Isaac Asimov cytaty (322 cytatów, strona 9)

Jest to zatem miejsce, gdzie wszystko doskonale działa, wszyscy są szczęśliwi, a dobroć i uprzejmość panują powszechnie. Opowiadania o utopiach są niezmiernie nudne. Gdzie jest niebezpieczeństwo? Gdzie wątpliwości?
Dystopia (złe miejsce) jest oczywiście czymś, gdzie wszystko jest koszmarne i nieprawdopodobnie złe.
Źródło: notka do jednego z opowiadań

Isaac Asimov: Cytaty po angielsku

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

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Isaac Asimov

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

“Happiness is doing it rotten your own way.”

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Isaac Asimov

I. Asimov: A Memoir (1994)

“I fear my ignorance.”

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Isaac Asimov książka The Gods Themselves

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

“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.”

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Isaac Asimov

“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”

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Isaac Asimov

“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.”

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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.”

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Isaac Asimov

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

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

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Isaac Asimov

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

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

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Isaac Asimov

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

“Necessity makes a joke of civilization.”

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Isaac Asimov

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

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

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Isaac Asimov

The Annotated Gulliver's Travels (1980), p. 16
General sources

“Certain success evicts one from the paradise of winning against the odds.”

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Isaac Asimov książka In Memory Yet Green

In Memory Yet Green (1979), p. 420
General sources

“There is less trouble and trauma involved in writing a new piece than in trying to salvage an unsatisfactory old one.”

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Isaac Asimov książka 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.”

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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

“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.”

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Isaac Asimov

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

“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.”

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Isaac Asimov

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

“Religion is more conservative than any other aspect of human life.”

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Isaac Asimov

The Near East (1968), p. 14
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.”

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Isaac Asimov

General sources

“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.”

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Isaac Asimov

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

“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.”

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Isaac Asimov

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

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Isaac Asimov

"Thinking About Thinking" in Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January 1975
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“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.”

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Isaac Asimov

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

“A subtle thought that is in error may yet give rise to fruitful inquiry that can establish truths of great value.”

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Isaac Asimov

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

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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?”

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Isaac Asimov

The Egyptians (1967), p. 241
General sources

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

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Isaac Asimov

The Egyptians (1967), p. 93
General sources

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

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Isaac Asimov

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

“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?”

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Isaac Asimov

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

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

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Isaac Asimov książka 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.”
Źródło: Empire novels (1950–1952), The Currents of Space (1952), Chapter 16 “The Accused” (p. 163)

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

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Isaac Asimov książka The Currents of Space

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