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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

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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
Probably
Distinguished
Public
Scientists
Support
Round
Idea
Rounds
Rallies
Science
Lays
Denounced
Ideas
Scientist
Fervor
Right
However
Supports
Great
Emotion
Elderly

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The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.
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I am all for cultural diversity and would be willing to see each recognizable group value its cultural heritage. I am a New York patriot, for instance, and if I lived in Los Angeles, I would love to get together with other New York expatriates and sing Give My Regards to Broadway.
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When I sit down at the typewriter, I write. Someone once asked me if I had a fixed routine before I start, like setting up exercises, sharpening pencils, or having a drink of orange juice. I said, No, the only thing I do before I start writing is to make sure that I'm close enough to the typewriter to reach the keys.
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If a conclusion is not poetically balanced, it cannot be scientifically true.
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Any fool can tell a crisis when it arrives. The real service to the state is to detect it in embryo.
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To succeed, planning alone is insufficient. One must improvise as well.
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The final end of Eternity, and the beginning of Infinity
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A myth or legend is simply not made up out of a vacuum. Nothing is--or can be. Somehow there is a kernel of truth behind it, however distorted that might be.
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The appearance of strength is all about you. It would seem to last forever. However... the rotten tree-trunk, until the very moment when the storm-blast breaks it in two, has all the appearance of might it ever had. The storm-blast whistles through the branches of the Empire even now. Listen... and you will hear the creaking.
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You wait for the war to happen like vultures. If you want to help, prevent the war. Don't save the remnants. Save them all.
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The vast majority, who believe in astrology and think that the planets have nothing better to do than form a code that will tell them whether tomorrow is a good day to close a business deal or not, become all the more excited and enthusiastic.
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Even as a youngster, though, I could not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presented danger, the solution was ignorance. To me, it always seemed that the solution had to be wisdom. You did not refuse to look at danger, rather you learned how to handle it safely.
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The intelligent man is never bored.
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Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not.
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Now any dogma, based primarily on faith and emotionalism, is a dangerous weapon to use on others, since it is almost impossible to guarantee that the weapon will never be turned on the user.
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Happiness is doing it rotten your own way.
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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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And in man is a three-pound brain which, as far as we know, is the most complex and orderly arrangement of matter in the universe.
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All humanity could share a common insanity and be immersed in a common illusion while living in a common chaos. That can't be disproved, but we have no choice but to follow our senses.
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There are so many benefits to be derived from space exploration and exploitation why not take what seems to me the only chance of escaping what is otherwise the sure destruction of all that humanity has struggled to achieve for 50,000 years?
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