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Inertia! Our ruling class knows one law no change. Despotism! They know one rule force. Maldistribution! They know one desire to hold what is theirs.

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
Force
Desire
Inertia
Change
Despotism
Ruling
Rule
Hold
Class
Law

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I prefer rationalism to atheism. The question of God and other objects-of-faith are outside reason and play no part in rationalism, thus you don't have to waste your time in either attacking or defending.
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You show me someone who can't understand people and I'll show you someone who has built up a false image of himself.
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Why ... did so many people spend their lives not trying to find answers to questions -- not even thinking of questions to begin with? Was there anything more exciting in life than seeking answers?
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The further a device is removed from human control, the more authentically mechanical it seems, and the whole trend in technology has been to devise machines that are less and less under direct human control and more and more under their own apparent will.
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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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Humanity is cutting down its forests, apparently oblivious to the fact that we may not be able to live without them.
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To test a perfect theory with imperfect instruments did not impress the Greek philosophers as a valid way to gain knowledge.
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The Tyranni rule fifty worlds they are outnumbered hundreds to one. In such a position, simple force is insufficient. Devious methods, intrigue, assassination are their specialties. The net they weave across space is a wide one, and close-meshed. I can well believe that it extends across five hundred light-years to Earth.
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[Social] science fiction is that branch of literature which is concerned with the impact of scientific advance on human beings.
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A good question is, of course, the key by which infinite answers can be educed.
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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
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So, then, what is style? There are two chief aspects of any piece of writing: 1) what you say and 2) how you say it. The former is content and the latter is style.
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In my life there have been several individuals whose presence made it easier for me to think, pleasanter to make my responses.
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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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After years of finding mathematics easy, I finally reached integral calculus and came up against a barrier. I realized that this was as far as I could go, and to this day I have never successfully gone beyond it in any but the most superficial way.
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When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent.
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