 |
 | "Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It"s the transition that"s
troublesome." | |
 |
Found in the topic Death.
|
|
| "If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that
we can solve them." | |
|
Found in the topic Knowledge.
|
|
| "John Dalton"s records, carefully preserved for a century, were
destroyed during the World War II bombing of Manchester. It is not only
the living who are killed in war." | |
|
Found in the topic War.
|
|
| "Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is
competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely
honest." | |
|
Found in the topic Computer.
|
|
| "Nothing interferes with my concentration. You could put on an orgy
in my office and I wouldn"t look up. Well, maybe once." | |
|
Found in the topic Concentration.
|
|
| "Scientific apparatus offers a window to knowledge, but as they grow
more elaborate, scientists spend ever more time washing the
windows." | |
|
Found in the topic Unsorted.
|
|
| "It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the
dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any
longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the
world as it will be.... This, in turn, means that our statesmen, our
businessmen, our every man must take on a science fictional way of
thinking." | |
|
Found in the topic Change.
|
|
| "It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish when
faced boldly." | |
|
Found in the topic Book.
|
|
| "(With reference to a correspondent) The young specialist in English
Lit ... lectured me severely on the fact that in every century people have
thought they understood the Universe at last, and in every century they
were proved to be wrong. It follows that the one thing we can say about
our modern "knowledge" is that it is wrong. ... My answer to him was, "...
when people thought the Earth was flat, they were wrong. When people
thought the Earth was spherical they were wrong. But if you think that
thinking the Earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the Earth is
flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together."" | |
|
Found in the topic Understand.
|
|
| "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; Three, a robot must protect its own existence as long as such
protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws." | |
|
Found in the topic Law.
|
|
| "(but, in rebuttal) When, however, the lay public rallies round an
idea that is denounced by distinguished but elderly scientists and
supports that idea with great fervor and emotion the distinguished but
elderly scientists are then, after all, probably right." | |
|
Found in the topic Idea.
|
|
| "Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what"s
right." | |
|
Found in the topic Morality.
|
|
| "One man?s religion is another man?s belly laugh." | |
|
Found in the topic Religion.
|
|
| "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." | |
|
Found in the topic Eternity.
|
|
| "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." | |
|
Found in the topic Vigilant.
|
|
| "Though science can cause problems, it is not by ignorance that we
will solve them." | |
|
Found in the topic If.
|
|
| "The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds
the most new discoveries, is not "Eureka!"(I found it!) but "hmmm ...
That?s funny...."" | |
|
Found in the topic Funerals.
|
|
| "Suppose that we are wise enough to learn and know and yet not wise
enough to control our learning and knowledge, so that we use it to destroy
ourselves? Even if that is so, knowledge remains better than ignorance. It
is better to know even if the knowledge endures only for the moment that
comes before destruction than to gain eternal life at the price of a dull
and swinish lack of comprehension of a universe that swirls unseen before
us in all its wonder. That was the choice of Achilles, and it is mine,
too." | |
|
Found in the topic Destiny.
|
|
| "From my close observation of writers ... they fall into two groups:
1) those who bleed copiously and visibly at any bad review, and 2) those
who bleed copiously and secretly at any bad review." | |
|
Found in the topic Secret.
|
|
| "Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education
there is." | |
|
Found in the topic Education.
|