves the guides and leaders of us all; who would force their feeble and childish beliefs on us; who would invade our schools and libraries and homes. I personally resent it bitterly.”

Isaac Asimov

"The Blind Who Would Lead", essay in The Roving Mind (1983); as quoted in Canadian Atheists Newsletter (1994)
General sources

God , People , Books , School

“The fact that the general incidence of leukemia has doubled in the last two decades may be due, partly, to the increasing use of x-rays for numerous purposes. The incidence of leukemia in doctors, who are likely to be so exposed, is twice that of the general public. In radiologists … the incidence is ten times greater.”

Isaac Asimov

Statement of 1965, as quoted without citation of a specific work in Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988), edited by Asimov and Jason A. Shulman, p. 233 https://archive.org/details/BookOfScienceAndNatureQuotations-IsaacAsimov
General sources

Time

“I have always dealt with economic forces, rather than philosophic forces, but you can't split history into neat little non-overlapping divisions. For instance, religions tend to accumulate wealth when successful and that eventually tends to distort the economic development of a society.”

Isaac Asimov

Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Prelude to Foundation (1988), Chapter 40, Dors Venabili to Hari Seldon

Religion , History , Success , Wealth

“Remarkable what a fragile flower romance is. A gun with a nervous operator behind it can spoil the whole thing.”

Isaac Asimov

Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Second Foundation (1953), Chapter 11 “Stowaway”

Flowers

“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!”

Isaac Asimov

Asimov's Guide to Science (1972), p. 15
General sources

“A planet full of people meant nothing against the dictates of economic necessity!”

Isaac Asimov book The Currents of Space

The Currents of Space (1952)
General sources

People

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

Isaac Asimov

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

“Happiness is doing it rotten your own way.”

Isaac Asimov

I. Asimov: A Memoir (1994)

Way , Happiness

“I fear my ignorance.”

Isaac Asimov book The Gods Themselves

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

Fear

“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.”

Isaac Asimov
Death , Fear , Hell , Time

“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”

Isaac Asimov
God , Time

“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.”

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.”

Isaac Asimov

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

Way , Peace , Hope

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

Isaac Asimov

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

Science

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

Isaac Asimov

In Joy Still Felt (1980), p. 499
General sources

Way

“Necessity makes a joke of civilization.”

Isaac Asimov

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

Making love

“It is my own experience … that commentators are far more ingenious at finding meaning than authors are at inserting it.”

Isaac Asimov

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
General sources

Success

“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.”

Isaac Asimov

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?
"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/
General sources

Way , War , Science , Star

“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

The Dark Ages (1968), p. 188
General sources

War , Help , Learning , History

“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.”

Isaac Asimov

The Near East (1968), p. 33
General sources

“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.”

Isaac Asimov

General sources

People , Exercises

“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.”

Isaac Asimov

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

Sun

“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.”

Isaac Asimov

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

Travel , Game , Relation ships , Flying

“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?”

Isaac Asimov

"Thinking About Thinking" in Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January 1975
General sources

Fashion , Intelligence , Making love

“I simply don't think it is reasonable to use IQ tests to produce results of questionable value, which may then serve to justify racists in their own minds and to help bring about the kinds of tragedies we have already witnessed earlier in this century.”

Isaac Asimov

"Alas, All Human" in Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, June 1979
General sources

Thinking , Help , Question

“Generals are, as a matter of course, allowed to be far more idiotic than ordinary human beings are permitted to be.”

Isaac Asimov

Our Federal Union (1975), p. 248
General sources

“In the world of today can there be peace anywhere until there is peace everywhere?”

Isaac Asimov

The Egyptians (1967), p. 241
General sources

Peace , World

“Generals are usually a conservative force who can be relied on to oppose social change.”

Isaac Asimov

The Egyptians (1967), p. 93
General sources

Change

“Well, it was healthy to miss once in a while. It kept self-confidence balanced at a point safely short of arrogance.”

Isaac Asimov

Source: Empire novels (1950–1952), The Stars, Like Dust (1951), Chapter 20 “Where?” (p. 166)

Confidence , Self-confidence

“At least try to see my motives. Granted that I was foolish—criminally foolish—can’t you understand? Can’t you try not to hate me?”

Isaac Asimov

She said softly, “I have tried not to love you and, as you see, I have failed.”
Source: Empire novels (1950–1952), The Stars, Like Dust (1951), Chapter 19 “Defeat!” (p. 163)

Hate , Understanding , Motivation

“Then why did you run? A man who runs needs no other accusation.”

Isaac Asimov book The Currents of Space

“Is that so? Really?” cried Steen. “Well, I would run out of a burning building even if I had not set the fire myself.”
Source: Empire novels (1950–1952), The Currents of Space (1952), Chapter 16 “The Accused” (p. 163)

“You make interstellar politics sound a very dirty game.”

Isaac Asimov book The Currents of Space

“It is, but disapproving of dirt doesn’t remove it.”
Source: Empire novels (1950–1952), The Currents of Space (1952), Chapter 14 “The Renegade” (p. 141)

Game

“No one is so modest as not to believe himself a competent amateur sleuth.”

Isaac Asimov book The Currents of Space

Source: Empire novels (1950–1952), The Currents of Space (1952), Chapter 11 “The Captain” (p. 114)