Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov

26 quotes

American writer and biochemist Isaac Asimov has a gift for language that makes complex ideas feel instantly clear. Celebrated for his hard science fiction, Asimov also wrote mysteries and fantasy, as well as popular science and other non-fiction, including guides to the Bible and Shakespeare, Isaac Asimov brought that same intensity to the written and spoken word. Our collection holds 37 quotes from Isaac Asimov, each offering a different angle on Science, War, Society, Life, and Knowledge. To get a sense of their style, try: "The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom."

“Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not.”

— Isaac Asimov

Science

All Quotes by Isaac Asimov

“It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.”

— Isaac Asimov

Change

“To insult someone we call him 'bestial. For deliberate cruelty and nature, 'human' might be the greater insult.”

— Isaac Asimov

Nature

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

— Isaac Asimov

Knowledge

“Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today - but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all.”

— Isaac Asimov

Science

“Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to be lost under the burden of juvenile folly and ignorant superstition.”

— Isaac Asimov

Future

“Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.”

— Isaac Asimov

Death

“He had read much, if one considers his long life but his contemplation was much more than his reading. He was wont to say that if he had read as much as other men he should have known no more than other men.”

— Isaac Asimov

Men

“Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest.”

— Isaac Asimov

Computers

“When I read about the way in which library funds are being cut and cut, I can only think that American society has found one more way to destroy itself.”

— Isaac Asimov

Society

“Dalton's records, carefully preserved for a century, were destroyed during the World War II bombing of Manchester. It is not only the living who are killed in war.”

— Isaac Asimov

War

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

— Isaac Asimov

Funny

“All sorts of computer errors are now turning up. You'd be surprised to know the number of doctors who claim they are treating pregnant men.”

— Isaac Asimov

Medical

“And above all things, never think that you're not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. My belief is that in life people will take you at your own reckoning.”

— Isaac Asimov

Good

“It takes more than capital to swing business. You've got to have the A. I. D. degree to get by - Advertising, Initiative, and Dynamics.”

— Isaac Asimov

Business

“I don't believe in an afterlife, so I don't have to spend my whole life fearing hell, or fearing heaven even more. For whatever the tortures of hell, I think the boredom of heaven would be even worse.”

— Isaac Asimov

Life

“Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not.”

— Isaac Asimov

Science

“I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.”

— Isaac Asimov

Computers

“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.”

— Isaac Asimov

Knowledge

“The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'”

— Isaac Asimov

Funny

“There is a single light of science, and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere.”

— Isaac Asimov

Science