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One of Walt Whitman's best-known poems is this one: When I heard the learn'd astronomer,.... The trouble is, Whitman is talking through his hat, but the poor soul didn't know any better

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
Best
Hats
Soul
Trouble
Better
Heard
Known
Astronomer
Talking
Whitman
Poor
Astronomers
Learn
Walt
Didn
Poems

More quotes by Isaac Asimov

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It’s a poor atom blaster that won’t point both ways.
Isaac Asimov
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Saying something is 'too bad' is easy. You say you disapprove, which makes you a nice person, and then you can go about your business and not be interested anymore. It's a lot worse than 'too bad.' It's against everything decent and natural.
Isaac Asimov
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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.
Isaac Asimov
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At odd and unpredictable times, we cling in fright to the past .
Isaac Asimov
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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
Isaac Asimov
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The Bible contains legendary, historical, and ethical contents. It is quite possible to consider them separately, and one doesn't have to accept the legends in order to get the ethics. Fundamentalists make a grave mistake to insist on the letter of the writings, because they drive away many who can't swallow the Adam-and-Eve bit.
Isaac Asimov
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When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent.
Isaac Asimov
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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.
Isaac Asimov
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I expect death to be nothingness and, for removing me from all possible fears of death, I am thankful to atheism.
Isaac Asimov
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Dreams may be impossible, yet still be dreamed.
Isaac Asimov
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Was there anything more exciting in life than seeking answers?
Isaac Asimov
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I am the beneficiary of a lucky break in the genetic sweepstakes.
Isaac Asimov
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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.
Isaac Asimov
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It is almost impossible to think of something no one has thought of before, but it is always possible to add different frills.
Isaac Asimov
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Thinking is the activity I love best, and writing to me is simply thinking through my fingers. I can write up to 18 hours a day. Typing 90 words a minute, I've done better than 50 pages a day. Nothing interferes with my concentration. You could put an orgy in my office and I wouldn't look up-well, maybe once.
Isaac Asimov
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Korell is that frequent phenomenon in history : the republic whose ruler has every attribute of the absolute monarch but the name. It therefore enjoyed the usual despotism unrestrained even by those two moderating influences in the legitimate monarchies: regal honor and court etiquette.
Isaac Asimov
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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
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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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I have written 240 books on a wide variety of topics. . . . Some of it I based on education I received in my school, but most of it was backed by other ways of learning - chiefly in the books I obtained in the public library.
Isaac Asimov
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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.
Isaac Asimov