“Can the word ‘best’ mean anything at all, except to some particular person in some particular mood?”

—  Isaac Asimov

"Introduction" in The Best of Isaac Asimov (1973)
General sources
Context: !-- I must admit the title of this book gives me pause. Who says the enclosed stories are my ‘best’? Do I? Does the editor? Or some critic? Some reader? A general vote among the entire population of the world?
And whoever says it — can it be so? --> Can the word ‘best’ mean anything at all, except to some particular person in some particular mood? Perhaps not — so if we allow the word to stand as an absolute, you, or you, or perhaps you, may be appalled at omissions or inclusions or, never having read me before, may even be impelled to cry out, ‘Good heavens, are those his best?

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Isaac Asimov 303
American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston Uni… 1920–1992

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