25 Famous Isaac Asimov Quotes
Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) was a Russian-born American biochemist and one of history’s most prolific authors, famous for his influential science fiction, including the Foundation and Robot series, and for popularizing science with accessible books. A key figure in science fiction’s “Golden Age,” he introduced the ethical “Three Laws of Robotics” and penned over 500 books on diverse subjects, blending science, fantasy, and mystery into a vast literary universe.
- “There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”” ~ Isaac Asimov
- “When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent.” ~ Isaac Asimov
- “Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is. The only function of a school is to make self-education easier; failing that, it does nothing.” ~ Isaac Asimov
- “The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.” ~ Isaac Asimov
- “The easiest way to solve a problem is to deny it exists.” ~ Isaac Asimov
- “The day you stop learning is the day you begin decaying.” ~ Isaac Asimov
- “Imagine the people who believe such things and who are not ashamed to ignore, totally, all the patient findings of thinking minds through all the centuries since the Bible was written. And it is these ignorant people, the most uneducated, the most unimaginative, the most unthinking among us, who would make themselves the guides and leaders of us all; who would force their feeble and childish beliefs on us; who would invade our schools and libraries and homes. I personally resent it bitterly.” ~ Isaac Asimov
- “Maybe happiness is this: not feeling like you should be elsewhere, doing something else, being someone else.” ~ Isaac Asimov
- “Today’s science fiction is tomorrow’s science fact.” ~ Isaac Asimov
- “So the universe is not quite as you thought it was. You’d better rearrange your beliefs, then. Because you certainly can’t rearrange the universe.” ~ Isaac Asimov
- “What is really amazing, and frustrating, is mankind’s habit of refusing to see the obvious and inevitable until it is there, and then muttering about unforeseen catastrophes.” ~ Isaac Asimov
- “Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.” ~ Isaac Asimov
- “People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” ~ Isaac Asimov
- “There are no nations! There is only humanity. And if we don’t come to understand that right soon, there will be no nations, because there will be no humanity.” ~ Isaac Asimov
- “The true delight is in the finding out rather than in the knowing.” ~ Isaac Asimov
- “People think of education as something that they can finish.” ~ Isaac Asimov
- “Any book worth banning is a book worth reading.” ~ Isaac Asimov
- “Science can amuse and fascinate us all, but it is engineering that changes the world.” ~ Isaac Asimov
- “It is well-known that the friend of a conqueror is but the last victim.” ~ Isaac Asimov
- “It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish when faced boldly.” ~ Isaac Asimov
- “I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I’ll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.” ~ Isaac Asimov
- “There seems to be a feeling that anything that is natural is good. Strychnine is natural.” ~ Isaac Asimov
- “Life is a journey, but don’t worry, you’ll find a parking spot at the end.” ~ Isaac Asimov
- “The soft bonds of love are indifferent to life and death. They hold through time so that yesterday’s love is part of today’s and the confidence in tomorrow’s love is also part of today’s. And when one dies, the memory lives in the other, and is warm and breathing. And when both die – I almost believe, rationalist though I am – that somewhere it remains, indestructible and eternal, enriching all of the universe by the mere fact that once it existed.” ~ Isaac Asimov
- “Science is uncertain. Theories are subject to revision; observations are open to a variety of interpretations, and scientists quarrel amongst themselves. This is disillusioning for those untrained in the scientific method, who thus turn to the rigid certainty of the Bible instead. There is something comfortable about a view that allows for no deviation and that spares you the painful necessity of having to think.” ~ Isaac Asimov
