A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. Isaac Asimov More Quotes by Isaac Asimov More Quotes From Isaac Asimov Human beings thought with their hands. It was their hands that were the answer of curiosity, that felt and pinched and turned and lifted and hefted. There were animals that had brains of respectable size, but they had no hands and that made all the difference. Isaac Asimov differencesanimalhands The appearance of strength is all about you. It would seem to last forever. However... the rotten tree-trunk, until the very moment when the storm-blast breaks it in two, has all the appearance of might it ever had. The storm-blast whistles through the branches of the Empire even now. Listen... and you will hear the creaking. Isaac Asimov forevertreetwo It is in meeting the great tests that mankind can most successfully rise to great heights. Out of danger and restless insecurity comes the force that pushes mankind to newer and loftier conquests. Isaac Asimov heightinsecuritytests Night will always be a time of fear and insecurity, and the heart will sink with the sun. Isaac Asimov insecurityheartnight There are many aspects of the universe that still cannot be explained satisfactorily by science; but ignorance implies only 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 ignorancemaytoday 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 tryingpeoplethinking Past glories are poor feeding. Isaac Asimov poorglorypast A neat and orderly laboratory is unlikely. It is, after all, so much a place of false starts and multiple attempts. Isaac Asimov unlikelyneatscience There is no more desire to live past one's time than to die before it. Isaac Asimov desiredeathpast There's so much knowledge to be had that specialists cling to their specialties as a shield against having to know anything about anything else. They avoid being drowned. Isaac Asimov specialistsshieldsknowledge It’s a poor atom blaster that won’t point both ways. Isaac Asimov atomspoorway The fundamentalists deny that evolution has taken place; they deny that the earth and the universe as a whole are more than a few thousand years old, and so on. There is ample scientific evidence that the fundamentalists are wrong in these matters, and that their notions of cosmogony have about as much basis in fact as the Tooth Fairy has. Isaac Asimov takenmatteryears [A]ll knowledge is one. When a light brightens and illuminates a corner of a room, it adds to the general illumination of the entire room. Over and over again, scientific discoveries have provided answers to problems that had no apparent connection with the phenomena that gave rise to the discovery. Isaac Asimov illuminationlightdiscovery I even got a letter from a young woman in British Columbia that began as follows: 'Today I am eighteen. I am sitting at the window, looking out at the rain, and thinking how much I love you.' Isaac Asimov rainlove-youthinking The significant chemicals of living tissue are rickety and unstable, which is exactly what is needed for life. Isaac Asimov tissueslifescience 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 peculiardreamgiving 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 legendsvacuumsmight The world in general disapproves of creativity, and to be creative in public is particularly bad. Even to speculate in public is rather worrisome. Isaac Asimov creativitycreativeworld 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. It is better to know - even if the knowledge endures only for the moment that comes before destruction - than to gain eternal life at the price of a dull and swinish lack of comprehension of a universe that swirls unseen before us in all its wonder. That was the choice of Achilles, and it is mine, too. Isaac Asimov wisdomwiselife 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 Isaac Asimov forevermemoriesworld
