American author & professor of biochemistry (1920-1992)
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
The most hopelessly stupid man is he who is not aware that he is wise.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Second Foundation
Any fool can tell a crisis when it arrives. The real service to the state is to detect it in embryo.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Foundation
Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is. The only function of a school is to make self-education easier; failing that, it does nothing.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Science Past, Science Future
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
Many a prophecy, by the mere force of its being believed, is transmuted to fact.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Prelude to Foundation
Boasts are wind and deeds are hard.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Foundation and Empire
The history of science is full of revolutionary advances that required small insights that anyone might have had, but that, in fact, only one person did.
ISAAC ASIMOV
"The Three Numbers", Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Sep. 1974
The destruction of our technological society in a fit of nuclear peevishness would become disastrous even if there were many millions of immediate survivors. The environment toward which they were fitted would be gone, and Darwin's demon would wipe them out remorselessly and without a backward glance.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Asimov on Physics
Speech as known to us was unnecessary. A fragment of a sentence amounted almost to a long-winded redundancy. A gesture, a grunt, the curve of a facial line--even a significantly timed pause yielded informational juice.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Second Foundation
It is almost impossible to think of something no one has thought of before, but it is always possible to add different frills.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Yours, Isaac Asimov
I was without sexual experience when I married, and I had no extramarital contacts for eleven years thereafter despite opportunities in the army and at conventions. However, I was not proof against temptation altogether and, eventually, there were occasions when a young woman made her intentions perfectly plain, and when the opportunities were there, and--I succumbed. It had its importance. With Gertrude, I never felt particularly skilled sexually, but other young women, to my astonished delight, seemed impressed. I realize that sexual prowess is not something an "intellectual" such as myself should place much value on, but biological pride is hard to fight. Frankly, it raised my opinion of myself and made me happier.
ISAAC ASIMOV
I, Asimov
There is nothing frightening about an eternal dreamless sleep. Surely it is better than eternal torment in Hell and eternal boredom in Heaven.
ISAAC ASIMOV
I, Asimov
Jokes of the proper kind, properly told, can do more to enlighten questions of politics, philosophy, and literature than any number of dull arguments.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Opus 200
There is no one so insufferable as a person who gives no other excuse for a peculiar action than saying he had been directed to it in a dream.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Foundation's Edge