Quotes from Isaac Asimov

The troubles of modern life come from being divorced from nature.

You are the only one responsible for your own wants.

Humanists recognize that it is only when people feel free to think for themselves, using reason as their guide, that they are best capable of developing values that succeed in satisfying human needs and serving human interests.

It is remarkable, Hardin, how the religion of science has grabbed hold.

Goodbye, Hari, my love. Remember always--all you did for me." -I did nothing for you." -You loved me and your love made me--human.

Any system which allows men to choose their own future will end by choosing safety and mediocrity, and in such a Reality the stars are out of reach.

There is nothing so eternally adhesive as the memory of power.

people sometimes mistake their own shortcomings for those of society and want to fix the Cities because they don't know how to fix themselves.

In the presence of total Darkness, the mind finds it absolutely necessary to create light.

There is no right to deny freedom to any object with a mind advanced enough to grasp the concept and desire the state.

Aimless extension of knowledge, however, which is what I think you really mean by the term curiosity, is merely inefficiency. I am designed to avoid inefficiency.

The human mind works at low efficiency. Twenty percent is the figure usually given. When, momentarily, there is a flash of greater power, it is termed a hunch, or insight, or intuition.

Mathematicians deal with large numbers sometimes, but never in their income.

For a wise man, I have been told, once said, 'Gratitude is best and most effective when it does not evaporate in empty phrases.' But alas, my lady, I am but a mass of empty phrases, it would seem.

It is in meeting the great tests that mankind can most successfully rise to great heights. Out of danger and restless insecurity comes the force that pushes mankind to newer and loftier conquests. Can you understand that? Can you understand that in averting the pitfalls and miseries that beset man, Eternity prevents men from finding their own bitter and better solutions, the real solutions that come from conquering difficulty, not avoiding it?

Whenever I have endured or accomplished some difficult task -- such as watching television, going out socially or sleeping -- I always look forward to rewarding myself with the small pleasure of getting back to my typewriter and writing something.

All roads lead to Trantor, and that is where all stars end.

Flattery is useful when dealing with youngsters.

I believe that scientific knowledge has fractal properties, that no matter how much we learn, whatever is left, however small it may seem, is just as infinitely complex as the whole was to start with. That, I think, is the secret of the Universe.

You mean that this is a matter of patriotism and traders aren't patriotic? Notoriously not. Pioneers never are.

Where is the world whose people don't prefer a comfortable, warm, and well-worn belief, however illogical, to the chilly winds of uncertainty?

The Three Theorems of Psychohistorical Quantitivity: The population under scrutiny is oblivious to the existence of the science of Psychohistory. The time periods dealt with are in the region of 3 generations. The population must be in the billions (±75 billions) for a statistical probability to have a psychohistorical validity.

Feminine intuition? Is that what you wanted the robot for? You men. Faced with a woman reaching a correct conclusion and unable to accept the fact that she is your equal or superior in intelligence, you invent something called feminine intuition.

Childishness comes almost as naturally to a man as to a child