Quotes from Isaac Asimov

Gewalt ist die letzte Zuflucht des Unfähigen.

And then again, in a society given over, as that of the First Empire was, to the physical sciences and inanimate technology, there was a vague but mighty sociological push away from the study of the mind. It was less respectable because less immediately useful; and it was poorly financed since it was less profitable.

But I still can't quite grasp what you're telling me. I find it impossible to believe that there would be such unreasoning feeling against harmless people." Amaryl said bitterly, "That's because you've never had any occasion to interest yourself in such things. It can all pass right under your nose and you wouldn't smell a thing because it doesn't affect you.

Hardin, as he sat at the foot of the table, speculated idly as to just what it was that made physical scientists such poor administrators. It might be merely that they were too used to inflexible fact and far too unused to pliable people.

Baley needed a friend and he was in no mood to cavil at the fact that a gear replaced a blood vessel in this particular one.

Every atom in me has a long history during which it may have been part of many living things, including human beings, and during which it may also have spent long periods as part of the sea, or in a lump of coal, or in a rock, or as a portion of the wind blowing upon us.

it could be considered that science, as science, had failed the outer worlds. To be reaccepted it would have to present itself in another guise—and it has done just that. It works out beautifully." "Interesting!" The mayor placed his arms around his

Subjective matter of opinion, Gaal. If you're born in a cubicle and grow up in a corridor, and work in a cell, and vacation in a crowded sun-room, then coming up into the open with nothing but sky over you might just give you a nervous breakdown.

behind a very sturdily built and staunchly defended facade of practical, unromantic hard-headedness towards life, there was just that little pool of softness that would never show if you poked for it, but could be reached if you knew just how—and never let on that you were looking for it.

He de decir, si usted no lo sabe por propia experiencia, que leer un buen libro, embebido en el interés de sus palabras y pensamientos, produce en algunas personas (en mí, por ejemplo) una increíble sensación de felicidad.

Ralph Nimmo carecía de título universitario y se enorgullecía de ello. -Un título [...] es el primer paso de un recorrido calamitoso. Como no quieres desperdiciarlo, pasas al trabajo de graduado y a la investigación doctoral. Terminas por ser un absoluto ignorante de todo, excepto en tu estrechísima especialidad.

A human being born at one of Uranus's poles would be a middle-aged man at sunset and a very old man before it was time for a second sunrise.

Remember, to be truly effective, it is not necessary to hold the mind under a tight, controlling barrier which to the intelligent probe is as informative as a naked mentality. Rather, one should cultivate an innocence, an awareness of self, and an unselfconsciousness of self which leaves one nothing to hide.

Señor Norman Muller, debo informarle, en nombre del presidente de los Estados Unidos, de que le han escogido para representar al electorado norteamericano el martes 4 de noviembre de 2008.

You are easy to explain – even to you.  You may call yourself a soul if that pleases you, but what you are is a nexus of electromagnetic forces, so arranged that all the interconnections and interrelationships are exactly imitative of those of your brain in your Universe-existence – down to the smallest detail.  Therefore you have your capacity for thought, your memories, your personality.  It still seems to you that you are you.

There was something I tried to put in, Gottstein, but between my not knowing how to phrase it and Earth's reluctance to grasp my meaning, we ended up not communicating.

Where did the substance of the universe come from? . . If 0 equals ( + 1) + (-1), then something which is 0 might just as well become + 1 and -1. Perhaps in an infinite sea of nothingness, globs of positive and negative energy in equal-sized pairs are constantly forming, and after passing through evolutionary changes, combining once more and vanishing. We are in one of these globs between nothing and nothing and wondering about it.

Él siempre estaba allí, contemplando el frío brillo de las estrellas, admirando el increíble enjambre nebuloso de un racimo de estrellas, como una conglomeración gigante de luciérnagas sorprendidas en pleno vuelo y detenidas para siempre.

All they have to do is refuse to believe it means death. The easiest way to solve a problem is to deny it exists.

Any decent politician is masochistic enough to dream now and then of going down in flames while the angels sing.

An unjust law," said R. Daneel evenly, "is a contradiction in terms.

And then—U. S. Robots has interstellar travel, and humanity has the opportunity for galactic empire.

Yet he had expended much of an inquisitive nature upon random reading. By the sheer force of indiscriminate voracity, he had gleaned a smattering of practically everything, and by means of a trick memory had managed to keep it all straight.

All you have to do is take a close look at yourself and you will understand everyone else.