Quote from Asimov from "200"

[SyFyFantasy]

I'm away from home (and my DVR). Would a kind soul please quote here for me the quote by Asimov made at the end of "200" by the Wormhole Xtreme Teal'c? (please?)

As a true lover of science fiction, those words were not lost on me and I'd like to refer to them again. Maybe others here would also like to hear (read) them again?

Much appreciated, thank you for your time.

[miju]

I'm away from home (and my DVR). Would a kind soul please quote here for me the quote by Asimov made at the end of "200" by the Wormhole Xtreme Teal'c? (please?)

As a true lover of science fiction, those words were not lost on me and I'd like to refer to them again. Maybe others here would also like to hear (read) them again?

Much appreciated, thank you for your time.

I hope you green me for this.
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 salvation if we are to be saved at all.

[miju]

* What I will be remembered for are the Foundation Trilogy and the Three Laws of Robotics. What I want to be remembered for is no one book, or no dozen books. Any single thing I have written can be paralleled or even surpassed by something someone else has done. However, my total corpus for quantity, quality and variety can be duplicated by no one else. That is what I want to be remembered for.
o Yours, Isaac Asimov (20 September 1973)

* Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not.
o "How Easy to See the Future", Natural History magazine (April 1975); later published in Asimov on Science Fiction (1981).

* 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 salvation if we are to be saved at all.
o "My Own View" in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1978) edited by Robert Holdstock; later published in Asimov on Science Fiction (1981).

* 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 … This, in turn, means that our statesmen, our businessmen, our everyman must take on a science fictional way of thinking.
o "My Own View" in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1978) edited by Robert Holdstock; later published in Asimov on Science Fiction (1981).

* 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.
o Free Inquiry (Spring 1982)

* If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.
o LIFE magazine (January 1984)

* Imagine the people who believe such things and who are not ashamed to ignore, totally, all the patient findings of thinking minds through all the centures since the Bible was written. And it is these ignorant people, the most uneducated, the most unimaginative, the most unthinking among us, who would make themselves the guides and leaders of us all; who would force their feeble and childish beliefs on us; who would invade our schools and libraries and homes. I personally resent it bitterly.
o Canadian Atheists Newsletter (1994)

[edit]

The Foundation series

* Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
o "Foundation", Astounding Science-Fiction, May 1942 (this also appears three times in "Bridle and Saddle")

* It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety.

* For it is the chief characteristic of the religion of science that it works, and that such curses as that of Aporat's are really deadly.

* A fire eater must eat fire even if he has to kindle it himself.
o "Bridle and Saddle", Astounding Science-Fiction, June 1942

* Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right.

* There's something about a pious man such as he. He will cheerfully cut your throat if it suits him, but he will hesitate to endanger the welfare of your immaterial and problematical soul.
o "The Big and the Little", Astounding Science-Fiction, August 1944

* Korell is that frequent phenomenon in history: the republic whose ruler has every attribute of the absolute monarch but the name. It therefore enjoyed the usual despotism unrestrained even by those two moderating influences in the legitimate monarchies: regal 'honor' and court etiquette.

* Now any dogma, based primarily on faith and emotionalism, is a dangerous weapon to use on others, since it is almost impossible to guarantee that the weapon will never be turned on the user.

* An atom-blaster is a good weapon, but it can point both ways.
o "The Wedge", Astounding Science-Fiction, October 1944

* It's a poor blaster that doesn't point both ways.
o "The Wedge", Astounding Science-Fiction, October 1944

[edit]

Three Laws of Robotics

* A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
o "Runaround" in Astounding Science Fiction (March 1942); later published in I, Robot (1950). This statement is known as "The First Law of Robotics"
* A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
o "Runaround" in Astounding Science Fiction (March 1942); later published in I, Robot (1950). This statement is known as "The Second Law of Robotics"
* A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
o "Runaround" in Astounding Science Fiction (March 1942); later published in I, Robot (1950). This statement is known as "The Third Law of Robotics"

Later included among these laws was "The Zeroth Law of Robotics"

* A robot may not injure humanity, or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.
o Robots and Empire (1985) This statement is known as "The Zeroth Law of Robotics"; a variant of it first occurred in The Evitable Conflict (1950) as: "No robot may harm humanity, or through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm."

[edit]

The Roving Mind (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." ~ page 43

* 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. ~ Ch. 25

* How often people speak of art and science as though they were two entirely different things, with no interconnection. An artist is emotional, they think, and uses only his intuition; he sees all at once and has no need of reason. A scientist is cold, they think, and uses only his reason; he argues carefully step by step, and needs no imagination. That is all wrong. The true artist is quite rational as well as imaginative and knows what he is doing; if he does not, his art suffers. The true scientist is quite imaginative as well as rational, and sometimes leaps to solutions where reason can follow only slowly; if he does not, his science suffers. ~ Ch. 25

[edit]

Fantastic Voyage II: Destination Brain

* He who is needed must learn to endure flattery.
* It may not be admirable to be a coward if someone has the muscles and mind of an ox, but it's no crime for a weakling to be one.
* If asking politely is useless, take.
* A pawn is the most important piece on the chessboard,to a pawn.
* Apes were invented because politicians were needed.
* Small can be beautiful: an eagle may at time go hungry; a pet canary, never.
* Life is pleasant. death is peaceful. It is the transition that is troublesome.
* The body knows what it needs. That's why some things taste good.
* We are always certain that the decision we have made is wrong.
* Life is one thing--we all lose it sooner or later. Sanity is quite another.
* No voyage is dangerous to the one who waves from the shore.
* The greatest difficulty comes at the start. It's called "getting ready."
* Bad news has the wings of an eagle, good news the legs of a sloth.
* It is easy to be generous with someone else's money.
* A truly wise trapeze artist does not inspect his nails in mid jump.
* If the current flow is taking you where you want to go, don't argue.
* It is slower, but better, to creep along the downward path that to leap over the cliff.
* No knife can be honed as sharp as a woman's tongue.
* If you find a gold key without a lock, don't throw it away. The gold is also sufficient.
* If you want to know if water is boiling, don't test it by hand.
* To want peace and quiet above all else is to want death.
* Only simpletons go to fortune-tellers. Who else would be in such a hurry to hear bad news.
* If you do something, it's worth doing well; except to bureaucrats. to them, if you do something, it's worth doing cheaply.
* Going there may be most of the fun--but only if you get there in the end.
* Half an imagination is worse than none at all.
* People are ready enough to laugh at you. Don't make funny faces in order to encourage them.
* On tomorrows feast, we can starve today.
* Almost right is no better than wrong.
* In life, unlike chess, the game continues after checkmate.
* Between not enough and too much is a hair's breadth.
* There is no point in trying to teach a thief to steal.
* The sure thing about anything that goes without saying is that someone is bound to say it.
* The wall that says "welcome, stranger" has never been built.
* To be save from the jaws of a wolf by a hungry bear is no great cause for gratitude.
* Those who say "a penny for your thoughts" are usually being overgenerous.
* The most exciting part of any trip is reaching home again.
* The longer it takes to get to a point, the blunter it turns out to be.
* If you want to hear, you must begin by listening.
* If the words of a wise man are few, they are nevertheless worth listening to.
* Later is usually too late.
* Good company robs even death of some of its terrors.
* There is no duress like one's own conscience and it is that which makes life so needlessly bitter.
* If you are dangling from a rope over an abyss, don't bother snatching at he coin that falls out of your pocket.
* Anyone can hunt a bear fearlessly when the bear is absent.
* Life would be unbearable if death were not worse yet.
* If you have nothing to lose, gamble freely.
* It is more important to know the thing than the name.
* If trouble wee as easy to get out of--as into--life would be one sweet song.
* When only one course of action is possible, there is no difficulty in deciding what to do.
* Eating too much kills more quickly than eating too little.
* The trouble with triumph is that you may be on the other side.
* In the true triumph, however, there are no losers.

[SyFyFantasy]

I hope you green me for this.
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 salvation if we are to be saved at all.

Dear Principia:
Thank you so much for this. Thank you!
Yes, of course, I'll happily green you for this. Thank you, thank you!!