Isaac Asimov citations (312 citations, Page 5)

Isaac Asimov: 312 citations 0 J'aime

Isaac Asimov citations célèbres

“La violence est le dernier refuge de l'incompétence.”

Isaac Asimov

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
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Autres parutions

“Si le savoir peut créer des problèmes, ce n'est pas l'ignorance qui les résoudra.”

Isaac Asimov

Autres parutions

“Il y a longtemps que j'ai décidé de suivre une règle stricte : être clair. […] Je me contente d'écrire d'une manière limpide et de créer une relation chaleureuse entre mes lecteurs et moi; quant aux critiques littéraires… eh bien, ils sont libres.”

Isaac Asimov

I made up my mind long ago to follow one cardinal rule in all my writing — to be clear. [...] I would write merely clearly and in this way establish a warm relationship between myself and my readers, and the professional critics — Well, they can do whatever they wish.
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“La connaissance scientifique possède en quelque sorte des propriétés fractales: nous aurons beau accroître notre savoir”

Isaac Asimov

Autres parutions

“Maintenant, reprenons les Trois Lois fondamentales de la Robotique…”

Isaac Asimov

Invention du mot robotique et première formulation des trois lois de la robotique.
Autres parutions

“Ce qui manque aux adolescents, ce n'est ni l'intelligence ni la faculté de raisonner, c'est tout simplement l'expérience.”

Isaac Asimov

Autres parutions

“Une "information fausse" est par définition incompatible avec toute autre information connue.”

Isaac Asimov

Le texte précise ainsi quel critère une machine doit appliquer pour distinguer une information vraie d'une fausse.
Autres parutions

“On a tendance à nous confondre parce que nous sommes tous deux des auteurs de textes cérébraux où les concepts scientifiques comptent plus que l'action proprement dite.”

Isaac Asimov

À propos de Arthur C. Clarke.
Autres parutions

“On peut définir la Science-Fiction comme la branche de la littérature qui se soucie des réponses de l'être humain aux progrès de la science et de la technologie.”

Isaac Asimov

Autres parutions

Isaac Asimov: Citations en anglais

“It seems to me, Golan, that the advance of civilization is nothing but an exercise in the limiting of privacy.”

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Isaac Asimov livre Foundation’s Edge

Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation’s Edge (1982), Chapter 6 “Earth” section 1, p. 100
Source: Foundation's Edge

“You are the only one responsible for your own wants.”

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Isaac Asimov livre I, Robot

Source: I, Robot

“A circle has no end.”

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Isaac Asimov livre Second Foundation

Second Foundation

“Whenever I have endured or accomplished some difficult task -- such as watching television, going out socially or sleeping -- I always look forward to rewarding myself with the small pleasure of getting back to my typewriter and writing something.”

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Isaac Asimov

“There's soknowledge to be had that specialists cling to their specialties as a shield against having to know anything about anything else. They avoid being drowned.”

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Isaac Asimov

“Let us assume you've made your point.”

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Isaac Asimov

“Once you get it into your head that somebody is controlling events, you can interpret everything in that light and find no reasonable certainty anywhere.”

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Isaac Asimov

Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation’s Edge (1982), Chapter 12 “Agent” section 4, p. 226

“The spell of power never quite releases its hold.”

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Isaac Asimov

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

“We abandoned the appearance of power to preserve the essence of it.”

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Isaac Asimov

Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation’s Edge (1982), Chapter 20 “Conclusion” section 1, p. 408

“I know nothing of that directly; I only know what I have been told by other young ones who couldn’t have known directly either. I want to find out the truth about them and the wanting has grown until there is more of curiosity in me than fear.”

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Isaac Asimov livre The Gods Themselves

Section 2, Chapter 2b, p. 104
The Gods Themselves (1972)

“There's something about a pious man such as he. He will cheerfully cut your throat if it suits him, but he will hesitate to endanger the welfare of your immaterial and problematical soul.”

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Isaac Asimov

Part IV, The Traders, section 3
The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation (1951)

“[Writing] is an addiction more powerful than alcohol, than nicotine, than crack. I could not conceive of not writing.”

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Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, April 1990, p.6
General sources

“Outside intelligences, exploring the Solar System with true impartiality, would be quite likely to enter the Sun in their records thus: Star X, spectral class G0, 4 planets plus debris.”

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Isaac Asimov

"By Jove!" in View from a Height (1963); often misquoted as "Jupiter plus debris".
General sources

“A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.”

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Isaac Asimov livre Runaround

"Runaround" in Astounding Science Fiction (March 1942); later published in I, Robot (1950)
The Three Laws of Robotics (1942)

“I’ve lived most of my life already and I suppose I can argue myself into believing that I have no great cause to love humanity. However, only a few people have hurt me, and if I hurt everyone in return that is unconscionable usury.”

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Isaac Asimov livre The Gods Themselves

Section 3, Chapter 12, p. 250
The Gods Themselves (1972)

“Consider the most famous pure dystopian tale of modern times, 1984, by George Orwell (1903-1950), published in 1948 (the same year in which Walden Two was published). I consider it an abominably poor book. It made a big hit (in my opinion) only because it rode the tidal wave of cold war sentiment in the United States.”

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Isaac Asimov

"Nowhere!" Asimov's Science Fiction (September 1983)
General sources

“To Mankind
And the hope that the war against folly may someday be won, after all.”

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Isaac Asimov livre The Gods Themselves

Dedication, p. 5; this refers to the quotation of Friedrich Schiller from which Asimov derived the title of this novel: "Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain."
The Gods Themselves (1972)

“Courtiers don’t take wagers against the king’s skill. There is the deadly danger of winning.”

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Isaac Asimov

Part III, The Mayors, section 3
The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation (1951)

“I accept nothing on authority. A hypothesis must be backed by reason, or else it is worthless.”

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Isaac Asimov livre I, Robot

“Reason”, p. 52
I, Robot (1950)

“You know that prudery is only the other side of prurience. The words are even on the same page in the dictionary.”

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Isaac Asimov livre The Gods Themselves

Section 3, Chapter 12, p. 244
The Gods Themselves (1972)

“How can the net amount of entropy of the universe be massively decreased?”

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Isaac Asimov livre The Last Question

The Last Question (1956)

“There is no belief, however foolish, that will not gather its faithful adherents who will defend it to the death.”

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Isaac Asimov

The Stars in Their Courses (1974), p. 36
General sources

“It is better to go to defeat with free will than to live in a meaningless security as a cog in a machine.”

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Isaac Asimov

Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation’s Edge (1982), Chapter 19 “Decision” section 7, p. 404

“I don’t like anything that’s got to be. I want to know why.”

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Isaac Asimov livre The Gods Themselves

Section 2, Chapter 2a, p. 93
The Gods Themselves (1972)

“Once you've dissected a joke, you're about where you are when you've dissected a frog. It's dead.”

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Isaac Asimov livre Banquets of the Black Widowers

Banquets of the Black Widowers (1984), p. 49; comparable to "Humor can be dissected, as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind." — E. B. White, in "Some Remarks on Humor," preface to A Subtreasury of American Humor (1941)
General sources

“Asimov: I don't know of any science fiction writer who really attempts to be a prophet. Such authors accomplish their tasks not by being correct in their predictions, necessarily, but merely by hammering home—in story after story—the notion that life is going to be different.”

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Isaac Asimov

Mother Earth News interview (1980)

“If anyone can be considered the greatest writer who ever lived, it is Shakespeare.”

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Isaac Asimov livre Asimov's Chronology of the World

Asimov's Chronology of the World (1991), p. 226
General sources

“The fall of Empire, gentlemen, is a massive thing, however, and not easily fought. It is dictated by a rising bureaucracy, a receding initiative, a freezing of caste, a damming of curiosity — a hundred other factors. It has been going on, as I have said, for centuries, and it is too majestic and massive a movement to stop.”

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Isaac Asimov

Part I, The Psychohistorians, section 6
The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation (1951)

“He is a dreamer of ancient times, or rather, of the myths of what ancient times used to be. Such men are harmless in themselves, but their queer lack of realism makes them fools for others.”

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Isaac Asimov

Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation and Empire (1952), Chapter 4 “The Emperor; in part I, “The General” originally published as “Dead Hand” in Astounding (April 1945)

“To the rest of the Galaxy, if they are aware of us at all, Earth is but a pebble in the sky. To us it is home, and all the home we know.”

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Isaac Asimov livre Pebble in the Sky

Pebble in the Sky (1950), chapter 4 “The Royal Road”, p. 33
All page numbers from the 1964 Bantam Pathfinder mass market paperback edition, 6th printing
Pebble in the Sky (1950)