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The laws of history are as absolute as the laws of physics, and if the probabilities of error are greater, it is only because history does not deal with as many humans as physics does atoms, so that individual variations count for more.

Isaac Asimov

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Isaac Asimov
Age: 72 †
Born: 1920
Born: January 2
Died: 1992
Died: April 6
Author
Autobiographer
Biochemist
Journalist
Non-Fiction Writer
Novelist
Prosaist
Science Fiction Writer
Science Writer
Scientist
Isaak Osimov
Paul French
Asimov
Isaak Ozimov
Law
Count
Greater
Physics
Probabilities
Individual
Absolutes
Variations
History
Absolute
Sociology
Doe
Errors
Variation
Humans
Laws
Probability
Many
Deal
Atoms
Deals
Error

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It seems to me, Golan, that the advance of civilization is nothing but an exercise in the limiting of privacy.
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There was this superstitious fear on the part of the pygmies of the present for the relics of the giants of the past.
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We're forever teetering on the brink of the unknowable, and trying to understand what can't be understood.
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Past glories are poor feeding.
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He always pictured himself a libertarian, which to my way of thinking means I want the liberty to grow rich and you can have the liberty to starve. It's easy to believe that no one should depend on society for help when you yourself happen not to need such help.
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Life originated in the sea, and about eighty percent of it is still there.
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No matter how carefully records are kept and filed and computerized, they grow fuzzy with time. Stories grow by accretion. Tales accumulate--like dust. The longer the time lapse, the dustier the history--until it degenerates into fables.
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Jokes of the proper kind, properly told, can do more to enlighten questions of politics, philosophy, and literature than any number of dull arguments.
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The Three Theorems of Psychohistorical Quantitivity: The population under scrutiny is oblivious to the existence of the science of Psychohistory. The time periods dealt with are in the region of 3 generations. The population must be in the billions (±75 billions) for a statistical probability to have a psychohistorical validity.
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The true artist is quite rational as well as imaginative and knows what he is doing if he does not, his art suffers.
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Although the time of death is approaching me, I am not afraid of dying and going to Hell or (what would be considerably worse) going to the popularized version of Heaven. I expect death to be nothingness and, for removing me from all possible fears of death, I am thankful to atheism.
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Why is it, I wonder, that anyone who displays superior athletic ability is an object of admiration to his classmates, while one who displays superior mental ability is an object of hatred?
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When I feel difficulty coming on, I switch to another book I'm writing. When I get back to the problem, my unconscious has solved it.
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It's not so much what you have to learn if you accept weird theories, it's what you have to UNlearn.
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I never considered myself a patriot. I like to think I recognize only humanity as my nation.
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The peace and joy of the Christmas season was marred by a proclamation of a general strike of all the military forces of the world. Panic reigns in the hearts of all the patriots of every persuasion. Meanwhile, fears of universal disaster sank to an all-time low over the world.
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Mathematicians deal with large numbers sometimes, but never in their income.
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Surely no child, and few adults, have ever watched a bird in flight without envy.
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What lasts in the reader's mind is not the phrase but the effect the phrase created: laughter, tears, pain, joy. If the phrase is not affecting the reader, what's it doing there? Make it do its job or cut it without mercy or remorse.
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Modern science fiction is the only form of literature that consistently considers the nature of the changes that face us.
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