The 70 best phrases of Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was a famous writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, born in 1919 in the town of Petrovichi, Russian Federation.
Asimov is, as many of you already know, the most relevant science fiction writer in history. The novels of this writer created a whole imaginary that still accompanies us today. His tragic death in 1992 and the sad circumstances that accompanied the moment deeply impacted the hearts of all his readers.
- It may interest you: "The 85 best phrases of Stephen Hawking"
Some of Isaac Asimov's novels such as: "I robot" or "The bicentennial man" have been taken to the big screen today, all of them getting a good general acceptance among the public.
Great phrases and famous quotes from Isaac Asimov
Would you like to know the most interesting phrases of this science fiction teacher?
Then you can discover the 70 best phrases of Isaac Asimov, a writer that, without a doubt, we should all remember.
1. There are no nations! There is only humanity, and if we don't come to understand that soon, there will be no nations, because there will be no humanity.
Humanity must be able to understand each other, we should all know how to row in the same direction.
2. Those people who think they know everything are a huge nuisance to those of us who are trying.
Nobody knows everything, accepting this fact will allow us to delve into the search for knowledge.
3. I believe in the evidence. I believe in observation, measurement and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I will believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. However, the wilder and more ridiculous it is, the stronger and more solid the evidence will be.
As a good scientist Asimov believed in proven facts, for something to be true it must be proven.
4. Any planet is Earth to those who live on it.
If we lived on another planet it would also be Earth for us, because in practice it would be our home.
5. Any fool can say that there is a crisis when it comes. The true service to the state is to detect it in the embryo state.
Being able to anticipate problems will give us the opportunity to face them better prepared.
6. When a religious denounced me in excessive terms, I sent him a letter that said: I am sure you think I will go to the hell when he dies, and that once there I will suffer all the pain and torture... that your deity can devise... Isn't that enough for you? Do you have to give me derogatory names?
In this way, Asimov tried to make the religious doubt by speaking of his own beliefs. If he thought that he was going to be punished after death, why did he act in life?
7. Somehow, it was better to say that I was a humanist or an agnostic. I finally decided that I am a creature of emotion and reason. Emotionally, I am an atheist.
As we can see, Asimov was a convinced atheist, today many people are atheists but in the past this was not something so common.
8. Tell me why the stars shine... Tell me what makes the skies so blue. And I'll tell you why I love you
Knowledge was something very important for this great writer, in order to love a person, he needed that person to also be someone intelligent.
9. The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.
The human being must be able to adapt to the needs of the moment and evolve over time towards a better society.
10. The first step in making rabbit stew is to catch the rabbit.
As we can see in this quote, in order to carry out an elaborate plan, we must necessarily follow one of the essential steps. If we are not methodical, we will not achieve the success we hope for.
11. They will not listen. You know why? Because they have certain fixed notions about the past. In his eyes, any change would be blasphemous even if it was the truth. They don't want the truth, they want tradition.
In order to evolve as a society, we will have to break past taboos and devise a fairer future for all.
12. In the presence of total Darkness, the mind believes that it is absolutely necessary to create light.
Our mind is an incredible tool, all the advances that we have today are the result of human ingenuity.
13. In reality, we hardly need to do good. What is needed is that we stop doing evil, Wow!
We must not do in our life what is not beneficial for the whole society, we must stop harming each other.
14. It was childish to be disappointed, but childishness is as natural for a man as it is for a child.
Maturing is something essential in life that we all do at one time or another of it. When we reach maturity we realize that things are often not what they seem.
15. Writing is a lonely job. Even if a writer socializes regularly, when it comes down to the real business of his life, it's him and his typewriter or word processor. No one else is or may be involved in the matter.
We all write individually using exclusively our thoughts. As Asimov rightly tells us, writing is perhaps a bit of a lonely job.
16. I write for the same reason that I breathe, because if I didn't, I would die.
Asimov saw in writing a way to express what he felt or thought. Writing can be very beneficial to anyone who practices it.
17. I am convinced that self-education is the only type of education that exists.
In order to truly learn something, we must be very interested in learning it. So in one way or another we all educate ourselves in what interests us the most.
18. Examine fragments of pseudoscience and you will find a cloak of protection, a thumb to suck, skirts to cling to. What do we offer in exchange? Uncertainty! Unsafety!
Science is usually the creator of more questions than answers, because in order to find a great solution there must be a great problem to solve.
19. There are many aspects of the universe that cannot yet be satisfactorily explained by science, but ignorance only implies ignorance that it can one day be conquered. Surrendering to ignorance and calling it "God" has always been premature, and it is still premature today.
The human being has always sought the answers to his questions, and in ancient times the answer to everything was always God.
20. Flattery is helpful when dealing with young people.
Using psychology can help us to manipulate the wills of others in a certain way.
21. The Bible, read correctly, is the strongest argument for atheism ever conceived.
The Bible can contain a large number of misprints or unlikely situations, which seen from the point of view of an atheist do nothing but argue their own ideas.
22. The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that announces the most discoveries, is not: "Eureka!", But: "That's funny ..."
In the search for knowledge, the question is as important or more than the answer itself.
23. People think of education as something they can finish.
Education is something that takes us all our lives, human beings should never stop learning new things.
24. Intelligence is an accident of evolution, and not necessarily an advantage.
The human being has developed his intellect purely for evolutionary reasons and with this he has managed to be the top predator on the planet we live on.
25. The luck favors only the prepared mind.
In order to take advantage of advantageous situations, we must be able to perceive them as such.
26. Life is nice. Death is peaceful. It is the transition that is problematic.
Death is something that will come to all of us, the hardest thing about living it is precisely the previous moment.
27. The individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the most blind critics and philosophers of today, but the core of science fiction, its essence, has become crucial to our salvation, if we want to be saved.
Science fiction can be a good tool that allows us to think about the future and about the possible advances that we will live in it.
28. People think that "right" and "wrong" are absolute truths, that everything that is not perfect and completely correct is totally wrong.
Life tends to move in rather gray situations, neither black nor white. Our personal point of view tells us most of the time if something is right or wrong.
29. The obvious is what is difficult to see most of the time. People say it's so simple, it was on your nose and you didn't realize it. But what part of the nose of your face can you see, unless a mirror is holding you?
In order to discover something, the necessary conditions must exist for it, the situation we live in is usually a fundamental aspect in great discoveries.
30. Weak emperors mean strong viceroys.
When a leader is weak, his second-in-command will take control at the slightest opportunity.
31. Human beings sometimes find a kind of pleasure in nurturing painful emotions, in blaming themselves for no reason or even against reason.
We must not fall into self-pity, indulging in painful emotions will not bring anything good to our life.
32. They ask me, don't you believe in flying saucers? Don't you believe in telepathy?… In life after death. No, I answer. No, no, no, no, and again no.
Asimov spoke in his novels of many things that he knew did not exist, but who knows what will exist in the future?
33. Nothing alters my concentration. You could have an orgy in my office and I wouldn't watch. Well, maybe at least once.
This writer was very clear about his priorities and his work was the most important thing to him.
34. Denying a fact is the easiest in the world. Many people do, but the fact remains a fact.
No matter how much we deny a fact, it will never cease to be true. Facts must be accepted for both good and bad.
35. There is no discovery in science, no matter how revolutionary... That does not originate from what happened before.
For a great discovery to be made, there must have been a host of situations that have led us to it.
36. There is no right to deny freedom to any object with a mind advanced enough to grasp the concept and desire the state.
Freedom It must be a fundamental right of all living beings, depriving someone of it will be cruel on our part.
37. Writing, for me, is simply thinking through my fingers.
Writing allows us to express ourselves freely and order our own thoughts. It is certainly something that we should all do a lot more.
38. Not scare me computers. I fear the lack of them.
Computers have helped us and will help us evolve in the future. Computers enhance human abilities.
39. I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't exist, but I'm so suspicious that He doesn't exist that I don't want to waste my time.
The scientist's mind always tells him and will say that God does not exist, because there is still nothing that minimally tells us that he does.
40. Never let your sense of morals stop you from doing the right thing.
What is right for society can be what is morally wrong for us, what is doing the right thing then? This is a great question that we will all ask ourselves more than once in our lives.
41. Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
Violence is never the answer to anything, it is just a way of letting go of our despair and frustration.
42. For a poor child whose family could not buy books, the library represented an open door for wonders and achievements, and I will never be grateful enough that I had the courage to step through that door and seize it by maximum.
Libraries are a wonderful place that give us the opportunity to evolve as people and to quench our thirst for knowledge.
43. I think that right and wrong are confusing concepts.
There is no right or wrong, because our perception will never allow us to have a completely clear idea about it. Our particular point of view will always be the right thing for us.
44. I prefer rationalism to atheism. The question of God and other objects of faith are outside reason and are not part of rationalism, therefore, you do not have to waste your time attacking or defending it.
For Isaac Asimov there were only those things that could be proved with irrefutable facts.
45. I received the foundations of my education in school, but that was not enough. My true education came from the public library.
The education we receive is often insufficient in many cases, we must not allow ourselves to be limited by it. We can always learn new things if we do our part.
46. If knowledge can create problems, it is not with ignorance that we can solve them.
Knowledge is the solution for all the problems of humanity, we must never cease in the search for knowledge.
47. If you are born in a cubicle and grow up in a hallway, and you work in a cell, and you go on vacation in a sunny room full of people, then coming out into the light with nothing but the sky can give you a fit Of nerves.
Some things may perhaps overwhelm us, but they do not necessarily have to be harmful to us.
48. There is only one war that man can be allowed: the war against his extinction.
The human being must fight to adapt to the situations he encounters, we should all be more aware of what interests us as a species.
49. I'm an atheist… it took me a long time to say. I have been an atheist for years and years, but somehow I felt that it was intellectually irresistible to say that one was religious, because it assumed the knowledge that one did not have.
We do not have to hide our religious beliefs, we are all free to adopt those beliefs that interest us most.
50. I have the feeling that the main tourist attraction on the Moon will be her sky, much more magnificent than ours ...
From the Moon, the stars should be much more visible, although according to the images of the Apollo missions this does not seem to be the case.
51. All evil is clever and becomes cancerous.
Detecting an evil as soon as possible will help us to end it more easily.
52. Your assumptions are windows on the world. Clean them from time to time, or the light won't get in.
We should not assume that we know what we do not really know, assumptions can be detrimental to our personal development.
53. A recently desperate person... burst out and said: Don't you believe anything? Yes, I said. I believe in the evidence. I believe in observation, measurement and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers.
As a good scientist, Asimov believes in what can be proven, what cannot be proven, it is not known whether it is true or not.
54. I am able to recognize the positive aspects that the influence of religions has had throughout history. For example, we owe it to them to create rational calendars that have been so useful... Although honestly, I am unable to remember any more.
Religions have brought positive aspects to our society, some of them being very relevant to our development.
55. It's worth being obvious, especially if you have a reputation for being subtle.
Making our ideas and intentions clear will save us a lot of trouble in the future.
56. A fire eater must eat fire, even if he has to light it himself.
As a species we need certain things to evolve, if we cannot find them in the natural environment we will have to manufacture them ourselves.
57. All the hundreds of millions of people who, in their day, believed that the Earth was flat, never succeeded in circling it.
Our ideas limit us and create in us certain uncertainties that can mark us forever.
58. All normal life, conscious or not, suffers from domination. If the domination is by an inferior, or by an inferior assumption, the resentment grows stronger.
Living beings tend not to be subdued by anything or anyone, we all value the freedom with which we are born.
59. Maybe happiness is this: not feeling that you should be somewhere else, do something else, be someone else.
The life that we lead must fill us personally, if it does not, it will be better for us to change our lives.
60. When I read about the way library holdings are being cut and clipped, I can only think that American society has found a new way to destroy itself to herself.
Libraries are of vital importance for the intellectual development of society, without them society would be led towards a generalized lack of culture.
61. Above all, never think that you are not good enough. Never think that. Otherwise, people will believe that it is.
We all have room for improvement, we can improve, change and be more effective than we were in the past.
62. If my doctor told me that I only have 6 minutes to live, I wouldn't worry. I would write a little faster.
Asimov wanted to write until the last second of his life, writing was always his greatest ally.
63. I am not a fast reader. I am a quick connoisseur.
We must understand what we read, otherwise we will not really be reading anything.
64. You can prove anything you want for a coldly logical reason, if you choose the correct postulates.
Our arguments are what will give us the force of reason. Without it we will not be able to convince others.
65. Of course there are worlds. Millions of them! Every star you see has worlds, and most of the ones you don't see.
The universe is huge, most likely infinite, and the possibilities for other worlds to exist are just as huge.
66. Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that once it is programmed correctly and runs smoothly, it is completely honest.
Computers form and will form a large part of the society of the future, with them our technological evolution can be much faster.
67. To be successful, just planning is insufficient. One must improvise too.
Improvisation can give us the opportunity to experience things that we would not otherwise do.
68. There can never be a man so lost as one who is lost in the vast and intricate corridors of his own lonely mind, where no one can reach him and no one can save him.
Knowing how to move through our mind and use its capacity wisely can be something that takes us a lifetime.
69. They will not listen. You know why? Because they have certain fixed notions about the past. Any change would be blasphemous in his eyes, even if it was the truth. They don't want the truth; they prefer their traditions.
We should not let dogmas of the past direct our lives, the future can be wonderful if we believe that we can improve what we do not like about the present.
70. There is nothing so eternally fixed as the memory of power.
Power can be extremely persuasive; many of us walk aimlessly through life obsessed with its pursuit.
