Isaac Asimov
The tyranny that now exists is actual. That which may exist in the future is potential. If we are always to draw back from change with the thought that the change may be for the worse, then there is no hope at all of ever escaping injustice.Collection: Escaping
And in man is a three-pound brain which, as far as we know, is the most complex and orderly arrangement of matter in the universe.Collection: Men
The soft bonds of love are indifferent to life and death. They hold through time so that yesterday’s love is part of today’s and the confidence in tomorrow’s love is also part of today’s. And when one dies, the memory lives in the other, and is warm and breathing. And when both die - I almost believe, rationalist though I am - that somewhere it remains, indestructible and eternal, enriching all of the universe by the mere fact that once it existed.Collection: Memories
I discovered, to my amazement, that all through history there had been resistance ... and bitter, exaggerated, last-stitch resistance ... to every significant technological change that had taken place on earth. Usually the resistance came from those groups who stood to lose influence, status, money...as a result of the change. Although they never advanced this as their reason for resisting it. It was always the good of humanity that rested upon their hearts.Collection: Taken
It is quite clear that as long as the nations of the world spend most of their energy, money, and emotional strength in quarreling with words and weapons, a true offensive against the common problems that threaten human survival is not very likely. A world government that can channel human efforts in the direction of the great solutions seems desirable, even essential. Naturally, such a world government should be a federal one, with regional and local autonomy safeguarded and with cultural diversity promoted.Collection: Emotional
Fertility is hereditary. If your parents didn't have any children, neither will you. I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.Collection: Children
God, how that stings! I've spent a lifetime loving science fiction and now I find that you must expect nothing of something that's just science fiction.Collection: Fiction
We are all victimized by the natural perversity of inanimate objects...and the assorted human beings who perpetuate and maintain this perversity.Collection: Inanimate Objects
Arthur Clarke says that I am first in science and second in science fiction in accordance with an agreement we have made. I say he is first in science fiction and second in science.Collection: Agreement
The facts, gentlemen, and nothing but the facts, for careful eyes are narrowly watching.Collection: Eye
I type 90 words per minute on the typewriter; I type 100 words per minute on the word processor. But, of course, I don't keep that up indefinitely - every once in a while I do have to think a few seconds.Collection: Thinking
I am all for cultural diversity and would be willing to see each recognizable group value its cultural heritage. I am a New York patriot, for instance, and if I lived in Los Angeles, I would love to get together with other New York expatriates and sing "Give My Regards to Broadway".Collection: New York
The Three Theorems of Psychohistorical Quantitivity: The population under scrutiny is oblivious to the existence of the science of Psychohistory. The time periods dealt with are in the region of 3 generations. The population must be in the billions (±75 billions) for a statistical probability to have a psychohistorical validity.Collection: Population
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.Collection: Atheist
There was this superstitious fear on the part of the pygmies of the present for the relics of the giants of the past.Collection: Past
I don't think I've ever held a racket in my hand ... There's got to be somebody in the US who isn't trying to play tennis and stinking up the court.Collection: Thinking
A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. [The Second Law of Robotics]Collection: Order
No one can possibly have lived through the Great Depression without being scarred by it. No amount of experience since the depression can convince someone who has lived through it that the world is safe economically.Collection: World
Any system which allows men to choose their own future will end by choosing safety and mediocrity, and in such a Reality the stars are out of reach.Collection: Stars
One of Walt Whitman's best-known poems is this one: When I heard the learn'd astronomer,.... The trouble is, Whitman is talking through his hat, but the poor soul didn't know any betterCollection: Talking
It is remarkable, Hardin, how the religion of science has grabbed hold.Collection: Remarkable
To any who know the star field well from one certain reference point, stars are as individual as people. Jump ten parsecs, however, and not even your own sun is recognizable.Collection: Stars
Economics is on the side of humanity now.Collection: Humanity
I have written 240 books on a wide variety of topics. . . . Some of it I based on education I received in my school, but most of it was backed by other ways of learning - chiefly in the books I obtained in the public library.Collection: Book
The whole business is the crudest sort of stratagem, since we have no way of foreseeing it to the end. It is a mere paying out of rope on the chance that somewhere along the length of it will be a noose.Collection: Way
In the presence of total Darkness, the mind finds it absolutely necessary to create light.Collection: Light
Nothing interferes with my concentration. You could put on an orgy in my office and I wouldn't look up. Well, maybe once.Collection: Inspirational
It took me thirty-six years; and, in some fifty stories, ranging in length from short-shorts to novels, I think I must have touched, in one way or another, on every aspect of computers and computerization. And (mark this!) I did it without ever knowing anything at all about computers in any real sense. To this day, I don't. I am totally inept with machinery... on my typewriter I turn out books at the contemptible rate of one a monthCollection: Real
Intelligence is an accident of evolution, and not necessarily an advantage.Collection: Funny
Science doesn't purvey absolute truth. Science is a mechanism... for testing your thoughts against the universe.Collection: Absolute Truth
Uncertainty that comes from knowledge (knowing what you don't know) is different from uncertainty coming from ignorance.Collection: Ignorance
Any fool can tell a crisis when it arrives. The real service to the state is to detect it in embryo.Collection: Real
Once, when a religionist denounced me in unmeasured terms, I sent him a card saying, "I am sure you believe that I will go to hell when I die, and that once there I will suffer all the pains and tortures the sadistic ingenuity of your deity can devise and that this torture will continue forever. Isn't that enough for you? Do you have to call me bad names in addition?"Collection: Pain
They won't listen. Do you know why? Because they have certain fixed notions about the past. Any change would be blasphemy in their eyes, even if it were the truth. They don't want the truth; they want their traditions.Collection: Eye
You don't have to be able to lay eggs to know when one of them is rotten.Collection: Eggs
Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived.Collection: Death
Increasingly, our leaders must deal with dangers that threaten the entire world, where an understanding of those dangers and the possible solutions depends on a good grasp of science. The ozone layer, the greenhouse effect, acid rain, questions of diet and heredity. All require scientific literacy. Can Americans choose the proper leaders and support the proper programs if they themselves are scientifically illiterate? The whole premise of democracy is that it is safe to leave important questions to the court of public opinion - but is it safe to leave them to the court of public ignorance?Collection: Rain
He always pictured himself a libertarian, which to my way of thinking means "I want the liberty to grow rich and you can have the liberty to starve". It's easy to believe that no one should depend on society for help when you yourself happen not to need such help.Collection: Believe
What would you consider a good job?" Answered as follows: "A good job is one in which I don't have to work, and get paid a lot of money." When I heard that I cheered and yelled and felt that he should be given an A+, for he had perfectly articulated the American dream of those who despise knowledge. What a politician that kid would have made.Collection: Dream
If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you persist.Collection: Inspirational
There seems to be a feeling that anything that is natural is good. Strychnine is natural.Collection: Nature
I don't subscribe to the thesis, 'Let the buyer beware,' I prefer the disregarded one that goes, 'Let the seller be honest.'Collection: Honest
I don’t like anything that’s got to be. I want to know why.Collection: Want
Boasts are wind and deeds are hard.Collection: Wind
You don't need to predict the future. Just choose a future -- a good future, a useful future -- and make the kind of prediction that will alter human emotions and reactions in such a way that the future you predicted will be brought about. Better to make a good future than predict a bad one.Collection: Future
The greatest weapons in the conquest of knowledge are an understanding mind and the inexorable curiosity that drives it on.Collection: Understanding
It is precisely because it is fashionable for Americans to know no science, even though they may be well educated otherwise, that they so easily fall prey to nonsense.Collection: Fall
The first law of dietetics seems to be: if it tastes good, it's bad for you.Collection: Funny
At odd and unpredictable times, we cling in fright to the past .Collection: Past