197 "Isaac Asimov" Quotes And Sayings

Isaac Asimov was born in Baku, Soviet Union (then part of the Russian Empire) on March 2, 1920. He received his B.S. in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1941 and his doctorate in mathematical physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1948. In 1945, he joined the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., where he worked until 1949, when he became an associate professor at the University of California at Los Angeles Read more

In 1951, he joined the faculty of Boston University and remained there until 1969, when he became a professor of biochemistry at Boston University School of Medicine and at Brandeis University from 1970-1975. Asimov also taught at the City College of New York from 1969-1973. Asimov's first science fiction story was published in Astounding Science Fiction magazine in 1942 and his first nonfiction work "Prelude to Foundation" appeared in Astounding Science Fiction magazine in 1950.

His first novel was published in 1950 and two more followed within a year: "Foundation" (1951) and "The Currents of Space" (1952). In 1952, he married Joan Robinson, whom he had met while they both attended Cal Tech; they were married for 58 years until her death from heart failure on June 21, 1984. In 1968 he published "The Gods Themselves," which is considered one of his best short stories.

In 1978 Asimov founded the Isaac Asimov Foundation for Science and Education—a nonprofit organization that supports scientific research into neuropsychology—and serves as its president emeritus.

The saddest aspect of life right now is that science...
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The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom. Isaac Asimov
Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's...
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Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome. Isaac Asimov
The first step in making rabbit stew is catching the...
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The first step in making rabbit stew is catching the rabbit. Isaac Asimov
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Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right. Isaac Asimov
It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish...
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It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish when faced boldly. Isaac Asimov
If my doctor told me I had only six minutes...
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If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster. Isaac Asimov
Those people who think they know everything are a great...
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Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. Isaac Asimov
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Once, when a religionist denounced me in unmeasured terms, I sent him a card saying, "I am sure you believe that I will go to hell when I die, and that once there I will suffer all the pains and tortures the sadistic ingenuity of your deity can devise and that this torture will continue forever. Isn't that enough for you? Do you have to call me bad names in addition? Isaac Asimov
Jokes of the proper kind, properly told, can do more...
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Jokes of the proper kind, properly told, can do more to enlighten questions of politics, philosophy, and literature than any number of dull arguments. Isaac Asimov
My feeling is, quite simply, that if there is a...
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My feeling is, quite simply, that if there is a God, He has done such a bad jobthat he isn't worth discussing. Isaac Asimov
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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
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Old men tend to forget what thought was like in their youth; they forget the quickness of the mental jump, the daring of the youthful intuition, the agility of the fresh insight. They become accustomed to the more plodding varieties of reason, and because this is more than made up by the accumulation of experience, old men think themselves wiser than the young. Isaac Asimov
Above all, never think you're not good enough. Never think...
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Above all, never think you're not good enough. Never think that. In life people will take you at your own reckoning. Isaac Asimov
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Having reached 451 books as of now doesn't help the situation. If I were to be dying now, I would be murmuring, "Too bad! Only four hundred fifty-one." (Those would be my next-to-last words. The last ones will be: "I love you, Janet.") [They were. -Janet.] Isaac Asimov
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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
I write for the same reason I breathe - because...
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I write for the same reason I breathe - because if I didn't, I would die. Isaac Asimov
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Imagine the people who believe such things and who are not ashamed to ignore, totally, all the patient findings of thinking minds through all the centuries since the Bible was written. And it is these ignorant people, the most uneducated, the most unimaginative, the most unthinking among us, who would make themselves the guides and leaders of us all; who would force their feeble and childish beliefs on us; who would invade our schools and libraries and homes. I personally resent it bitterly. Isaac Asimov
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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
It's the writing that teaches you.
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It's the writing that teaches you. Isaac Asimov
Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for...
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Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived. Isaac Asimov