American author & professor of biochemistry (1920-1992)
It was obvious that bigotry was never a one-way operation, that hatred bred hatred.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Pebble in the Sky
You can prove anything you want by coldly logical reason---if you pick the proper postulates.
ISAAC ASIMOV
I, Robot
Any planet is "Earth" to those that live on it.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Pebble in the Sky
Anything you make forbidden gains sexual attractiveness. Would you be particularly interested in women's breasts if you lived in a society in which they were displayed at all times?
ISAAC ASIMOV
Prelude to Foundation
The easiest way to solve a problem is to deny it exists.
ISAAC ASIMOV
The Gods Themselves
Don't you believe in flying saucers, they ask me? Don't you believe in telepathy? -- in ancient astronauts? -- in the Bermuda triangle? -- in life after death? "No," I reply. "No, no, no, no, and again no." One person recently, goaded into desperation by the litany of unrelieved negation, burst out "Don't you believe in anything?" "Yes", I said. "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
The Roving Mind
Dreams may be impossible, yet still be dreamed.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Foundation and Earth
There's no merit in discipline under ideal circumstances. I'll have it in the face of death, or it's useless.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Foundation
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
Foundation's Edge
Courtiers don't take wagers against the king's skill. There is the deadly danger of winning.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Foundation
The cure for advanced gullibility is to go to sleep and consider matters again the next day.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Prelude to Foundation
Suppose we were to teach creationism. What would be the content of the teaching? Merely that a creator formed the universe and all species of life ready-made? Nothing more? No details?
ISAAC ASIMOV
"The Dangerous Myth of Creationism", Penthouse, Jan. 1982
There was this superstitious fear on the part of the pygmies of the present for the relics of the giants of the past.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Second Foundation
Considering what human beings do and have done to human beings (and to other living things as well) ... I can never imagine what the devil people think computers can add to the horrors.
ISAAC ASIMOV
The Beginning and the End
Postulates are based on assumption and adhered to by faith. Nothing in the Universe can shake them.
ISAAC ASIMOV
I, Robot
They won't listen. Do you know why? Because they have certain fixed notions about the past. Any change would be blasphemy in their eyes, even if it were the truth. They don't want the truth; they want their traditions.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Pebble in the Sky
You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success -- but only if you persist.
ISAAC ASIMOV
attributed, How to Become a Famous Writer Before You're Dead
Where is the world whose people don't prefer a comfortable, warm, and well-worn belief, however illogical, to the chilly winds of uncertainty.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Foundation and Earth
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
Foundation's Edge
Mathematicians deal with large numbers sometimes, but never in their income.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Prelude to Foundation