It’s a poor atom blaster that won’t point both ways. Isaac Asimov More Quotes by Isaac Asimov More Quotes From Isaac Asimov Surely no child, and few adults, have ever watched a bird in flight without envy. Isaac Asimov envy bird children The age of the pulp magazine was the last in which youngsters, to get their primitive material, were forced to be literate. Isaac Asimov magazines lasts age You don't have to be able to lay eggs to know when one of them is rotten. Isaac Asimov rotten able eggs I, on the other hand, am a finished product. I absorb electrical energy directly and utilize it with an almost one hundred percent efficiency. I am composed of strong metal, am continuously conscious, and can stand extremes of environment easily. These are facts which, with the self-evident proposition that no being can create another being superior to itself, smashes your silly hypothesis to nothing. Isaac Asimov strong self silly Unfortunately, in many cases, people who write science fiction violate the laws of nature, not because they want to make a point, but because they don't know what the laws of nature are. Isaac Asimov writing science knowledge Once you get it into your head that somebody is controlling events, you can interpret everything in that light and find no reasonable certainty anywhere. Isaac Asimov events certainty light Nonsense! The most hopelessly stupid man is he who is not aware that he is wise. Isaac Asimov stupid wise men It is well-known that the friend of a conqueror is but the last victim. Isaac Asimov well-known lasts victim There’s nothing to it. All you have to do is take a close look at yourself and you will understand everyone else. We’re in no way different ourselves... You show me someone who can’t understand people and I’ll show you someone who has built up a false image of himself. Isaac Asimov different people looks One might suppose that reality must be held to at all costs. However, though that may be the moral thing to do, it is not necessarily the most useful thing to do. The Greeks themselves chose the ideal over the real in their geometry and demonstrated very well that far more could be achieved by consideration of abstract line and form than by a study of the real lines and forms of the world; the greater understanding achieved through abstraction could be applied most usefully to the very reality that was ignored in the process of gaining knowledge. Isaac Asimov understanding real math All normal life, Peter, consciously or otherwise, resent domination. If the domination is by an inferior, or by a supposed inferior, the resentment becomes stronger. Isaac Asimov resentment stronger normal Science does not promise absolute truth, nor does it consider that such a thing necessarily exists. Science does not even promise that everything in the Universe is amenable to the scientific process. Isaac Asimov truth doe promise Only a lie that wasn't ashamed of itself could possibly succeed. Isaac Asimov ashamed succeed lying Writing is my only interest. Even speaking is an interruption. Isaac Asimov interruptions interest writing Goodbye, Hari, my love. Remember always--all you did for me.” -I did nothing for you.” -You loved me and your love made me--human. Isaac Asimov After years of finding mathematics easy, I finally reached integral calculus and came up against a barrier. I realized that this was as far as I could go, and to this day I have never successfully gone beyond it in any but the most superficial way. Isaac Asimov gone way years But life is glorious when it is happy; days are carefree when they are happy; the interplay of thought and imagination is far and superior to that of muscle and sinew. Let me tell you, if you don't know it from your own experience, that reading a good book, losing yourself in the interest of words and thoughts, is for some people (me, for instance) an incredible intensity of happiness. Isaac Asimov reading book people The world is being Americanized and technologized to its limits, and that makes it dull for some people. Reaching the Moon restores the frontier and gives us the lands beyond. Isaac Asimov land moon people 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 Isaac Asimov book ideas thinking When, however, the lay public rallies round an idea that is denounced by distinguished but elderly scientists and supports that idea with great fervor and emotion - the distinguished but elderly scientists are then, after all, probably right. Isaac Asimov elderly science ideas
