American author & professor of biochemistry (1920-1992)
Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest.
ISAAC ASIMOV
attributed, The Definitive Guide to Managing the Numbers
Let's start with the three fundamental Rules of Robotics.... We have: 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. And three, a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Astounding Science Fiction, Mar. 1942
A planet full of people meant nothing against the dictates of economic necessity!
ISAAC ASIMOV
The Currents of Space
The energy requirements for interstellar travel are so great that it is inconceivable to me that any creatures piloting their ships across the vast depths of space would do so only in order to play games with us over a period of decades. If they want to make contact, they would make contact; if not, they would save their energy and go elsewhere.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Is Anyone There?
Speech, originally, was the device whereby Man learned, imperfectly, to transmit the thoughts and emotions of his mind. By setting up arbitrary sounds and combinations of sounds to represent certain mental nuances, he developed a method of communication--but one which in its clumsiness and thick-thumbed inadequacy degenerated all the delicacy of the mind into gross and gutteral signaling.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Second Foundation
There is no belief, however foolish, that will not gather its faithful adherents who will defend it to the death.
ISAAC ASIMOV
The Stars in Their Courses
Janet was a tower of strength to me during the miserable time of uncertainty that preceded the divorce. She never pushed me; never urged me to agree to anything foolish in order to hasten the divorce; seemed perfectly willing to continue our irregular arrangement for the rest of our lives. If Gertrude was making life harder for me, Janet was making it easier to an even greater extent.
ISAAC ASIMOV
I, Asimov
Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Yours, Isaac Asimov: A Lifetime of Letters
There is not a discovery in science, however revolutionary, however sparkling with insight, that does not arise out of what went before.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Adding a Dimension
I don't believe in an afterlife, so I don't have to spend my whole life fearing hell, or fearing heaven even more. For whatever the tortures of hell, I think the boredom of heaven would be even worse.
ISAAC ASIMOV
attributed, Philosophy on the Go
I received the fundamentals of my education in school, but that was not enough. My real education, the superstructure, the details, the true architecture, I got out of the public library. For an impoverished child whose family could not afford to buy books, the library was the open door to wonder and achievement, and I can never be sufficiently grateful that I had the wit to charge through that door and make the most of it. Now, when I read constantly about the way in which library funds are being cut and cut, I can only think that the door is closing and that American society has found one more way to destroy itself.
ISAAC ASIMOV
I. Asimov: A Memoir
Please, I'm not in a conspiratorial mood. If you don't mind, I'd appreciate your telling me whatever it is you want to tell me. You've saved my life, I know, and tomorrow I'll be properly thankful. Right now, I could do with a short drink and a long rest.
ISAAC ASIMOV
The Stars, Like Dust
Only a lie that wasn't ashamed of itself could possibly succeed.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Second Foundation
I consider violence an uneconomical way of attaining an end. There are always better substitutes, though they may sometimes be a little less direct.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Foundation
Until now in world's history, whenever we've had a dark age, its been temporary and local. And other parts of the world have been doing fine. And eventually, they help you get out of the dark age. We are now facing a possible dark age which is going to be world-wide and permanent! That's not fun. That's a different thing. But once we have established many worlds, we can do whatever we want as long as we do it one world at a time.
ISAAC ASIMOV
lecture at Newark College of Engineering, Nov. 8, 1974
If we only obey those rules that we think are just and reasonable, then no rule will stand, for there is no rule that some will not think is unjust and unreasonable.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Foundation and Earth
People are entirely too disbelieving of coincidence. They are far too ready to dismiss it and to build arcane structures of extremely rickety substance in order to avoid it. I, on the other hand, see coincidence everywhere as an inevitable consequence of the laws of probability, according to which having no unusual coincidence is far more unusual than any coincidence could possibly be.
ISAAC ASIMOV
"The Planet that Wasn't", The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May 1975
I fear my ignorance.
ISAAC ASIMOV
The Gods Themselves
The advance of genetic engineering makes it quite conceivable that we will begin to design our own evolutionary progress.
ISAAC ASIMOV
The Beginning and the End
I suppose he's entitled to his opinion, but I don't suppose it very hard.
ISAAC ASIMOV
"Seven Steps to Grand Master"