Quote

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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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
Lines
Fragments
Fragment
Almost
Juice
Significantly
Informational
Known
Gestures
Facial
Winded
Even
Unnecessary
Curve
Amounted
Long
Sentence
Gesture
Timed
Sentences
Pause
Redundancy
Speech
Pauses
Grunt
Line
Curves
Yielded

More quotes by Isaac Asimov

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I type 90 words per minute on the typewriter I type 100 words per minute on the word processor. But, of course, I don't keep that up indefinitely - every once in a while I do have to think a few seconds.
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Of course there are worlds. Millions of them! Every star you see has worlds, and most of those you don't see.
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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Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.
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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 don’t like anything that’s got to be. I want to know why.
Isaac Asimov
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The young specialist in English Lit, ...lectured me severely on the fact that in every century people have thought they understood the Universe at last, and in every century they were proved to be wrong. It follows that the one thing we can say about our modern knowledge is that it is wrong.
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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.
Isaac Asimov
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Words are a pretty fuzzy substitute for mathematical equations.
Isaac Asimov
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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.
Isaac Asimov
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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
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It is the nature of the mind that makes individuals kin, and the differences in the shape, form or manner of the material atoms out of whose intricate relationships that mind is built are altogether trivial.
Isaac Asimov
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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.
Isaac Asimov
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There is nothing so eternally adhesive as the memory of power.
Isaac Asimov
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To bring about destruction by overcrowding, mass starvation, anarchy, the destruction of our most cherished values, there is no need to do anything. We need only do nothing except what comes naturally, and breed. And how easy it is to do nothing
Isaac Asimov
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Man's greatest asset is the unsettled mind.
Isaac Asimov
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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.
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I'm gradually managing to cram my mind more and more full of things. I've got this beautiful mind and it's going to die, and it'll all be gone. And then I say, not in my case. Every idea I've ever had I've written down, and it's all there on paper. And I won't be gone it'll be there.
Isaac Asimov
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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.
Isaac Asimov
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It seems to me that God is a convenient invention of the human mind
Isaac Asimov