“Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to be lost under the burden of juvenile folly and ignorant superstition.”
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Author detail
Asimov was born sometime between October 4, 1919 and January 2, 1920 in Petrovichi in Smolensk Oblast, RSFSR (now Russia), the son of a Jewish family of millers. Although his exact date of birth is uncertain, Asimov himself celebrated it on January 2. His family emigrated to Brooklyn, New York and opened a candy store when he was three years old. He taught himself to read at the age of five. He began reading the science fiction pulp magazines that his family's store carried. Around the age of eleven, he began to write his own stories, and by age nineteen, he was selling them to the science fiction magazines. He graduated from Columbia University in 1939. He married Gertrude Blugerman in 1942. During World War II he worked as a civilian at the Philadelphia Navy Yard's Naval Air Experimental Station. After the war, he returned to Columbia University and earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1948. He then joined the faculty of the Boston University School of Medicine until 1958, when he became a full-time writer. His first novel, [Pebble in the Sky](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL46402W), was published in 1950. He and his wife divorced in 1973, and he married Janet O. Jeppson the same year. He was a highly prolific writer, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 9,000 letters and postcards.
Quotes
Showing 61-80 of 80
“Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to be lost under the burden of juvenile folly and ignorant superstition.”
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“I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.”
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“Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest.”
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“He had read much, if one considers his long life; but his contemplation was much more than his reading. He was wont to say that if he had read as much as other men he should have known no mo...”
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“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 a...”
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“Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today - but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salva...”
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“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...”
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“The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'”
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“All sorts of computer errors are now turning up. You'd be surprised to know the number of doctors who claim they are treating pregnant men.”
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“Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.”
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“A subtle thought that is in error may yet give rise to fruitful inquiry that can establish truths of great value.”
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“I don't believe in personal immortality; the only way I expect to have some version of such a thing is through my books.”
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“Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.”
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“I don't expect to live forever, but I do intend to hang on as long as possible.”
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“Meanwhile, fears of universal disaster sank to an all time low over the world.”
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“Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right.”
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“And above all things, never think that you're not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. My belief is that in life people will take you at your own reckoning.”
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“It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety.”
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“I am not a speed reader. I am a speed understander.”
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“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.”
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