Sign in with your pod

Famous quotes

Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide

EnglishItalianoPolskiעבריתFrançaisPortuguêsفارسیEspañol中文РусскийDeutschالعربيةहिन्दी日本語ΕλληνικάLatina

Isaac Asimov

396 quotes

• “The stars, like dust, encircle me In living mists of light; And all of space I seem to see In one vast burst of sight.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Nonsense. You are a military man and should know better. If there is one science into which man has probed continuously and successfully, it is that of military technology. No potential weapon would remain unrealized for ten thousand years.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “That’s an amusing thought, if you’ll consider it.” “Do you find everything amusing?” “Why not? As an attitude toward life, it’s an amusing one. It’s the only adjective that will fit. Observe the universe, young man. If you can’t force amusement out of it, you might as well cut your throat, since there’s damn little good in it.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The Autarch maintained his indifferent calm, but a certain lack of certainty was gathering, and he did not like to experience a lack of certainty. He liked nothing which made him aware of limitations. An Autarch should have no limitations, and on Lingane he had none that natural law did not impose.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Gillbret said, “Statistics show that one out of three stars has a planetary system.” Biron nodded. It was a well-worn statistic. Every child was taught that in elementary Galactography.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I see your vile implication. My only explanation for it is that you are criminally insane.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “At least try to see my motives. Granted that I was foolish—criminally foolish—can’t you understand? Can’t you try not to hate me?” She said softly, “I have tried not to love you and, as you see, I have failed.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Well, it was healthy to miss once in a while. It kept self-confidence balanced at a point safely short of arrogance.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “How then to enforce peace? Not by reason, certainly, nor by education. If a man could not look at the fact of peace and the fact of war and choose the former in preference to the latter, what additional argument could persuade him? What could be more eloquent as a condemnation of war than war itself? What tremendous feat of dialectic could carry with it a tenth the power of a single gutted ship with its ghastly cargo?”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “An unpleasant nest of nasty, materialistic and aggressive people, careless of the rights of others, imperfectly democratic at home though quick to see the minor slaveries of others, and greedy without end.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Trantor could win even such a war, but perhaps not without paying a price that would make victory only a pleasanter name for defeat.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “First, there must be an end to war and national rivalry and only then could one turn to the internal miseries that, after all, had external conflict as their chief cause.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Truth is a discredited commodity among diplomats.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “No one is so modest as not to believe himself a competent amateur sleuth.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “You make interstellar politics sound a very dirty game.” “It is, but disapproving of dirt doesn’t remove it.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Then why did you run? A man who runs needs no other accusation.” “Is that so? Really?” cried Steen. “Well, I would run out of a burning building even if I had not set the fire myself.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Junz found revulsion growing strong within him. A planet full of people meant nothing against the dictates of economic necessity!”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Economics is on the side of humanity now.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Q. You do not consider your statement a disloyal one? A. No, sir. Scientific truth is beyond loyalty and disloyalty. Q. You are sure that your statement represents scientific truth? A. I am.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The fall of Empire, gentlemen, is a massive thing, however, and not easily fought. It is dictated by a rising bureaucracy, a receding initiative, a freezing of caste, a damming of curiosity — a hundred other factors. It has been going on, as I have said, for centuries, and it is too majestic and massive a movement to stop.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “That insufferable, dull-witted donkey! That—” Hardin broke in: “Not at all. He’s merely the product of his environment. He doesn’t understand much except that ‘I got a gun and you ain’t.’”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Part II, The Encyclopedists, section 2 (originally published as “Foundation” in Astounding (May 1942)

• “It seems an uncommonly woundabout and hopelessly wigmawolish method of getting anywheahs.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Such unsubtle escapism! Really, Dr. Fara, such folly smacks of genius. A lesser mind would be incapable of it.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Violence,” came the retort, “is the last refuge of the incompetent.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Well, then, arrest him. You can accuse him of something or other afterward.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Part III, The Mayors, section 1; originally published as “Bridle and Saddle” in Astounding (June 1942)

• “That was the time to begin all-out preparations for war.” “On the contrary. That was the time to begin all-out prevention of war.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

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

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

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

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “He believes in that mummery a good deal less than I do, and I don't believe in it at all.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “For it is the chief characteristic of the religion of science, that it works, and that such curses as that of Aporat's are really deadly.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “A fire eater must eat fire even if he has to kindle it himself.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) first seen 1944 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Part IV, The Traders, section 1; originally published as “The Wedge” in Astounding (October 1944)

• “Ponyets! They sent you?” “Pure chance,” said Ponyets, bitterly, “or the work of my own personal malevolent demon.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “There's something about a pious man such as he. He will cheerfully cut your throat if it suits him, but he will hesitate to endanger the welfare of your immaterial and problematical soul.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The whole business is the crudest sort of stratagem, since we have no way of foreseeing it to the end. It is a mere paying out of rope on the chance that somewhere along the length of it will be a noose.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) first seen 1944 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Part V, The Merchant Princes, section 2; originally published as “The Big and the Little” in Astounding (August 1944)

• “He is energetic only in evading responsibility.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “To succeed, planning alone is insufficient. One must improvise as well.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Korell is that frequent phenomenon in history: the republic whose ruler has every attribute of the absolute monarch but the name. It therefore enjoyed the usual despotism unrestrained even by those two moderating influences in the legitimate monarchies: regal “honor” and court etiquette.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Now any dogma, based primarily on faith and emotionalism, is a dangerous weapon to use on others, since it is almost impossible to guarantee that the weapon will never be turned on the user.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “An atom blaster is a good weapon, but it can point both ways.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “It's a poor atom blaster that won't point both ways.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “He is a dreamer of ancient times, or rather, of the myths of what ancient times used to be. Such men are harmless in themselves, but their queer lack of realism makes them fools for others.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Chapter 4 “The Emperor; in part I, “The General” originally published as “Dead Hand” in Astounding (April 1945)

• “You are a valuable subject, Brodrig. You always suspect far more than is necessary, and I have but to take half your suggested precautions to be utterly safe.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Inertia! Our ruling class knows one law; no change. Despotism! They know one rule; force. Maldistribution! They know one desire; to hold what is theirs.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Chapter 11 “Bride and Groom”; in part II, “The Mule” originally published under the same title in Astounding (November-December 1945)

• “To him, a stilted geometric love of arrangement was “system,” an indefatigable and feverish interest in the pettiest facets of day-to-day bureaucracy was “industry,” indecision when right was “caution,” and blind stubbornness when wrong, “determination.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “It is the invariable lesson to humanity that distance in time, and in space as well, lends focus. It is not recorded, incidentally, that the lesson has ever been permanently learned.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Were I to use the wits the good Spirits gave me,” he said, “then I would say this lady can not exist — for what sane man would hold a dream to be reality. Yet rather would I not be sane and lend belief to charmed, enchanted eyes.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “When the twenty-seven independent Trading Worlds, united only by their distrust of mother planet of the Foundation, concert an assembly among themselves, and each is big with a pride grown of its smallness, hardened by its own insularity and embittered by eternal danger — there are preliminary negotiations to be overcome of a pettiness sufficiently staggering to heart-sicken the most persevering.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “It is well-known that the friend of a conqueror is but the last victim.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Secrecy as deep as this is past possibility without nonexistence as well.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Chapter 1 “Two Men and the Mule”; in part I, “Search by the Mule” originally published as “Now You See It—” in Astounding (January 1948)

More