The first problem of living is to minimize friction with the crowds that surround you on all sides. - Isaac Asimov

most of the iron that has found its way into the Earth's core and its surface rocks - and into our own blood, as well - once existed in white dwarfs that exploded

Psychiatry is becoming too popular. Everybody talks of complexes and neuroses and psychoses and compulsions and whatnot. One man’s guilt complex is another man’s good night’s sleep.

Of all the books I have ever worked on, I think Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare gave me the most pleasure, day in, day out. For months and months I lived and thought Shakespeare, and I don't see how there can be any greater pleasure in the world—any pleasure, that is, that one can indulge in for as much as ten hours without pause, day after day indefinitely.