Quotes from Isaac Asimov

January 1950, Doubleday published my first book, the science-fiction novel Pebble in the Sky, and I was hard at work on a second novel.

el amable arte de actuar solapadamente.

la caída del imperio, caballeros, es algo monumental y no puede combatirse fácilmente. Está dictada por una burocracia en aumento, una recesión de la iniciativa, una congelación de las castas, un estancamiento de la curiosidad… y muchos factores más.

You are makeshift.

It was childish to feel disappointed, but childishness comes almost as naturally to a man as to a child

Science fiction is important because it fights the natural notion that there's something permanent about things the way they are right now.

Ideally there should be no detectable connection between any two Observers, so that the loss of one would not entail the loss of any other.

The men in this station survive by virtue of their jellyfish quality. There isn't one who would stand against him. Trying to rally the others to put pressure on Hallam would be like asking strands of cooked spaghetti to come to attention.

Pues... la gente que quiere distribuir un poco la riqueza y desea evitar que se concentre en manos que no son las que la producen. ¿Comprende lo que quiero decir?

The elevator was of the new sort that ran by gravitic repulsion. Gaal entered and others flowed in behind him. The operator closed a contact. For a moment, Gaal felt suspended in space as gravity switched to zero, and then he had weight again in small measure as the elevator accelerated upward. Deceleration followed and his feet left the floor. He squawked against his will. The operator called out, Tuck your feet under the railing. Can't you read the sign?

Ben Estes knew he was going to die and it didn't make him feel any better to know that that was the chance he had lived with all these years.

Cleon II was Lord of the Universe. Cleon II also suffered from a painful and undiagnosed ailment. By the queer twists of human affairs, the two statements are not mutually exclusive, nor even particularly incongruous.

Es una lección invariable a la humanidad que la distancia en el tiempo, y asimismo en el espacio, da perspectiva a las cosas.

Pelorat sighed. "I will never understand people." "There's nothing to it. All you have to do is take a close look at yourself and you will understand everyone else. We're in no way different ourselves.

You show me someone who can't understand people and I'll show you someone who has built up a false image of himself—no offense intended.

Hari Seldon called Trantor 'Star's End,' he whispered, 'and why not that bit of poetic imagery? All the universe was once guided from this rock; all the apron strings of the stars led here. 'All roads lead to Trantor,' says the old proverb, 'and that is where all stars end.

Dors shook her head. "I can't bear to hear a human being spoken of with contempt just because of his group identification—even by other human beings. It's these respectable people here who create those hooligans out there." "And other respectable people," said Seldon, "who create these respectable people. These mutual animosities are as much a part of humanity—

We naturally see our virtues with clearer eyes than we see our defects.

One. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. " 'Two. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. " 'Three. A robot must protect its own existence, as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

You are now too old to be made a scholar after my fashion, but you are never too old to learn more than you already know and to become able to do more than you already can.

Well, sir to say that when the impossible has been eliminated, whatever remains, however improbable, is the truth, is to make the assumption, usually justified, that everything that is to be considered has indeed been considered. Let us suppose we have considered ten factors. Nine are clearly impossible. Is the tenth, however improbable, therefore true? What if there were an eleventh factor, and a twelfth, & a thirteenth...

The words that have spurred the greatest scientific breakthroughs are probably not Eureka but gee, that's funny!

our safest bet is that the era of high-technology communication, in the beginning of which we are now immersed, will continue to develop and amplify. We may look forward to more numerous and more versatile communications satellites, laser beams replacing microwaves in space and providing millions of times as many audio and video channels, optical fibers carrying light replacing copper wires carrying electricity, and elaborate computerization making the world more responsive to our needs.

Courtiers don't take wagers against the king's skill. There is a deadly danger of winning