Quotes from Isaac Asimov

Physics is the basic science. One can easily argue that all other sciences are specialized aspects of physics.

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not "Eureka!" (I found it!) but "That's funny..."

The human mechanism is marvelous. But why not — it is the result of three-and-a-half billion years of tinkering.

Stars look serene, but they are incredibly violent furnaces that occasionally erupt...

Whatever else astronomy may or may not be who can doubt it to be the most beautiful of the sciences?

How bright and beautiful a comet is as it flies past our planet — provided it does fly past it.

The Moon and its phases gave man his first calendar. Trying to match that calendar with the seasons helped give him mathematics. The usefulness of the calendar helped give rise to the thought of beneficent gods. And with all that the Moon is beautiful, too.

The mere existence of nuclear weapons by the thousands is an incontrovertible sign of human insanity.

No one has a sorrier lot than the weatherman. He is ignored when he is right, but execrated when he is wrong.

What makes it so hard to organize the environment sensibly is that everything we touch is hooked up to everything else.

Sherlock Holmes pointed out that one might see, yet not observe. That's a basic cause of much human failure.

It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish when faced boldly.

The lucky few who can be involved in creative work of any sort will be the true elite of mankind, for they alone will do more than serve a machine.

What is really amazing, and frustrating, is mankind's habit of refusing to see the obvious and inevitable until it is there, and then muttering about unforeseen catastrophes.

Intuition is the art, peculiar to the human mind, of working out the correct answer from data that is, in itself, incomplete or even, perhaps, misleading.

If there is a category of human being for whom his work ought to speak for itself, it is the writer.

I don't believe in personal immortality; the only way I expect to have some version of such a thing is through my books.

It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety.

The true delight is in the finding out rather than in the knowing.

Now remember, kids, the internet is serious business.

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

There is a single light of science, and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere.

We are reaching the stage where the problems we must solve are going to become insoluble without computers. I do not fear computers, I fear the lack of them.

Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest.