Isaac Asimov

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Biography of Isaac Asimov
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Quote	Categories	Rating	Rate
"Naturally, since [the Sumerians] didn't know what caused the flood anymore than we do, they blamed the gods. (That's the advantage of religion. You're never short an explanation for anything.)"	Fear
"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."	Economics, Hope
"Nothing interferes with my concentration. You could put on an orgy in my office and I wouldn't look up. Well, maybe once."	Comedy, Goals
"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."	Writing
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."	Anti-Religion, Violence
"...if I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul."	Fear
"University President: "Why is it that you physicists always require so much expensive equipment? Now the Department of Mathematics requires nothing but money for paper, pencils, and erasers...and the Department of Philosophy is better still. It doesn't even ask for erasers."	Art, Men, Money
"If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster."	Age, Life
"Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome."	Success, Life
"If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them."	Ignorance, Knowledge, Wisdom
"The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom."	Science
"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. . ."	Decision-Making, Monarchy
"A subtle thought that is in error may yet give rise to fruitful inquiry that can establish truths of great value."	Excellence, Honesty, Truth
"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."	Destruction, Life, Men
"There is a single light of science, and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere."	Science
"To insult someone we call him "bestial." For deliberate cruelty and nature, "human" might be the greater insult."	Animals
"It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety."	Miscellaneous
"Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right."	Miscellaneous
"Jokes of the proper kind, properly told, can do more to enlighten questions of politics, philosophy, and literature than any number of dull arguments."	Age, Argument, Conflict
"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I've found it!), but "That's funny..."	Miscellaneous
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Browse Isaac Asimov quotes by category:

Age	Animals	Anti-Religion
Argument	Art	Comedy
Computers	Conflict	Darkness
Decision-Making	Destruction	Economics
Evil	Excellence	Fear
Goals	God	Good
Honesty	Hope	Humor
Ignorance	Knowledge	Lies
Life	Light	Men
Military	Miscellaneous	Monarchy
Money	Nature	Politics
Reading	Science	Success
Technology	Truth	Violence
War	Wisdom	Writing