Asimov quotes

[Bick]

Few SFF authors can have said (or wrote) quite so many quotable lines as dear old Isaac. Here's a thread to quote your favorites. I shall start with three I particularly like:

"I am not a speed reader. I am a speed understander."

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

"Never let your sense of morals stand in the way of doing what's right"

 

[Flyerman11]

Here are mine:
"People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do."
"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'"

and of course:

"A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm."

 

[Darkday]

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

I like this quote too, but I'm not sure if it really is by Asimov. It would be great if someone had a reference.

 

[Bick]

I like this quote too, but I'm not sure if it really is by Asimov. It would be great if someone had a reference.

I don't have a reference, but when I 'google' the quote I get about a hundred sites declaring it to be Isaac Asimov, and no claims for anyone else, so looks to be bona fide.

 

[Flyerman11]

I like this quote too, but I'm not sure if it really is by Asimov. It would be great if someone had a reference.

As quoted in The Mammoth Book of Zingers, Quips, and One-Liners (2004) edited by Geoff Tibballs, p. 299

You can find it on Wikiquote (Sorry, I'm not yet allowed to post links)

Cheers!

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Ah, dear old Asimov! It makes me happy just thinking about that wonderful spirit of his. So, a few quotes...

"I made up my mind long ago to follow one cardinal rule in all my writing — to be clear."

"Violence … is the last refuge of the incompetent."

 

[Darkday]

I don't have a reference, but when I 'google' the quote I get about a hundred sites declaring it to be Isaac Asimov [...]

That doesn't prove anything.

As quoted in The Mammoth Book of Zingers, Quips, and One-Liners (2004) edited by Geoff Tibballs, p. 299

Yes, I knew that, and I checked that book with Amazon's Look Inside. It doesn't provide a reference either. Probably Tibballs copied the quote from the internet without verifying its authenticity. So the fact remains that there is no proof that this quote really is by Asimov.

 

[Ransonwrites]

From "My Own View" by Isaac Asimov in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1978) edited by Robert Holdstock; later published in Asimov on Science Fiction (1981).

"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."

 

[Darkday]

What I will be remembered for are the Foundation Trilogy and the Three Laws of Robotics. What I want to be remembered for is no one book, or no dozen books. Any single thing I have written can be paralleled or even surpassed by something someone else has done. However, my total corpus for quantity, quality and variety can be duplicated by no one else. That is what I want to be remembered for.
Yours, Isaac Asimov, p. 329

 

[scidata]

“Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.”

"...the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge'."

 

[gdoc]

Great quotes

 

[scidata]

"If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood.
I'd type a little faster."

"I do not fear computers, I fear the lack of them."

 

[Michael Colton]

"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."