Isaac Asimov Quotes
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However much the creationist leaders might hammer away at their scientific and philosophical points, they would be helpless and a laughing-stock if that were all they had. It is religion that recruits their squadrons. Tens of millions of Americans, who neither know nor understand the actual arguments for - of even against - evolution, march in the army of the night, their Bibles held high. And they are a strong and frightening force, impervious to, and immunized against, the feeble lance of mere reason.
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There are no nations! There is only humanity. And if we don't come to understand that right soon, there will be no nations, because there will be no humanity.
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There is no merit to discipline under ideal circumstances. I must have it in the face of death or it is worthless.
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If a conclusion is not poetically balanced, it cannot be scientifically true.
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Writing is a lonely job. Even if a writer socializes regularly, when he gets down to the real business of his life, it is he and his type writer or word processor. No one else is or can be involved in the matter.
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I don't expect to live forever, nor do I repine over that, but I am weak enough to want to be remembered forever. - Yet how few of those who have lived, even of those who have accomplished far more than I have, linger on in world memory for even a single century after death
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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.
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Life is a journey, but don't worry, you'll find a parking spot at the end.
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The fall of Empire, gentlemen, is a massive thing, however, and not easily fought. It is dictated by a rising bureaucracy, a receding initiative, a freezing of caste, a damming of curiosity — a hundred other factors. It has been going on, as I have said, for centuries, and it is too majestic and massive a movement to stop.
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How many people is the earth able to sustain?
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Postulates are based on assumption and adhered to by faith. Nothing in the Universe can shake them.
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What would I do if I knew I only had six months to live? Type faster.
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Writing is my only interest. Even speaking is an interruption.
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Even as a youngster, though, I could not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presented danger, the solution was ignorance. To me, it always seemed that the solution had to be wisdom. You did not refuse to look at danger, rather you learned how to handle it safely.
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Nothing has to be true, but everything has to sound true.
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I expect death to be nothingness and, for removing me from all possible fears of death, I am thankful to atheism.
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No vision of God and heaven ever experienced by the most exalted prophet can, in my opinion, match the vision of the universe as seen by Newton or Einstein
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Naturally, since [the Sumerians] didn't know what caused the flood anymore than we do, they blamed the gods. (That's the advantage of religion. You're never short an explanation for anything.)
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If you're born in a cubicle and grow up in a corridor, and work in a cell, and vacation in a crowded sun-room, then coming up into the open with nothing but sky over you might just give you a nervous breakdown.
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Many adults, whether consciously or unconsciously, find it beneath their adult dignity to do anything as childish as read a book, think a thought, or get an idea. Adults are rarely embarrased at having forgotten what little algebra or geography they once learned
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All the hundreds of millions of people who, in their time, believed the Earth was flat never succeeded in unrounding it by an inch.
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When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent.
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Love life seems to be that factor which requires the largest quantity of magical tinkering.
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A neat and orderly laboratory is unlikely. It is, after all, so much a place of false starts and multiple attempts.
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It is well-known that the friend of a conqueror is but the last victim.
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There is not a discovery in science, however revolutionary, however sparkling with insight, that does not arise out of what went before.
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In life, unlike chess, the game continues after checkmate.
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During the century after Newton, it was still possible for a man of unusual attainments to master all fields of scientific knowledge. But by 1800, this had become entirely impracticable.
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I don't believe in personal immortality; the only way I expect to have some version of such a thing is through my books.
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I'm gradually managing to cram my mind more and more full of things. I've got this beautiful mind and it's going to die, and it'll all be gone. And then I say, not in my case. Every idea I've ever had I've written down, and it's all there on paper. And I won't be gone; it'll be there.
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