Isaac Asimov Quotes

Devers' eyes were dark with thought. 'You want the Empire to win?' And the old Siwennian patrician broke out in sudden deep anger. 'May the Empire and all its works perish in universal catastrophe. All Siwenna prays that daily. I had brothers once, a sister, a father. But I have children now, grandchildren. The general knows where to find them.

They make the children come up here once a year, after they're five. I don't know if it does any good. They don't get enough of it, really, and the first few times they scream themselves into hysteria.

Stoop, then, or you will be beaten to your knees. Stoop voluntarily, and you may save a remnant. You have depended on metal and power and they have sustained you as far as they could. You have ignored mind and morale and they have failed you.

Generals are, as a matter of course, allowed to be far more idiotic than ordinary human beings are permitted to be.

The only trouble is," said the Sister happily, "that every once in a while you have a very unusual one and you never forget it, but you never have it again either. I had one when I was nine — " Her expression suddenly lost its excitement and she said, "It's a good thing. It teaches you the evanescence of things of the world.

Earth's population was still rising. Some day, with all that the Cities could do, the available calories per person would simply fall below basic subsistence level.

Ar refuza să ne asculte. Și știi de ce? Pentru că au anumite idei fixe cu privire la trecut. Orice schimbare e o blasfemie în ochii lor, chiar dacă e adevărul-adevărat. Nu vor adevărul; își vor doar tradițiile lor.

Los sacerdotes encargados del regadío estudiaron cuidadosamente el nivel de las aguas del río, día a día, y llegaron a descubrir que, por término medio, las crecidas se producían cada 365 días. De ahí que los habitantes del Nilo fueran los primeros en elaborar un calendario basado en el año de 365 días. Cada año estaba formado por doce meses, por ser doce los ciclos completos de cambio en las fases de la luna, que se desarrollaban en algo menos de un año, y porque el pueblo del Nilo (como todos los demás) había usado originalmente un calendario basado en la luna. Se asignó a cada mes una duración de 30 días, y al final de cada año se añadieron 5 días adicionales.

The psychohistoric trend of a planet-full of people contains a huge inertia. To be changed it must be met with something possessing a similar inertia. Either as many people must be concerned, or if the number of people be relatively small, enormous time for change must be allowed. Do you understand?

It might seem to you, Peter, that a truck driver, one step above an ape in your view, can't remember. But truck drivers can have brains, too.

A man without weaknesses serves only to make everyone else conscious of his own imperfections. A primitive poet named Tennyson once wrote: 'He is all fault who has no fault at all.

And so it happened, that when others bent their knee, he refused and added loudly that his ancestors in their time bowed no knee to any stinking mayor. And in his ancestors' time the mayor was elected anyhow, and kicked out at will, and that the only people that inherited anything by right of birth were the congenital idiots.

Our own civilization has a dubious future, and if we can express the reason in brief it is that we find it difficult (perhaps impossible) to cooperate in solving our problems. We are too contentious a species and apparently find our local quarrels to be more important than our overall survival.

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.

Dors shook her head. "I can't bear to hear a human being spoken of with contempt just because of his group identification — even by other human beings. It's these respectable people here who create those hooligans out there.