He was a Russian-born American author and biochemist.
Asimov's interest in science fiction had begun as a boy when he noticed several of the early science
fiction magazines for sale on the newsstand in his family's candy store.
The author of nearly five hundred books, Isaac Asimov was one of the finest writers of science fiction in the
twentieth century. Many, however, believe Asimov's greatest talent was for, as he called it, "translating" science,
making it understandable and interesting for the average reader.
(1920-1992)
I don't believe in an afterlife, so I don't have to spend my
whole life fearing hell, or fearing heaven even more. For whatever the tortures of hell, I think the boredom of heaven would be even worse.
~ Isaac Asimov
A subtle thought that is in error may yet give rise to fruitful inquiry that can establish truths of great value.
~ Isaac Asimov
Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not.
~ Isaac Asimov
Nothing interferes with my concentration. You could put on an orgy in my office and I wouldn't look up. Well, maybe once.
~ Isaac Asimov
I don't believe in personal immortality; the only way I expect to have some version of such a thing is through my books.
~ Isaac Asimov
Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do..
~ Isaac Asimov
Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.
~ Isaac Asimov
It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today.
No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.
~ Isaac Asimov
To insult someone we call him "bestial." For deliberate cruelty and nature, "human" might be the greater insult.
~ Isaac Asimov
The true delight is in the finding out rather than in the knowing.
~ Isaac Asimov
He had read much, if one considers his long life; but his contemplation
was much more than his reading. He was wont to say that if he had read as much as other men he should have known no more than other men.
~ Isaac Asimov
The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.
~ Isaac Asimov
I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.
~ Isaac Asimov
Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.
~ Isaac Asimov
It is not only the living who are killed in war.
~ Isaac Asimov
To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today.
~ Isaac Asimov
Meanwhile, fears of universal disaster sank to an all time low over the world.
~ Isaac Asimov
Creationists make it sound as though a 'theory' is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night.
~ Isaac Asimov
Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest.
~ Isaac Asimov
Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.
~ Isaac Asimov
Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder
critics and philosophers of today - but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all.
~ Isaac Asimov
You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out
again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you persist.
~ Isaac Asimov
If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives
and not the pattern of their words. I
think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul.
~ Isaac Asimov
A poor idea well written is more likely to be accepted than a good idea poorly written.
~ Isaac Asimov
Creationists make it sound as though a 'theory' is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night.
~ Isaac Asimov
And above all things, never think that you're not good enough
yourself. A man should never think that. My belief is that in life people will take you at your own reckoning.
~ Isaac Asimov
When I read about the way in which library funds are being cut and cut,
I can only think that American society has found one more way to destroy itself.
~ Isaac Asimov
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
~ Isaac Asimov
From my close observation of writers... they fall into two groups: 1)
those who bleed copiously and visibly at any bad review, and 2) those who bleed copiously and secretly at any bad review.
~ Isaac Asimov
There is a single light of science, and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere.
~ Isaac Asimov
If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them.
~ Isaac Asimov
Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right.
~ Isaac Asimov
Suppose that we are wise enough to learn and know - and yet not wise enough
to control our learning and knowledge, so that we use it to destroy ourselves? Even if that is so, knowledge remains better than ignorance.
~ Isaac Asimov
It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety.
~ Isaac Asimov
Knowledge is indivisible. When people grow wise in one direction, they are sure to make it easier for themselves to
grow wise in other directions as well. On the other hand,
when they split up knowledge, concentrate on their own field, and scorn and ignore other fields, they grow less wise -- even in their own field.
~ Isaac Asimov
Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences and Director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies at Cornell University.
He played a leading role in the American space program since its inception. He was a consultant and adviser to NASA since
the 1950's, briefed the Apollo astronauts before their flights to the Moon, and was an experimenter on the Mariner, Viking,
Voyager, and Galileo expeditions to the planets...
(1934-1996)
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.
~ Carl Sagan
The difference between what the most and the least learned people
know is inexpressibly trivial in relation to that which is unknown.
~ Albert Einstein
Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science.
~ Edwin Hubble
