Isaac Asimov Quotes

"People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do."

"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."

"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'"

"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."

"It is not only the living who are killed in war."

"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."

"Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome."

"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."

"The true delight is in the finding out rather than in the knowing."

"Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right."

"I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them."

"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."

"The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom."

"Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to be lost under the burden of juvenile folly and ignorant superstition."

"Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is."

"To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today."

"Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not."

"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."

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

"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."

"I write for the same reason I breathe - because if I didn't, I would die."

"Meanwhile, fears of universal disaster sank to an all time low over the world."

"It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety."

"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."

"If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster."

"Creationists make it sound as though a 'theory' is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night."

"Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers."

"If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them."

"John Dalton's records, carefully preserved for a century, were destroyed during the World War II bombing of Manchester. It is not only the living who are killed in war."

"I don't believe in personal immortality; the only way I expect to have some version of such a thing is through my books."