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Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov Quotes

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Famous Isaac Asimov Quotes

“Democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive it. Convenience and decency cannot survive it. As you put more and more people into the world, the value of life not only declines, but it disappears. It doesn't matter if someone dies.”

PeopleIfsWorldHumansMatterValuesDiesIndividualDemocracyDignityPopulationDisappearDeclineDecencyConvenienceHuman DignityValue Of LifePopulation GrowthOverpopulationPopulation ControlWorld PopulationHuman PopulationReproductive HealthSmart Growth
Author:Isaac Asimov
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“One might suppose that reality must be held to at all costs. However, though that may be the moral thing to do, it is not necessarily the most useful thing to do. The Greeks themselves chose the ideal over the real in their geometry and demonstrated very well that far more could be achieved by consideration of abstract line and form than by a study of the real lines and forms of the world; the greater understanding achieved through abstraction could be applied most usefully to the very reality that was ignored in the process of gaining knowledge.”

WorldWellsMayRealRealityMightFormProcessUnderstandingLinesMoralStudyGreaterCostIdealsMathGreekThings To DoAbstractConsiderationIgnoredAbstractionGeometryUseful ThingsGaining Knowledge
Author:Isaac Asimov
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“Increasingly, our leaders must deal with dangers that threaten the entire world, where an understanding of those dangers and the possible solutions depends on a good grasp of science. The ozone layer, the greenhouse effect, acid rain, questions of diet and heredity. All require scientific literacy. Can Americans choose the proper leaders and support the proper programs if they themselves are scientifically illiterate? The whole premise of democracy is that it is safe to leave important questions to the court of public opinion - but is it safe to leave them to the court of public ignorance?”

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Author:Isaac Asimov
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“How then to enforce peace? Not by reason, certainly, nor by education. If a man could not look at the fact of peace and the fact of war and choose the former in preference to the latter, what additional argument could persuade him? What could be more eloquent as a condemnation of war than war itself? What tremendous feat of dialectic could carry with it a tenth the power of a single gutted ship with its ghastly cargo?”

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Book:Triangle: The currents of space; Pebble in the sky; The stars, like dust
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“We mythologists know very well that myths and legends contain borrowings, moral lessons, nature cycles, and a hundred other distorting influences, and we labor to cut them away and get to what might be a kernel of truth. In fact, these same techniques must be applied to the most sober histories, for no one writes the clear and apparent truth-if such a thing can even be said to exist.”

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Book:Foundation and Earth
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“The fall of Empire, gentlemen, is a massive thing, however, and not easily fought. It is dictated by a rising bureaucracy, a receding initiative, a freezing of caste, a damming of curiosity — a hundred other factors. It has been going on, as I have said, for centuries, and it is too majestic and massive a movement to stop.”

Has BeensSaidFallCenturyMovementHundredCuriosityFactorsGentlemanRisingEmpiresMassiveInitiativeBureaucracyMajesticCastesFreezing
Book:Foundation Trilogy
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“It took me thirty-six years; and, in some fifty stories, ranging in length from short-shorts to novels, I think I must have touched, in one way or another, on every aspect of computers and computerization. And (mark this!) I did it without ever knowing anything at all about computers in any real sense. To this day, I don't. I am totally inept with machinery... on my typewriter I turn out books at the contemptible rate of one a month”

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Author:Isaac Asimov
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“The Iranians are Moslems and the Iraqi are Moslems. Both are certain that there is no God but Allah and that Mohammed is his prophet and believe it with all their hearts. And yet, at the moment, Iraq doesn't trust Iran worth a damn, and Iran trusts Iraq even less than that. In fact, Iran is convinced that Iraq is in the pay of the Great Satan (that's God-fearing America, in case you've forgotten) and Iraq counters with the accusation that it is Iran who is in the pay of the Great Satan. Neither side is accusing the Godless Soviets of anything, which is a puzzle”

BelieveHeartMomentsFactsAmericaCertainSidesPayCasesForgottenIraqConvincedDamnSatanProphetIranPuzzlesThere Is No GodAccusationAccusing
Author:Isaac Asimov
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