Link Copied!
Isaac Asimov Quotes (1920-1992)
Actor, Writer, King
-100px.jpg)
-100px.jpg)
About Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov (c. 2 January 1920 – 6 April 1992) was a Russian-born American biochemist who was a prolific writer of both fiction and non-fiction, his works include the Foundation series and I, Robot.
Best Isaac Asimov Quotes
Shortest
Earliest
Explore our curated collection of the most famous and impactful Isaac Asimov quotes.
“Necessity makes a joke of civilization.”
“The foundation of all technology is fire.”
“I wouldn't give an astrologer the time of day.”
“He is energetic only in evading responsibility.”
“All life is nucleic acid; the rest is commentary”
“Truth is a discredited commodity among diplomats.”
“Yet even mathematicians must be young to begin with.”
“A robot, the man had said, is logical but not reasonable.”
“Where any answer is possible, all answers are meaningless.”
“At odd and unpredictable times, we cling in fright to the past.”
Isaac Asimov Quotes by Topic
Find exactly what you are looking for by browsing this categorized list of Isaac Asimov quotes by topic.
Isaac Asimov on Science 5 quotes
“There is a single light of science, and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere.”
Isaac Asimov on Science fiction 5 quotes
“Science fiction is that branch of literature that deals with human responses to changes in the level of science and technology.”
Isaac Asimov on Economics 2 quotes
View all 2 quotes on Economics →Isaac Asimov on Absurdism 2 quotes
“Secrecy as deep as this is past possibility without nonexistence as well.”
Isaac Asimov on World Federalism 2 quotes
“There are no nations! There is only humanity. And if we don't come to understand that right soon, there will be no nations, because there will be no humanity.”
Isaac Asimov on Neuron 2 quotes
“There is no question, then, that RNA presents a filing system perfectly capable of handling any load of learning and memory which the human being is likely to put upon it—and a billion times more than that quantity, too.”
Isaac Asimov on RNA 2 quotes
“There is no question, then, that RNA presents a filing system perfectly capable of handling any load of learning and memory which the human being is likely to put upon it—and a billion times more than that quantity, too.”
Isaac Asimov on Democracy 2 quotes
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."”
Isaac Asimov on Overpopulation 2 quotes
“Babies are the enemies of the human race... Let's consider it this way: by the time the world doubles its population, the amount of energy we will be using will be increased sevenfold which means probably the amount of pollution that we are producing will also be increased sevenfold. If we are now threatened by pollution at the present rate, how will we be threatened with sevenfold pollution… distributed among twice the population? We'll be having to grow twice the food out of soil that is being poisoned at seven times the rate.”
Isaac Asimov on Technology 2 quotes
“But of all environments, that produced by man's complex technology is perhaps the most unstable and rickety. In its present form, our society is not two centuries old, and a few nuclear bombs will do it in. To be sure, evolution works over long periods of time and two centuries is far from sufficient to breed Homo technikos.... The destruction of our technological society in a fit of nuclear peevishness would become disastrous even if there were many millions of immediate survivors. The environment toward which they were fitted would be gone, and Darwin's demon would wipe them out remorselessly and without a backward glance.”
Isaac Asimov on Force
“Violence … is the last refuge of the incompetent.”
What Isaac Asimov Said About Others
Discover personal opinions Isaac Asimov shared regarding contemporaries.
Isaac Asimov on John W. Campbell 2 quotes
“[Stanley] Weinbaum met the challenge of a demand John Campbell was to make of his writers in later years: "Write me a story about an organism that thinks as well as a man, but not like a man."”
Isaac Asimov on Philip José Farmer
Isaac Asimov on Harlan Ellison
“Harlan is a giant among men in courage, pugnacity, loquacity, wit, charm, intelligence — indeed in everything but height.”
Isaac Asimov on Hannibal
“Had Hannibal had a government behind him that knew how to exploit victories – had he been born a Roman, for instance – he might have conquered the world.”
Isaac Asimov on John Dalton
“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.”
Isaac Asimov on Olaf Stapledon
“Now, I won't pretend that I made up the idea of writing histories of the future. It had been done numerous times, most effectively and startlingly by the British writer Olaf Stapledon, who wrote First and Last Men and The Star Makers.”
Isaac Asimov on Arthur C. Clarke
“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.”
Isaac Asimov on Clifford D. Simak
“I never heard a bad word about him but only universal approval and approbation... [I have tried to] imitate his easy and uncluttered style. I think I have succeeded to an extent and that it has immeasurably improved my writing. He is the third of three people, then, who formed my writing career. John Campbell and Fred Pohl did it by precept, and Cliff Simak by example.”
Isaac Asimov on Martin Luther
“Why, for instance, did Martin Luther succeed, whereas other important rebels against the medieval church — like John Huss — fail? Well, Luther was successful because printing had been developed by the time he advanced his cause. So his good earthy writings were put into pamphlets and spread so far and wide that the church officials couldn't have stopped the Protestant Reformation even if they had burned Luther at the stake.”
Isaac Asimov on Jan Hus
“Why, for instance, did Martin Luther succeed, whereas other important rebels against the medieval church — like John Huss — fail? Well, Luther was successful because printing had been developed by the time he advanced his cause. So his good earthy writings were put into pamphlets and spread so far and wide that the church officials couldn't have stopped the Protestant Reformation even if they had burned Luther at the stake.”
Quotes About Isaac Asimov
Gain deeper perspective through quotes about Isaac Asimov from others.
George Gaylord Simpson on Isaac Asimov
Martin Gardner on Isaac Asimov
“When I first met Asimov, I asked him if he was a professor at Boston University. He said no and ... asked me where I got my Ph.D. I said I didn't have one and he looked startled. "You mean you're in the same racket I am," he said, "you just read books by the professors and rewrite them?" That's really what I do.”
Carl Sagan as quoted on Isaac Asimov
“The great explainer of our [technological] age.”
Simson Garfinkel on Isaac Asimov
“Although he spends many pages writing about his friends in the science-fiction community, the true value of Asimov's insight is his reflections on his life — and, in his mind, Asimov was first a genius, second a prolific writer, and only thirdly a sci-fi writer. Asimov tells the reader repeatedly that his life would have been easier if he had learned to submerge his ego and get along with others. "It really puzzles me as I look back on it that I didn't make a greater effort to placate the powers that be," he writes. Indeed, it was this inability to get along with others that forced Asimov out of academia and into the solitary life of a freelance writer.”
Temple Grandin on Isaac Asimov
Kurt Vonnegut on Isaac Asimov
“I am honorary president of the American Humanist Association, having succeeded the late, great, spectacularly prolific writer and scientist, Dr. Isaac Asimov in that essentially functionless capacity. At an A.H.A. memorial service for my predecessor I said, "Isaac is up in Heaven now." That was the funniest thing I could have said to an audience of humanists. It rolled them in the aisles. Mirth! Several minutes had to pass before something resembling solemnity could be restored.”
Sean M. Carroll on Isaac Asimov
“I met Asimov once, when he visited my undergraduate university. They thought it would be fun to show him around the astronomy department, much to his bemusement (he was trained as a chemist). He used his advanced age as an excuse for shamelessly flirting with every attractive woman within leering distance. I wonder what he was like before his age was so advanced?”
Marge Piercy "WHY SPECULATE ON THE FUTURE?" on Isaac Asimov
“the most fruitful ways to approach the future for me are speculative fiction or utopian fiction. Isaac Asimov once said that all science fiction falls into three categories: What if, If only, and If this continues.”
Harlan Ellison on Isaac Asimov
James Nicoll on Isaac Asimov
“Asimov was the sort of urbanophile who, if you dragged him out of New York to some backwater like Greensboro, NC, would probably crumble to dust to reform somewhere near Times Square.”
About Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov (c. 2 January 1920 – 6 April 1992) was a Russian-born American biochemist who was a prolific writer of both fiction and non-fiction, his works include the Foundation series and I, Robot.