Quote

Aimless extension of knowledge, however, which is what I think you really mean by the term curiosity, is merely inefficiency. I am designed to avoid inefficiency.” -R. Daneel Olivaw

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
Knowledge
Extension
Mean
Extensions
Really
Designed
Think
Curiosity
Thinking
Avoid
Merely
However
Aimless
Term
Inefficiency

More quotes by Isaac Asimov

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Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.
Isaac Asimov
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An atom-blaster is a good weapon, but it can point both ways.
Isaac Asimov
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What would you consider a good job? Answered as follows: A good job is one in which I don't have to work, and get paid a lot of money. When I heard that I cheered and yelled and felt that he should be given an A+, for he had perfectly articulated the American dream of those who despise knowledge. What a politician that kid would have made.
Isaac Asimov
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[O]ur statesmen, our businessmen, our everyman must take on a science fictional way of thinking.
Isaac Asimov
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Tens of millions of Americans who neither know or understand the actual arguments for, or even against, evolution, march in the Army of the Night with their Bibles held high
Isaac Asimov
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This idea [standardized time zones] was first advanced and fought for by Sandford Fleming of Canada and Charles F. Dowd of the United States. I mention them chiefly because like so many benefactors of mankind they have been rewarded by total obscurity.
Isaac Asimov
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Postulates are based on assumption and adhered to by faith. Nothing in the Universe can shake them.
Isaac Asimov
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Surely no child, and few adults, have ever watched a bird in flight without envy.
Isaac Asimov
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God, how that stings! I've spent a lifetime loving science fiction and now I find that you must expect nothing of something that's just science fiction.
Isaac Asimov
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Humanists recognize that it is only when people feel free to think for themselves, using reason as their guide, that they are best capable of developing values that succeed in satisfying human needs and serving human interests.
Isaac Asimov
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Speech as known to us was unnecessary. A fragment of a sentence amounted almost to a long-winded redundancy. A gesture, a grunt, the curve of a facial line--even a significantly timed pause yielded informational juice.
Isaac Asimov
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A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Isaac Asimov
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During the century after Newton, it was still possible for a man of unusual attainments to master all fields of scientific knowledge. But by 1800, this had become entirely impracticable.
Isaac Asimov
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I don’t believe in extraordinary concatenations of coincidence.
Isaac Asimov
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Having reached 451 books as of now doesn't help the situation. If I were to be dying now, I would be murmuring, Too bad! Only four hundred fifty-one. (Those would be my next-to-last words. The last ones will be: I love you, Janet.) [They were. -Janet.]
Isaac Asimov
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I would argue that a truly developed country would be beyond Presidents and Kings. In a world with some semblance of equality, each liberal-minded woman, each gay person, and indeed almost every person could be their own President. In a world of equals, what real service does a ruler provide?
Isaac Asimov
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You can prove anything you want by coldly logical reason---if you pick the proper postulates.
Isaac Asimov
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No one can possibly have lived through the Great Depression without being scarred by it. No amount of experience since the depression can convince someone who has lived through it that the world is safe economically.
Isaac Asimov
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Naturally, there's got to be a limit for I don't expect to live forever, but I do intend to hang on as long as possible.
Isaac Asimov
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Words are a pretty fuzzy substitute for mathematical equations.
Isaac Asimov