Isaac Asimov citations
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Isaac Asimov, né vers le 2 janvier 1920 à Petrovitchi et mort le 6 avril 1992 à New York aux États-Unis, est un écrivain américano-russe, naturalisé en 1928, surtout connu pour ses œuvres de science-fiction et ses livres de vulgarisation scientifique.

✵ 1920 – 6. avril 1992

Isaac Asimov photo

Isaac Asimov: 312 citations0 J'aime

Isaac Asimov citations célèbres

“La violence est le dernier refuge de l'incompétence.”

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
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Autres parutions

“Si le savoir peut créer des problèmes, ce n'est pas l'ignorance qui les résoudra.”

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“Il y a longtemps que j'ai décidé de suivre une règle stricte : être clair. […] Je me contente d'écrire d'une manière limpide et de créer une relation chaleureuse entre mes lecteurs et moi; quant aux critiques littéraires… eh bien, ils sont libres.”

I made up my mind long ago to follow one cardinal rule in all my writing — to be clear. [...] I would write merely clearly and in this way establish a warm relationship between myself and my readers, and the professional critics — Well, they can do whatever they wish.
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“La connaissance scientifique possède en quelque sorte des propriétés fractales: nous aurons beau accroître notre savoir”

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“Maintenant, reprenons les Trois Lois fondamentales de la Robotique…”

Invention du mot robotique et première formulation des trois lois de la robotique.
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“Ce qui manque aux adolescents, ce n'est ni l'intelligence ni la faculté de raisonner, c'est tout simplement l'expérience.”

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“Une "information fausse" est par définition incompatible avec toute autre information connue.”

Le texte précise ainsi quel critère une machine doit appliquer pour distinguer une information vraie d'une fausse.
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“On a tendance à nous confondre parce que nous sommes tous deux des auteurs de textes cérébraux où les concepts scientifiques comptent plus que l'action proprement dite.”

À propos de Arthur C. Clarke.
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“On peut définir la Science-Fiction comme la branche de la littérature qui se soucie des réponses de l'être humain aux progrès de la science et de la technologie.”

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Isaac Asimov: Citations en anglais

“But suppose we were to teach creationism. What would be the content of the teaching? Merely that a creator formed the universe and all species of life ready-made? Nothing more? No details?”

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"The Dangerous Myth of Creationism" in Penthouse (January 1982); reprinted as Ch. 2 : "Creationism and the Schools" in The Roving Mind (1983), p. 16
General sources

“Every human being lived behind an impenetrable wall of choking mist within which no other but he existed. Occasionally there were the dim signals from deep within the cavern in which another man was located — so that each might grope toward the other. Yet because they did not know one another, and could not understand one another, and dared not trust one another, and felt from infancy the terrors and insecurity of that ultimate isolation — there was the hunted fear of man for man, the savage rapacity of man toward man.”

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Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Second Foundation (1953), Chapter 8 “Seldon’s Plan”; in part II, “Search by the Foundation” originally published as “—And Now You Don’t” in Astounding (November and December 1949 and January 1950)

“Nonsense,” Weston denied, with an involuntary nervous shiver. “That’s completely ridiculous. We had a long discussion at the time we bought Robbie about the First Law of Robotics. You know that it is impossible for a robot to harm a human being; that long before enough can go wrong to alter that First Law, a robot would be completely inoperable. It’s a mathematical impossibility. Besides I have an engineer from U. S. Robots here twice a year to give the poor gadget a complete overhaul. Why, there’s no more chance of anything at all going wrong with Robbie than there is of you or I suddenly going looney—considerably less, in fact. Besides, how are you going to take him away from Gloria?”

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Isaac Asimov livre I, Robot

“Robbie”, p. 17
I, Robot (1950)

“Secrecy as deep as this is past possibility without nonexistence as well.”

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Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Second Foundation (1953), Chapter 1 “Two Men and the Mule”; in part I, “Search by the Mule” originally published as “Now You See It—” in Astounding (January 1948)

“A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.”

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Isaac Asimov livre Runaround

"Runaround" in Astounding Science Fiction (March 1942); later published in I, Robot (1950)
The Three Laws of Robotics (1942)
Variante: A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

“The whole business is the crudest sort of stratagem, since we have no way of foreseeing it to the end. It is a mere paying out of rope on the chance that somewhere along the length of it will be a noose.”

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Part V, The Merchant Princes, section 2; originally published as “The Big and the Little” in Astounding (August 1944)
The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation (1951)

“When an old person dies who has been a part of your life, it is part of your youth that dies.”

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Source: I. Asimov: A Memoir (1994), p. 538

“It is only afterward that a new idea seems reasonable. To begin with, it usually seems unreasonable.”

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"How Do People Get New Ideas?" (1959)
General sources

“Asimov: Battlestar Galactica for instance, started off with twenty to thirty minutes of space battles which looked exactly like air battles in World War I. You could swear that the space ships were surrounded by air the way the maneuvered. One felt it was unworthy.
SWA Magazine: The Vipers in Battlestar Galactica look like jets. Is this a realistic design for the future?
Asimov: It is as if people in the 1880s were writing fantasy stories about airplanes of the future and they had the pilots lean back at the wheel and yell "whoa" and the airplane came to a halt in mid-air.”

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An Interview with Isaac Asimov (1979)

“Radiation, unlike smoking, drinking, and overeating, gives no pleasure, so the possible victims object.”

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As quoted in The Journal of NIH Research (1990), 2, 30
General sources

“A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.”

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Isaac Asimov livre Runaround

"Runaround" in Astounding Science Fiction (March 1942); later published in I, Robot (1950)
The Three Laws of Robotics (1942)

“The house was somehow very lonely at night and Dr. Darell found that the fate of the Galaxy made remarkably little difference while his daughter’s mad little life was in danger.”

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Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Second Foundation (1953), Chapter 11 “Stowaway”

“It is because you yourself fear the propaganda created, after all, only by the stupidity of your own bigots.”

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Isaac Asimov livre Pebble in the Sky

Pebble in the Sky, chapter 4 “The Royal Road”, p. 33
Pebble in the Sky (1950)

“[In response to this question by Bill Moyers: What do you see happening to the idea of dignity to human species if this population growth continues at its present rate? ] "It's going to destroy it all. I use what I call my bathroom metaphor. If two people live in an apartment, and there are two bathrooms, then both have what I call freedom of the bathroom, go to the bathroom any time you want, and stay as long as you want to for whatever you need. And this to my way is ideal. And everyone believes in the freedom of the bathroom. It should be right there in the Constitution. But if you have 20 people in the apartment and two bathrooms, no matter how much every person believes in freedom of the bathroom, there is no such thing. You have to set up, you have to set up times for each person, you have to bang at the door, aren't you through yet, and so on. And in the same way, democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive it. Convenience and decency cannot survive it. As you put more and more people onto the world, the value of life not only declines, but it disappears. It doesn't matter if someone dies.”

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Interview by Bill Moyers on Bill Moyers' World Of Ideas (17 October 1988); transcript http://www.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason/print/pdfs/woi%20asimov1.pdf (page 6) - audio (20:12) http://www.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason/media_players/asimovwoi_audio.html <br class="br">General sources

““Is not all this an extraordinary concatenation of coincidence?”
Pelorat said, “If you list it like that—”
“List it any way you please,” said Trevize. “I don’t believe in extraordinary concatenations of coincidence.””

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Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation’s Edge (1982), Chapter 14 “Forward!” section 1, p. 281

“Economics is on the side of humanity now.”

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Isaac Asimov livre The Currents of Space

The Currents of Space (1952)
General sources

“Plowboy: You truly feel that all the major changes in history have been caused by science and technology?
Asimov: Those that have proved permanent—the ones that affected every facet of life and made certain that mankind could never go back again—were always brought about by science and technology. In fact, the same twin "movers" were even behind the other "solely" historical changes. Why, for instance, did Martin Luther succeed, whereas other important rebels against the medieval church—like John Huss—fail? Well, Luther was successful because printing had been developed by the time he advanced his cause. So his good earthy writings were put into pamphlets and spread so far and wide that the church officials couldn't have stopped the Protestant Reformation even if they had burned Luther at the stake.
Plowboy: Today the world is changing faster than it has at any other time in history. Do you then feel that science—and scientists—are especially important now?
Asimov: I do think so, and as a result it's my opinion that anyone who can possibly introduce science to the nonscientist should do so. After all, we don't want scientists to become a priesthood. We don't want society's technological thinkers to know something that nobody else knows—to "bring down the law from Mt. Sinai"—because such a situation would lead to public fear of science and scientists. And fear, as you know, can be dangerous.
Plowboy: But scientific knowledge is becoming so incredibly vast and specialized these days that it's difficult for any individual to keep up with it all.
Asimov: Well, I don't expect everybody to be a scientist or to understand every new development. After all, there are very few Americans who know enough about football to be a referee or to call the plays … but many, many people understand the sport well enough to follow the game. It's not important that the average citizen understand science so completely that he or she could actually become involved in research, but it is very important that people be able to "follow the game" well enough to have some intelligent opinions on policy.
Every subject of worldwide importance—each question upon which the life and death of humanity depends—involves science, and people are not going to be able to exercise their democratic right to direct government policy in such areas if they don't understand what the decisions are all about.”

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Mother Earth News interview (1980)

“Such unsubtle escapism! Really, Dr. Fara, such folly smacks of genius. A lesser mind would be incapable of it.”

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Part II, The Encyclopedists, section 5
The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation (1951)

“Hypocrisy is a universal phenomenon. It ends with death, but not before.”

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"By the Numbers" (May 1973), in The Tragedy of the Moon (1973), p. 188
General sources

“It is very likely that there are many, many planets carrying life, even intelligent life, throughout the universe, because there are so many stars. By sheer chance, even if those chances are small, a great many life forms and a great many intelligences may exist.”

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Interview http://americanindian.net/asimov.html in Southwest Airlines Magazine 1979) <br class="br">General sources

““Ponyets! They sent you?”
“Pure chance,” said Ponyets, bitterly, “or the work of my own personal malevolent demon.””

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Part IV, The Traders, section 3
The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation (1951)

“It’s a poor atom blaster that won’t point both ways.”

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Part V, The Merchant Princes, section 18
The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation (1951)

“The foundation of all technology is fire.”

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Isaac Asimov livre Asimov's Chronology of the World

Asimov's Chronology of the World (1991), p. 11
General sources

“If you're going to write a story, avoid contemporary references. They date a story and they have no staying power.”

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Isaac Asimov livre Buy Jupiter and Other Stories

Buy Jupiter and Other Stories (1975), p. 134
General sources

“Surely there is no language more majestic than that of Shakespeare, Milton, and the King James Bible, and if I am to have one language that I know as only a native can know it, I consider myself unbelievably fortunate that it is English.”

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Isaac Asimov livre Before the Golden Age

Before the Golden Age (1974), Vol. 1, p. 5 of the 1975 Orbit edition
General sources

“To him, a stilted geometric love of arrangement was “system,” an 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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Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation and Empire (1952), Chapter 12 “Captain and Mayor”

“The history of science is full of revolutionary advances that required small insights that anyone might have had, but that, in fact, only one person did.”

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"The Three Numbers" in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (September 1974); reprinted in More Tales of the Black Widowers (1976)
General sources

“In my fiction I am careful to make everything probable and to tie up all loose ends. Real life is not hampered by such considerations.”

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Isaac Asimov livre Puzzles of the Black Widowers

Puzzles of the Black Widowers (1984), p. 132
General sources

“Books … hold within them the gathered wisdom of humanity, the collected knowledge of the world's thinkers, the amusement and excitement built up by the imaginations of brilliant people. Books contain humor, beauty, wit, emotion, thought, and, indeed, all of life. Life without books is empty.”

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Isaac Asimov livre Puzzles of the Black Widowers

Puzzles of the Black Widowers (1990), pp. 74-75
General sources

“It seems an uncommonly woundabout and hopelessly wigmawolish method of getting anywheahs.”

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Part II, The Encyclopedists, section 4
The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation (1951)

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