Quote

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.

Isaac Asimov

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Lasts
Effect
Pain
Laughter
Jobs
Created
Without
Tears
Affecting
Writing
Reader
Remorse
Mind
Cutting
Phrase
Make
Effects
Phrases
Joy
Mercy

More quotes by Isaac Asimov

Image
The cure for advanced gullibility is to go to sleep and consider matters again the next day.
Isaac Asimov
Image
Author's Notes: This story starts with section 6. This is not a mistake. I have my own subtle reasoning. So, just read, and enjoy.
Isaac Asimov
Image
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.
Isaac Asimov
Image
When people thought the earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together.
Isaac Asimov
Image
Now remember, kids, the internet is serious business.
Isaac Asimov
Image
This game the Persian Magi did invent, The force of Eastern wisdom to express: From thence to busy Europeans sent, And styled by modern Lombards pensive chess.
Isaac Asimov
Image
I don’t like anything that’s got to be. I want to know why.
Isaac Asimov
Image
With both people and computers on the job, computer error can be more quickly tracked down and corrected by people and, conversely, human error can be more quickly corrected by computers. What it amounts to is that nothing serious can happen unless human error and computer error take place simultaneously. And that hardly ever happens.
Isaac Asimov
Image
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
Image
The whole world might know you and acclaim you, but someone in the past, forever unreachable, forever unknowing, spoils it all.
Isaac Asimov
Image
All of a sudden, space isn't friendly. All of a sudden, it's a place where people can die. . . . Many more people are going to die. But we can't explore space if the requirement is that there be no casualties we can't do anything if the requirement is that there be no casualties.
Isaac Asimov
Image
The human brain, then, is the most complicated organization of matter that we know.
Isaac Asimov
Image
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
Image
Do not forget that a traitor within our ranks, known to us, can do more harm to the enemy than a loyal man can do good to us.
Isaac Asimov
Image
However, I continue to try and I continue, indefatigably, to reach out. There's no way I can single-handedly save the world or, perhaps, even make a perceptible difference - but how ashamed I would be to let a day pass without making one more effort.
Isaac Asimov
Image
Words are a pretty fuzzy substitute for mathematical equations.
Isaac Asimov
Image
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.
Isaac Asimov
Image
Many adults, whether consciously or unconsciously, find it beneath their adult dignity to do anything as childish as read a book, think a thought, or get an idea. Adults are rarely embarrased at having forgotten what little algebra or geography they once learned
Isaac Asimov
Image
The true delight is in the finding out rather than in the knowing.
Isaac Asimov
Image
We all know we fall. Newton's discovery was that the moon falls, too-and by the same rule that we do.
Isaac Asimov