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aa6f23d
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The young specialist in English Lit, having quoted me, went on to lecture 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. The young man then quoted with approval what Socrates had said on learning that the Delphic oracle had proclaimed him the wi..
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understanding
universe
earth
wrong
theory
science
wisdom
flat-earth
scientific-theory
socrates
relativity
ignorance
knowledge
greece
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Isaac Asimov |
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c3e4d46
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I'll take that challenge. It's a dead hand against a living will.
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Isaac Asimov |
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1afbd85
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How then to enforce peace? Not by reason, certainly, nor by education. If a man could not look at the fact of peace and the fact of war and choose the former in preference to the latter, what additional argument could persuade him? What could be more eloquent as a condemnation of war than war itself?
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war
man
condemnation
preference
decision
peace
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Isaac Asimov |
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51a85ec
|
Lord Dorwin, gentlemen, in five days of discussion didn't say one damned thing, and said it so you never noticed.
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Isaac Asimov |
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8e752c8
|
In all the known history of Mankind, advances have been made primarily in physical technology; in the capacity of handling the inanimate world about Man. Control of self and society has been left to to chance or to the vague gropings of intuitive ethical systems based on inspiration and emotion. As a result no culture of greater stability than about fifty-five percent has ever existed, and these only as the result of great human misery.
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science-fiction
society
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Isaac Asimov |
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fdaeb8e
|
You don't beat refusal to believe in a frontal attack.
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Isaac Asimov |
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800c321
|
The fact of the matter is that young men lack skill and experience and are very likely to approach a girl as though she were a sack of wheat. It is the old man--suave, debonair, maturely charming--who knows exactly what to do and how to do it, and is therefore better at it.
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isaac-asimov
the-sensuous-dirty-old-man
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Isaac Asimov |
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e6d5d72
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To Mankind
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Isaac Asimov |
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7c4f48e
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You are a practical man, Elijah. You do not moon romantically over Earth's past, despite your healthy interest in it. Nor do you stubbornly embrace the City culture of Earth's present day. We felt that people such as yourself were the ones that could lead Earthmen to the stars once more.
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Isaac Asimov |
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c5072a2
|
The Solarians have given up something mankind has had for a million years; something worth more than atomic power, cities, agriculture, tools, fire, everything; because it's something that made everything possible (...) The tribe, sir. Cooperation between individuals.
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tribe
society
teamwork
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Isaac Asimov |
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6c03fcd
|
In themselves, harmless. As a group, incredibly dangerous.
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Isaac Asimov |
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9becfea
|
Fighting and scars are part of a trader's overhead. But fighting is only useful when there's money at the end, and if I can get it without, so much the sweeter.
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Isaac Asimov |
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5562779
|
Victories over ingrained patterns of thought are not won in a day or a year.
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Isaac Asimov |
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72e1fe9
|
Saying something is 'too bad' is easy. You say you disapprove, which makes you a nice person, and then you can go about your business and not be interested anymore. It's a lot worse than 'too bad.' It's against everything decent and natural.
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Isaac Asimov |
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60f9a2d
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It's just that old people always think young people haven't really learned about love; and young people think that old people have forgotten about love; and, you know, they're both wrong.
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Isaac Asimov |
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8d66301
|
Galaxy, he hated them! He stopped himself, drew a firm breath...There was no use thinking hate...He had learned to bear in silence. He ought not forget what he had learned now. Of all times, not now.
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Isaac Asimov |
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145c9ef
|
I tell you it's deadly when you start thinking your wife might be right.
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science-fiction
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Isaac Asimov |
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4eca3b9
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The robot said, 'I have been trying, friend Julius, to understand some remarks Elijah made to me earlier. Perhaps I am beginning to, for it suddenly seems to me that the destruction of what should not be, that is, the destruction of what you people call evil, is less just and desirable than the conversion of thi sevil into what you call good.' He hesitated, then, almost as though he were surprised at his own owrds, he said, 'Go, and sin n..
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Isaac Asimov |
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7547b1d
|
A great many things are possible." And to himself he added: But not practical."
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Isaac Asimov |
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294d3ce
|
A knotty puzzle may hold a scientist up for a century, when it may be that a colleague has the solution already and is not even aware of the puzzle that it might solve.
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open-source
solving-problems
puzzles
information-age
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Isaac Asimov |
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cad2304
|
After all, the essential point in running a risk is that the returns justify it.
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Isaac Asimov |
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154b804
|
Only a lie that wasn't ashamed of itself could possibly succeed
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Isaac Asimov |
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f09c114
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Speech, originally, was the device whereby Man learned, imperfectly, to transmit the thoughts and emotions of his mind. By setting up arbitrary sounds and combinations of sounds to represent certain mental nuances, he developed a method of communication - but one which in its clumsiness and thick-thumbed inadequacy degenerated all the delicacy of the mind into gross and guttural signaling
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Isaac Asimov |
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d52e86d
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Because, if you stop to think of it, the three Rules of Robotics are the essential guiding principles of a good many of the world's ethical systems. Of course, every human being is supposed to have the instinct of self-preservation. That's Rule Three to a robot. Also every 'good' human being, with a social conscience and a sense of responsibility, is supposed to defer to proper authority; to listen to his doctor, his boss, his government, h..
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Isaac Asimov |
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1726d32
|
Jessie rummaged through her purse for the necessary equipment. If there were one thing, Baley had once said solemnly, that had resisted mechanical improvement since medieval times, it was a woman's purse.
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Isaac Asimov |
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625e446
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But he no longer feared the fear! It was not something to run from, that fear, but something to fight.
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Isaac Asimov |
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d679cb3
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They recognize the Master, now that I have preached Truth to them. All the robots do.
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Isaac Asimov |
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4502763
|
It lacks glamour? - It lacks mob emotion-appeal. - Same thing.
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Isaac Asimov |
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84f5f5e
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Contra la estupidez, los propios dioses luchan en vano
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Isaac Asimov |
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dc835ed
|
It was almost inevitable. Those who worked directly for the Squires were only too glad to identify themselves with the rulers and make up for their real inferiority by a tighter adherence to the rules of segregation, a harsh and haughty attitude toward their fellows.
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Isaac Asimov |
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ba9f525
|
people live and die by nonsense. It's not what is so much as what people think is.
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Isaac Asimov |
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8e70238
|
Many years later he looked through one of my books and said, "How did you learn all this, Isaac?" "From you, Pappa", I said.
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learning
life
good-life
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Isaac Asimov |
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4adc708
|
How harmful overspecialization is. It cuts knowledge at a million points and leaves it bleeding.
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Isaac Asimov |
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4e737dc
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And just how did you arrive at that remarkable conclusion, Mr. Mayor?" "In a rather simple way. It merely required the use of that much-neglected commodity -- common sense. You see, there is a branch of human knowledge known as symbolic logic, which can be used to prune away all sorts of clogging deadwood that clutters up human language." "What about it?" said Fulham. "I applied it. Among other things, I applied it to this document here. I ..
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science
sarcasm-humor
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Isaac Asimov |
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f393fb4
|
Were I to use the wits the good Spirits gave me," he said, "then I would say this lady can not exist - for what sane man would hold a dream to be reality. Yet rather would I not be sane and lend belief to charmed, enchanted eyes."
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romantic-praise
magnifico
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Isaac Asimov |
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aae38c3
|
I suppose there's no way of putting the mushroom cloud back into that nice, shiny uranium sphere.
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Isaac Asimov |
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4a7c281
|
To him, a stilted geometric love of arrangement was "system," and indefatigable and feverish interest in the pettiest facets of day-to-day bureaucracy was "industry", indecision when right was "caution", and blind stubbornness when wrong, "determination."
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petty
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Isaac Asimov |
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66845fc
|
Lamentarsi e una caratteristica innata della specie umana. Nel Secolo del Carbone la gente imprecava contro la macchina a vapore; in una commedia di Shakespeare un personaggio lamenta l'invenzione della polvere da sparo. Mille anni dopo ci si lamentava per la fabbricazione del cervello positronico.
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Isaac Asimov |
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92658ae
|
Who?" "Schiller. A German dramatist of three centuries ago. In a play about Joan of Arc, he said, 'Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain.' I'm no god and I'll contend no longer. Let it go, Pete, and go your way. Maybe the world will last our time and, if not, there's nothing that can be done anyway. I'm sorry, Pete. You fought the good fight, but you lost, and I'm through."
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Isaac Asimov |
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e7626f0
|
He was conscious only of the mightiest deed of man; the complete and almost contemptuously final conquest of a world.
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Isaac Asimov |
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4927f2d
|
It is always useful, you see, to subject the past life of reform politicians to rather inquisitive research.
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Isaac Asimov |
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fd89870
|
you can't just move backward. You can't push the chicken back into the egg, wine back into the grape, the boy back into the womb. If you want the baby to let go of your watch, you don't just try to explain that he ought to do it--you offer him something he would rather have.
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Isaac Asimov |
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956f7de
|
Scientist are human. Unraveling the knots of Nature's mysteries is a reward in itself; but even so, scientists like to hear the applause of the audience
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science
|
Isaac Asimov |
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c8f93af
|
We mythologists know very well that myths and legends contain borrowings, moral lessons, nature cycles, and a hundred other distorting influences, and we labor to cut them away and get to what might be a kernel of truth. In fact, these same techniques must be applied to the most sober histories, for no one writes the clear and apparent truth--if such a thing can even be said to exist.
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Isaac Asimov |