Week 2023-25: Isaac Asimov - Collected Quotes

"Old men tend to forget what thought was like in their youth; they forget the quickness of the mental jump, the daring of the youthful intuition, the agility of the fresh insight. They become accustomed to the more plodding varieties of reason, and because this is more than made up by the accumulation of experience, old men think themselves wiser than the young." (Isaac Asimov, "Pebble in the Sky", 1950)

"The easiest way to solve a problem is to deny it exists." (Isaac Asimov, "The Gods Themselves", 1972)

"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, "Science Past, Science Future", 1975)

"People are entirely too disbelieving of coincidence. They are far too ready to dismiss it and to build arcane structures of extremely rickety substance in order to avoid it. I, on the other hand, see coincidence everywhere as an inevitable consequence of the laws of probability, according to which having no unusual coincidence is far more unusual than any coincidence could possibly be." (Isaac Asimov, "The Planet That Wasn't", 1976)

"At odd and unpredictable times, we cling in fright to the past." (Isaac Asimov, "Foundation's Edge", 1982)

"The greatest weapons in the conquest of knowledge are an understanding mind and the inexorable curiosity that drives it on." (Isaac Asimov, "Asimov's New Guide to Science", 1984)

"If we only obey those rules that we think are just and reasonable, then no rule will stand, for there is no rule that some will not think is unjust and unreasonable." (Isaac Asimov, "Foundation and Earth", 1986)

"A subtle thought that is in error may yet give rise to fruitful inquiry that can establish truths of great value." (Isaac Asimov, "Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations", 1988)

"Any increase in knowledge anywhere helps pave the way for an increase in knowledge everywhere." (Isaac Asimov, "Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations", 1988)

"There is very little flexibility in the behavior of the Universe. What it does once, it does again." (Isaac Asimov, "Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations", 1988)

"What makes it so hard to organize the environment sensibly is that everything we touch is hooked up to everything else." (Isaac Asimov, "Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations", 1988)