And [Asimov]'ll sign anything, hardbacks, softbacks, other people's books, scraps of paper. Inevitably someone handed him a blank check on the occasion when I was there, and he signed that without as much as a waver to his smile — except that he signed: 'Harlan Ellison.

Isaac Asimov

Categorized in : People Book Paper

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."

Isaac Asimov

democracies-have ignorance mean

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

Isaac Asimov

wisdom wise life

When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent.

Isaac Asimov

unsafe stupidity intelligent

Intuition is the art, peculiar to the human mind, of working out the correct answer from data that is, in itself, incomplete or even, perhaps, misleading.

Isaac Asimov

data work-out art

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

Isaac Asimov

hilarious sarcastic funny

Maybe happiness is this: not feeling like you should be elsewhere, doing something else, being someone else.

Isaac Asimov

like-you should feelings

So the universe is not quite as you thought it was. You'd better rearrange your beliefs, then. Because you certainly can't rearrange the universe.

Isaac Asimov

change believe thinking

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

Isaac Asimov

true-friend learning business

People think of education as something that they can finish.

Isaac Asimov

people thinking

In life, unlike chess, the game continues after checkmate.

Isaac Asimov

chess-game games life

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.

Isaac Asimov

diversity understanding humanity

Science is uncertain. Theories are subject to revision; observations are open to a variety of interpretations, and scientists quarrel amongst themselves. This is disillusioning for those untrained in the scientific method, who thus turn to the rigid certainty of the Bible instead. There is something comfortable about a view that allows for no deviation and that spares you the painful necessity of having to think.

Isaac Asimov

views science thinking

Any book worth banning is a book worth reading.

Isaac Asimov

book-banning reading book

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

learning believe school

The intelligent man is never bored.

Isaac Asimov

bored intelligent men

The day you stop learning is the day you begin decaying.

Isaac Asimov

It seems to me that God is a convenient invention of the human mind

Isaac Asimov

invention humans mind

To me it seems to be important to believe people to be good even if they tend to be bad, because your own joy and happiness in life is increased that way, and the pleasures of the belief outweigh the occasional disappointments. To be a cynic about people works just the other way around and makes you incapable about enjoying the good things.

Isaac Asimov

disappointment believe people

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

Isaac Asimov

military wise peace

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

independent science believe