Isaac Asimov citations (312 citations, Page 8)

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

Isaac Asimov

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“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

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

Isaac Asimov

Invention du mot robotique et première formulation des trois lois de la robotique.
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“Ce qui manque aux adolescents, ce n'est ni l'intelligence ni la faculté de raisonner, c'est tout simplement l'expérience.”

Isaac Asimov

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“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.
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“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.
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“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

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Isaac Asimov: Citations en anglais

“SWA Magazine: Talking about spacecraft, what do you think about the shuttle program?
Asimov: Well, I hope it does get off the ground. And I hope they expand it, because the shuttle program is the gateway to everything else. By means of the shuttle, we will be able to build space stations and power stations, laboratory facilities and habitations, and everything else in space.
SWA Magazine: How about orbital space colonies? Do you see these facilities being built or is the government going to cut back on projects like this?
Asimov: Well, now you've put your finger right on it. In order to have all of these wonderful things in space, we don't have to wait for technology - we've got the technology, and we don't have to wait for the know-how - we've got that too. All we need is the political go-ahead and the economic willingness to spend the money that is necessary. It is a little frustrating to think that if people concentrate on how much it is going to cost they will realize the great amount of profit they will get for their investment. Although they are reluctant to spend a few billions of dollars to get back an infinite quantity of money, the world doesn't mind spending $400 billion every years on arms and armaments, never getting anything back from it except a chance to commit suicide.”

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Isaac Asimov

An Interview with Isaac Asimov (1979)

“It’s one thing to have guts; it’s another to be crazy.”

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Isaac Asimov

Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation’s Edge (1982), Chapter 15 “Gaia-S” section 2, p. 302

“You are a valuable subject, Brodrig. You always suspect far more than is necessary, and I have but to take half your suggested precautions to be utterly safe.”

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Isaac Asimov

Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation and Empire (1952), Chapter 4 “The Emperor”

“He believes in that mummery a good deal less than I do, and I don’t believe in it at all.”

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Isaac Asimov

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

“I was once being interviewed by Barbara Walters… In between two of the segments she asked me…"But what would you do if the doctor gave you only six months to live?" I said, "Type faster." This was widely quoted, but the "six months" was changed to "six minutes," which bothered me. It's "six months."”

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Isaac Asimov

Asimov Laughs Again (1992)
General sources

“Societies create their own history and tend to wipe out lowly beginnings, either by forgetting them or inventing totally fictitious heroic rescues.”

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Isaac Asimov

Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation’s Edge (1982), Chapter 17 “Gaia” section 5, p. 363

“Miniaturization doesn't actually make sense unless you miniaturize the very atoms of which matter is composed. Otherwise a tiny brain in a man the size of an insect, composed of normal atoms, is composed of too few atoms for the miniaturized man to be any more intelligent than the ant. Also, miniaturizing atoms is impossible according to the rules of quantum mechanics.”

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Isaac Asimov

As quoted in Omni's Screen Flights/Screen Fantasies (1984) edited by Danny Peary, p. 5
General sources

“Were I to use the wits the good Spirits gave me,” he said, “then I would say this lady can not exist — for what sane man would hold a dream to be reality. Yet rather would I not be sane and lend belief to charmed, enchanted eyes.”

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Isaac Asimov

Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation and Empire (1952), Chapter 13 “Lieutenant and Clown”

“The Law of conservation of energy tells us we can't get something for nothing, but we refuse to believe it.”

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Isaac Asimov

Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988)
General sources

“Science fiction offers its writers chances of embarrassment that no other form of fiction does.”

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Isaac Asimov

Robot Dreams (1986), introduction
General sources

“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.”

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Isaac Asimov livre The Gods Themselves

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

“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.”

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Isaac Asimov livre Pebble in the Sky

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

“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.”

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Isaac Asimov

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

“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.”

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Isaac Asimov livre I, Robot

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

“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?”

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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/
General sources

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

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Isaac Asimov livre I, Robot

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

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

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Isaac Asimov

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

“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.”

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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)

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

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Isaac Asimov

"Academe and I" (May 1972), in The Tragedy of the Moon (1973), p. 224
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“The dullness of fact is the mother of fiction.”

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Isaac Asimov livre Fact and Fancy

Fact and Fancy (1962), p. 11
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“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.”

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Isaac Asimov livre Buy Jupiter and Other Stories

Buy Jupiter and Other Stories (1975), p. 33
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“Well, then, arrest him. You can accuse him of something or other afterward.”

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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.”

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Isaac Asimov livre The Gods Themselves

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

“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.”

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Isaac Asimov livre Pebble in the Sky

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

“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.”

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Isaac Asimov

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

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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
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