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Portrait of Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov

(1920–1992) Non-fiction Writer Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic

671 quotes in 2135 categories

The strain of anti‑intellectualism runs through politics and culture, reminding us that ignorance can be a false comfort. Isaac Asimov points out that knowing what we don’t know creates a different kind of uncertainty, and that confronting great tests is what pushes humanity to higher heights. He also notes that hope can appear in a simple shining rock when life feels harsh.

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Isaac Asimov was a non-fiction writer from Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, best known for Foundation.

Quick Facts About Isaac Asimov

Born: January 2, 1920
Died: April 6, 1992
Nationality: Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic
Profession: Non-fiction Writer
Notable works: Foundation
Known for: The Gods Themselves, I, Robot, The Bicentennial Man, The Intelligent Man's Guide to Science, Robot series
Spouse: Janet Asimov

About Isaac Asimov

He is best known for his hard science‑fiction stories but also wrote mysteries, fantasy, popular science, and other non‑fiction works. His publications cover nine of the ten categories in the Dewey decimal system.

Awards & Honors

Nebula Award for Best Novel Locus Award for Best Novel Hugo Award Hugo Award for Best Novel Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award Ditmar Award Nebula Award for Best Novelette Edward E. Smith Memorial Award

Show 18 more awards

Hugo Award for Best Related Work Hugo Award for Best Novelette Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel Klumpke-Roberts Award Cosmos 2000 Award James T. Grady-James H. Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry Locus Award for Best Novelette Locus Award for Best Short Story Humanist of the Year Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry Retro Hugo Award for Best Novel Retro Hugo Award for Best Novelette Retro Hugo Award for Best Short Story Great Immigrants Award Hugo Award for Best All-Time Series Locus Award for Best Reprint Anthology/Collection

Quotes by Isaac Asimov

It's the writing that teaches you.

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Finished products are for decadent minds.

Decadent

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Education isn't something you can finish

Education

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Man's greatest asset is the unsettled mind.

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“Life is a successive symphony of losses.”

Death

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“Weak emperors mean strong viceroys. ”

Government

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Economics is on the side of humanity now.

Economics

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All evil is good become cancerous.

Evil

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If a conclusion is not poetically balanced, it cannot be scientifically true.

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The day you stop learning is the day you begin decaying.

Education

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I am not a speed reader. I am a speed understander.

Books

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“Now tell me what happened—in words. I want your translation of the mathematics.”

Mathematics

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“People who don't expect justice don't have to suffer disappointment.”

Disappointment

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Life originated in the sea, and about eighty percent of it is still there.

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Why this reluctance to make the change? We fear the process of reeducation.

Change

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“temperatura constante de mais ou menos 21 graus”

Amor

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

Freedom

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“You're a Lousy dame, lady," said Raych. "I'm a Lousy dame with a quick knife, Raych, so get moving.”

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If all human beings understood history, they might cease making the same stupid mistakes over and over.

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To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today.

Ignorance

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One might accept death reasoningly, with every aspect of the conscious mind, but the body was a brute beast that knew nothing…

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“Earthmen may even rule at Trantor for a generation, but their children will become Trantorians, and in their turn will look down…

Children

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A subtle thought that is in error may yet give rise to fruitful inquiry that can establish truths of great value.

Inquiry

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

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“You can’t maintain discipline that way.” Mallow said icily, “I can. There’s no merit in discipline under ideal circumstances. I’ll have it…

Death

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If I am right, then (religious fundamentalists) will not go to Heaven, because there is no Heaven. If they are right, then…

Fundamentalist

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University President: Why is it that you physicists always require so much expensive equipment? Now the Department of Mathematics requires nothing but…

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The Earth should not be cut up into hundreds of different sections, each inhabited by a self-defined segment of humanity that considers…

Consideration

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If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of…

Agnostic

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“In short, the age of the pulp magazine was the last in which youngsters, to get their primitive material, were forced to…

Literacy

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When life is so harsh that a man loses all hope in himself, then he raises his eyes to a shining rock,…

Atheism

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What lasts in the reader's mind is not the phrase but the effect the phrase created: laughter, tears, pain, joy. If the…

Books

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“Surely, if we take on thinking partners––or, at the least, thinking servants––in the form of machines, we will be more comfortable with…

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The Iranians are Moslems and the Iraqi are Moslems. Both are certain that there is no God but Allah and that Mohammed…

Accusation

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How often people speak of art and science as though they were two entirely different things, with no interconnection. That is all…

Art

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I received the fundamentals of my education in school, but that was not enough. My real education, the superstructure, the details, the…

Achievement

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“The Sun burned down in a warm contrasting world of white and black, of white Sun against black sky and white rolling…

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What I will be remembered for are the Foundation Trilogy and the Three Laws of Robotics. What I want to be remembered…

Book

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People are entirely too disbelieving of coincidence. They are far too ready to dismiss it and to build arcane structures of extremely…

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“Where did the substance of the universe come from? . . If 0 equals ( + 1) + (-1), then something which…

Negative energy

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Isaac Asimov by topic

Science (89) Life (54) Time (44) Humans (40) People (37) Thinking (34) World (33) Inspirational (33) Writing (31) Men (28) Religion (27) Writer (26) Love (25) Knowledge (25) Books (25) Technology (24) Education (24)