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Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov Quotes

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Famous Isaac Asimov Quotes

“Speech, originally, was the device whereby Man learned, imperfectly, to transmit the thoughts and emotions of his mind. By setting up arbitrary sounds and combinations of sounds to represent certain mental nuances, he developed a method of communication--but one which in its clumsiness and thick-thumbed inadequacy degenerated all the delicacy of the mind into gross and guttural signaling.”

MenMindCertainLanguageSoundEmotionCommunicationSpeechMethodSettingSettingsCombinationDevicesThickGrossArbitraryNuanceTransmitDelicacyInadequacyThoughts And EmotionsClumsiness
Book:Foundation Trilogy
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“Imagine the people who believe such things and who are not ashamed to ignore, totally, all the patient findings of thinking minds through all the centuries since the Bible was written. And it is these ignorant people, the most uneducated, the most unimaginative, the most unthinking among us, who would make themselves the guides and leaders of us all; who would force their feeble and childish beliefs on us; who would invade our schools and libraries and homes. I personally resent it bitterly.”

PeopleThinkingMindBelieveHomeSchoolScienceReligionBeliefForceLeaderImagineWrittenCenturyIgnoranceFindingsPatientLibraryGuidesIgnorantBitterAshamedScience And ReligionResentOrganized ReligionUneducatedScience ReligionIgnorant PeopleThinking MindWillful IgnoranceRovingEducated And Uneducated
Author:Isaac Asimov
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“Despite all that education and experience can do, I retain a certain level of unsophistication that I cannot eradicate and that my friends find amusing. In fact, I think I sometimes detect conspiratorial plottings among my friends to protect me against my own lack of sophistication. I don't mind. I suspect that I am never quite as unsophisticated as they think I am, but I don't mind.”

ThinkingMindSometimesFactsCertainCan DoMy OwnLevelsProtectMy FriendsDespiteSuspectsAmusingSophistication
Author:Isaac Asimov
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“I made up my mind long ago to follow one cardinal rule in all my writing-to be clear. I have given up all thought of writing poetically or symbolically or experimentally, or in any of the other modes that might (if I were good enough) get me a Pulitzer prize. I would write merely clearly and in this way establish a warm relationship between myself and my readers, and the professional critics-Well, they can do whatever they wish.”

IfsWayWritingMindWellsLongMadeEnoughMightGivenWishCan DoClearReaderCriticsWarmPrizeGood EnoughLong AgoGiven UpCardinalsCardinal Rules
Author:Isaac Asimov
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“Plate glass... has no beauty of its own. Ideally, you ought not to be able to see it at all, but through it you can see all that is happening outside. That is the equivalent of writing that is plain and unadorned. Ideally, in reading such writing, you are not even aware that you are reading. Ideas and events seem merely to flow from the mind of the writer into that of the reader without any barrier between. I hope that is what is happening when you read this book”

WritingMindBookIdeasSeemsAbleReadingEventsOughtReaderHappeningsFlowGlassesBarriersPlates
Author:Isaac Asimov
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