WIST

It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American writer
“My Own View,” The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction [ed. Robert Holdstock] (1978)

To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today.

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American writer
“The ‘Threat’ of Creationism,” New York Times Magazine (14 Jun 1981)

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 (1920-1992) Russian-American writer
“The Planet that Wasn’t,” The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (May 1975)
Full text.

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.
… My answer to him was, “… 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 (1920-1992) Russian-American writer
“The Relativity of Wrong” (1996)

The true delight is in the finding out rather than in the knowing.

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American writer
(Attributed)

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not “Eureka!” but “That’s funny…”

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American writer
(Attributed)

I am completely convinced that hell does not exist except in the minds of pious sadists.

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American writer
(Attributed)

Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome.

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American writer
(Attributed)

We have only a slim chance of getting through the problems that face us now, but if too many Miniver Cheevys sit back to drink and long for a non-existent past, that slim chance will decrease to zero.

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American writer
Familiar Poems, Annotated, “Miniver Cheevy” (1977)

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

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American writer
Fantasy & Science Fiction (in answer to Clarke’s First Law) (1977)

I am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it. I’ve been an atheist for years and years, but somehow I felt it was intellectually unrespectable to say one was an atheist, because it assumed knowledge that one didn’t have. Somehow, it was better to say one was a humanist or an agnostic. I finally decided that I’m a creature of emotion as well as of reason. Emotionally, I am an atheist. I don’t have the evidence to prove that God doesn’t exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn’t that I don’t want to waste my time.

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American writer
Free Inquiry (Spring 1982)

From my close observation of writers (almost all my friends are writers) they fall into two groups: 1) those who bleed copiously and visibly at any bad review, and 2) those who bleed copiously and secretly at any bad review.

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American writer
Gold: The Final Science Fiction Collection, Part III, ch 10 “Book Reviews” (2003)
Full text.

Any technological advance can be dangerous. Fire was dangerous from the start, and so (even more so) was speech — and both are still dangerous to this day — but human beings would not be human without them.

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American writer
The Caves of Steel, Introduction (novel 1954, intro 1983)

Even as a youngster, though, I could not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presented danger, the solution was ignorance. To me, it always seemed that the solution had to be wisdom. You did not refuse to look at danger, rather you learned how to handle it safely.

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American writer
The Caves of Steel, Introduction (novel 1954, intro 1983)

Don’t you believe in flying saucers, they ask me? Don’t you believe in telepathy? — in ancient astronauts? — in the Bermuda triangle? — in life after death?
No, I reply. No, no, no, no, and again no.
One person recently, goaded into desperation by the litany of unrelieved negation, burst out “Don’t you believe in anything?”
“Yes,” I said. “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 (1920-1992) Russian-American writer
The Roving Mind (1983)

Knowledge is indivisible. When people grow wise in one direction, they are sure to make it easier for themselves to grow wise in other directions as well. On the other hand, when they split up knowledge, concentrate on their own field, and scorn and ignore other fields, they grow less wise — even in their own field.

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American writer
The Roving Mind (1983)

If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American writer
Interview, Life (Jan 1984)
In Asimov Laughs Again (1992), he phrased it this way: "I was once being interviewed by Barbara Walters ... In between two of the segments she asked me ... 'But what would you do if the doctor gave you only six months to live?' I said, 'Type faster.' This was widely quoted, but the 'six months' was changed to 'six minutes,' which bothered me. It's 'six months.'"

I don’t subscribe to the thesis, “Let the buyer beware.” I prefer the disregarded one that goes, “Let the seller be honest.”‘

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American writer
Letter to Stanley Asimov (13 Apr 1969)
In Stanley Asimov, Yours, Isaac Asimov, A Lifetime of Letters, ch. 38 "Modesty, Honest, and Other Traits" (1995)