American author & professor of biochemistry (1920-1992)
The cure for advanced gullibility is to go to sleep and consider matters again the next day.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Prelude to Foundation
Where is the world whose people don't prefer a comfortable, warm, and well-worn belief, however illogical, to the chilly winds of uncertainty.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Foundation and Earth
Suppose we were to teach creationism. What would be the content of the teaching? Merely that a creator formed the universe and all species of life ready-made? Nothing more? No details?
ISAAC ASIMOV
"The Dangerous Myth of Creationism", Penthouse, Jan. 1982
There are many aspects of the universe that still cannot be explained satisfactorily by science; but ignorance only implies ignorance that may someday be conquered. To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today.
ISAAC ASIMOV
"The Threat of Creationism", New York Times Magazine, Jun. 14, 1981
You just can't differentiate between a robot and the very best of humans.
ISAAC ASIMOV
I, Robot
Mathematicians deal with large numbers sometimes, but never in their income.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Prelude to Foundation
Finished products are for decadent minds.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Second Foundation
No matter how carefully records are kept and filed and computerized, they grow fuzzy with time. Stories grow by accretion. Tales accumulate--like dust. The longer the time lapse, the dustier the history--until it degenerates into fables.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Foundation's Edge
The laws of history are as absolute as the laws of physics, and if the probabilities of error are greater, it is only because history does not deal with as many humans as physics does atoms, so that individual variations count for more.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Foundation and Empire
The downtrodden are more religious than the satisfied.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Prelude to Foundation
Society is much more easily soothed than one's own conscience.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Foundation and Empire
There is no more desire to live past one's time than to die before it.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Foundation's Edge
Outside intelligences, exploring the Solar System with true impartiality, would be quite likely to enter the Sun in their records thus: Star X, spectral class G0, 4 planets plus debris.
ISAAC ASIMOV
"By Jove!", View from a Height
Boasts are wind and deeds are hard.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Foundation and Empire
Many a prophecy, by the mere force of its being believed, is transmuted to fact.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Prelude to Foundation
I made up my mind long ago to follow one cardinal rule in all my writing -- to be clear. I have given up all thought of writing poetically or symbolically or experimentally, or in any of the other modes that might (if I were good enough) get me a Pulitzer prize. 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.
ISAAC ASIMOV
introduction, Nemesis
Galleys or "proofs," for those of you who don't know, are long sheets on which the contents of a book are printed, usually two and a half pages or so to each galley sheet. The writer is supposed to read over them carefully, trying to catch all the typos made by the printer and all the infelicities made by himself. Such "proofreading" and corrections are meant to ensure that the final book will be free of errors. I suspect that most writers find galleys a pain, but I like them. They give me a chance to read my own writing. The problem is that I'm not a good proofreader, because I read too quickly. I read by "gestalt," a phrase at a time. If there is a wrong letter, a displaced letter, a missing letter, an excessive letter, I don't notice it. The small error is lost in the general correctness of the phrase. I have to force myself to look at each word, each letter separately, but if I relax for one moment I start racing ahead again.
ISAAC ASIMOV
I, Asimov
The closer to the truth, the better the lie, and the truth itself, when it can be used, is the best lie.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Foundation's Edge
What is really amazing, and frustrating, is mankind's habit of refusing to see the obvious and inevitable until it is there, and then muttering about unforeseen catastrophes.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Asimov on Science Fiction
Science doesn't purvey absolute truth. Science is a mechanism. It's a way of trying to improve your knowledge of nature. It's a system for testing your thoughts against the universe and seeing whether they match. And this works, not just for the ordinary aspects of science, but for all of life. I should think people would want to know that what they know is truly what the universe is like, or at least as close as they can get to it.
ISAAC ASIMOV
interview, Bill Moyers' World of Ideas, October 21, 1988