Quotes from Isaac Asimov

The government doesn't want any system of transmitting information to remain unbroken, unless it's under its own control.

The clown's eyes sidled towards her, then drew away quickly. "But they kept me away from you earlier-and, on my word, you may laugh, but I was lonely for missing friendship.

He's but a windlet that blows the dust about my ankles. There is another that I flee, and he is a storm that sweeps the worlds aside and throws them plunging at each other.

Every human being lived behind an impenetrable wall of choking mist within which no other but he existed.

The Foundation has secrets. They have books, old books - so old that the language they are in is only known to a few of the top men. But the secrets are shrouded in ritual and religion, and may use them.

And after the Fall will come inevitable barbarism

it suddenly seems to me that the destruction of what should not be, that is, the destruction of what you people call evil, is less just and desirable than the conversion of this evil into what you call good.

And he paused, aware at last of the gathering weight of the silence. Fourteen images stared at him, without any of them offering a word in response. Bakst said sharply, You have talked of freedom. You have it! Then, uncertainly, he said, Isn't that what you want?

Logical but not reasonable. Wasn't that the definition of a robot?

Kill us in the clear light on the Moon, where the sky is black and soft, where the stars shine brightly, where the cleanliness and purity of vacuum make all things sharp. - Not in this low-clinging, fuzzy blue.

It's a weakness of mine-I want people to understand me.

What broke loose is popularly and succinctly described as hell.

In short, the age of the pulp magazine was the last in which youngsters, to get their primitive material, were forced to be literate. Now that is gone, and the youngsters have their glazed eyes fixed on the television tube. The result is clear. True literacy is becoming an arcane art, and the nation is steadily dumbing down.

It's out of fashion in these decaying times to be a scholar.

They are useful, but they are too strong—and too uncontrolled. They are Outlanders, educated apart from religion. On the one hand, we put knowledge into their hands, and on the other, we remove our strongest hold upon them.

He also said, I suppose there are people who are so `lucky' that they are not touched by phantoms and are not troubled by fleeting memory and know not nostalgia and care not for the ache of the past and are spared the feather-hit of the sweet, sweet pain of the lost, and I am sorry for them-for to weep over what is gone is to have had something prove worth the weeping.

The closer to the truth, the better the lie, and the truth itself, when it can be used, is the best lie.'

Now why should there be a special word for a man with dark skin? There was no special word for a man with blue eyes, or large ears, or curly hair.

Groups, like individuals, will rise to strange heights in answer to a challenge, and vegetate in the absence of a challenge.

The music could no more repeat itself than could snowflakes, and could no more fail of beauty.

Si utilizara el ingenio que los buenos espíritus me dieron, entonces diría que esta dama no puede existir, pues ¿qué hombre en su sano juicio llamaría al sueño realidad? Sin embargo yo preferiría no ser cuerdo y prestar crédito a mis ojos hechizados

Un nou-n?scut crede c? el reprezint? întregul univers, dar greÈ™eÈ™te - aÈ™a cum îÈ™i d? seama destul de repede. De aceea, el trebuie s? studieze lumea exterioar? lui - trebuie s? încerce s? înveÈ›e unde se afl? graniÈ›ele dintre persoana sa È™i restul lumii - pentru a putea înÈ›elege cine este È™i cum se cuvine s?-È™i duc? viaÈ›a.

Innumerable surveys have made it quite clear that when a respectable elderly man makes up to a giggling young lady, it is not the giggling young lady so accosted that is offended by the action, but rather the granite-faced dowager, standing unnoticed by her side, who is. It is she who makes derogatory remarks concerning dirty old men, and is quite likely to attack him with an umbrella.

To mankind, and the hope that the war against folly may someday be won after all.