American author & professor of biochemistry (1920-1992)
To be perfectly honest with you, I don't really see what the big deal is about getting to the Moon with the computers and the mid-course-corrections. I know you are a bunch of engineers, and you know better than I do, but I ask you ... once you get there beyond the atmosphere, do you or do you not see the Moon?
ISAAC ASIMOV
lecture at Newark College of Engineering, Nov. 8, 1974
Don't you believe in flying saucers, they ask me? Don't you believe in telepathy? -- in ancient astronauts? -- in the Bermuda triangle? -- in life after death? "No," I reply. "No, no, no, no, and again no." One person recently, goaded into desperation by the litany of unrelieved negation, burst out "Don't you believe in anything?" "Yes", I said. "I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be."
ISAAC ASIMOV
The Roving Mind
Why ... did so many people spend their lives not trying to find answers to questions -- not even thinking of questions to begin with? Was there anything more exciting in life than seeking answers?
ISAAC ASIMOV
Prelude to Foundation
A myth or legend is simply not made up out of a vacuum. Nothing is--or can be. Somehow there is a kernel of truth behind it, however distorted that might be.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Foundation's Edge
Dreams may be impossible, yet still be dreamed.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Foundation and Earth
The easiest way to solve a problem is to deny it exists.
ISAAC ASIMOV
The Gods Themselves
When asked for advice by beginners. Know your ending, I say, or the river of your story may finally sink into the desert sands and never reach the sea.
ISAAC ASIMOV
I, Asimov: A Memoir
You can prove anything you want by coldly logical reason---if you pick the proper postulates.
ISAAC ASIMOV
I, Robot
Anything you make forbidden gains sexual attractiveness. Would you be particularly interested in women's breasts if you lived in a society in which they were displayed at all times?
ISAAC ASIMOV
Prelude to Foundation
There was this superstitious fear on the part of the pygmies of the present for the relics of the giants of the past.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Second Foundation
There's no merit in discipline under ideal circumstances. I'll have it in the face of death, or it's useless.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Foundation
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.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Pebble in the Sky
Postulates are based on assumption and adhered to by faith. Nothing in the Universe can shake them.
ISAAC ASIMOV
I, Robot
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
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
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
attributed, How to Become a Famous Writer Before You're Dead
Considering what human beings do and have done to human beings (and to other living things as well) ... I can never imagine what the devil people think computers can add to the horrors.
ISAAC ASIMOV
The Beginning and the End
Love life seems to be that factor which requires the largest quantity of magical tinkering.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Foundation and Empire
Mathematicians deal with large numbers sometimes, but never in their income.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Prelude to Foundation