# Isaac Asimov - Quotes: 194 - Author page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov ## Books - [Forward the Foundation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/forward-the-foundation.md) — 4 quotes - [Foundation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/foundation.md) — 24 quotes - [Foundation and Earth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/foundation-and-earth.md) — 3 quotes - [Foundation and Empire](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/foundation-and-empire.md) — 8 quotes - [I, Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov.md) — 47 quotes - [I, Robot](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-robot.md) — 14 quotes - [Pebble in the Sky](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/pebble-in-the-sky.md) — 6 quotes - [Prelude to Foundation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation.md) — 26 quotes - [Second Foundation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/second-foundation.md) — 11 quotes - [The Caves of Steel](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-caves-of-steel.md) — 9 quotes - [The Currents of Space](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-currents-of-space.md) — 10 quotes - [The End of Eternity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-end-of-eternity.md) — 1 quote - [The Gods Themselves](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-gods-themselves.md) — 13 quotes - [The Naked Sun](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-naked-sun.md) — 9 quotes - [The Robots of Dawn](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-robots-of-dawn.md) — 1 quote - [The Stars, Like Dust](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-stars-like-dust.md) — 8 quotes ## Recently added quotes > Nor did I learn about sex from any reasoned source of instruction. I learned about it from the distorted and imperfect knowledge of other boys. This is the usual fate enforced upon youngsters by a society that is too prim and too hypocritical to have sex taught like any other branch of knowledge. > > Considering how important sex is, how great a source of joy, how enormous a source of misery and disease, how is permeates the workings of courtship and marriage, isn’t it strange that we go to great lengths to teach our children to play football and make no effort whatever to teach them to play sex? p. 93 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov/nor-did-i-learn.md) Topics: [society](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society.md), [hypocrisy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hypocrisy.md) > 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. p. 421 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov/there-are-no-nations.md) Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [society](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society.md) > Publishers, with their usual bravery, dumbed down their books in order to make money at the expense of leaving American children undereducated or, worse, miseducated. p. 306 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov/publishers-with-their.md) Topics: [knowledge](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge.md), [money](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/money.md) > I refuse to consider myself to be anything more sharply defined than “human being,” and I feel that aside from overpopulation the most intractable problem we face in trying to avoid the destruction of civilization and humanity is the diabolical habit of people dividing themselves into tiny groups, with each group extolling itself and denouncing its neighbors. p. 325 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov/i-refuse-to-consider.md) Topics: [society](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society.md), [identity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity.md) > I received other options but nothing ever happened and I developed what I call Asimov’s First Law of Hollywood, which goes as follows: > > “Whatever happens, nothing happens!” p. 371 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov/i-received-other.md) > However trashy pulp fiction might be, it had to be read. Youngsters avid for the corny, lightning-jagged, cliché-ridden, clumsy stories had to read words and sentences to satisfy their craving. It trained everyone who read it in literacy, and a small percentage of them may that have passed on to better things. > > Now consider what has happened since.… > > In general, the trend over the last half century or so has been away from the word to the picture. The comic magazines increased the level of looking, decreased the level of reading. The television set is carried this to an extreme. p. 46 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov/however-trashy-pulp.md) Topics: [reading](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reading.md) > When Israel was first founded in 1948 and all my Jewish friends were jubilant, I was the skeleton at the feast. I said, ‘“We are building ourselves a ghetto. We will be surrounded by tens of millions of Muslims who will never forgive, never forget, and never go away.” > > I was right. p. 420 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov/when-israel-was.md) Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md) > As the Reagan administration continued to transfer funds from hospitals and other much-needed social institutions into the pockets of arms manufacturers and politicians, working conditions grew steadily worse. p. 487 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov/as-the-reagan.md) Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md) > Of course, some people did not like my headnotes. They took them to represent an unhealthy, hypertrophied ego on my part. It’s not true, of course. I just like myself, that’s all, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. One critic wrote something I’m willing to agree with. He said, “The man is very immodest, but he has much to be immodest about.” p. 298 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov/of-course-some.md) Topics: [pride](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pride.md) > As far as we know, the human species is the only one that understands that death is inevitable, not only in general but in every individual’s case. p. 335 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov/as-far-as-we-know.md) Topics: [death](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death.md) > Ronald Reagan I have always viewed as a brainless fellow who echoes the opinions of anyone who gets close to him. p. 77 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov/ronald-reagan-i-have.md) Topics: [stupidity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stupidity.md) > What I do now is think of a problem and a resolution to that problem. I then begin the story, making it up as I go along, having all the excitement of finding out what will happen to the characters and how they will get out of their scrapes, but working steadily toward the known resolution, so that I don’t get lost en route. > > When I asked for advice for beginners, I always stress that. Know your ending, I say, or the river of your story may finally sink into the desert sands and never reach the sea. p. 49 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov/what-i-do-now.md) Topics: [writing](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/writing.md)