Isaac Asimov citáty

strana 5

„I nenápadná myšlenka, která je mylná, může vést k plodnému zkoumání, které může prokázat pravdy velké hodnoty.“

„Rozlišujme pití a pijanství. K druhému se uchylujme jen tehdy, když tíže života láme nám páteř.“

„Lidé svou smrtelnost snášejí jen proto, že platí všeobecně.“

„Nelze upírat svobodu nikomu, kdo má natolik vyspělé myšlení, že chápe její smysl a touží po tomto stavu.“

„Ačkoliv se blíží čas mé smrti, nemám strach, že zemřu a půjdu do pekla nebo (což by mohlo být ještě horší) do popularizované verze nebe. Očekávám, že po smrti přijde jen nicota, a děkuji ateismu za to, že mě zbavil všech možných obav.“

„Mám pocit, Golane, že civilizační pokrok není nic jiného než čím dál větší omezování soukromí.“

„Píši ze stejného důvodu jako dýchám — protože kdybych to nedělal, umřel bych.“

„Emocionálně jsem ateista. Nemám žádné fakta, abych dokázal, že Bůh neexistuje, ale tak silně to tuším, že nechci ztrácet čas.“

„Nikdy nedopusťte, aby vám smysl pro morálku zabránil udělat to, co je správné!“

„Psaní je pro mě prostě myšlení skrze mé prsty.“

„Není nic děsivé na nekonečném bezesném spánku. Určitě je lepší než nekonečné muka v pekle a nekonečná nuda v nebi.“

„Kdyby mi doktor řekl, že mám jen šest minut života, nepřemýšlel bych. Psal bych o trochu rychleji.“

„Lidé věděli předem, že jednou bude člověk chodit po Měsíci. Ale nikoho nenapadlo, že miliarda lidí se na to bude dívat v televizi.“

„Vzdálenost v čase i prostoru neúměrně zveličuje význam událostí“

„Život je šťastný. Smrt je klidná. Pouze přechod mezi nimi je nepříjemný.“

„Správně čtena je Bible je nejmocnější silou pro ateismus, jakou si umíme představit.“

„Nebojím se počítačů. Bojím se jejich nedostatku.“

„Pokud mám pravdu, (náboženští fundamentalisté) nepůjdou do nebe, protože žádného nebe není. Pokud mají pravdu oni, nepůjdou do nebe, neboť jsou pokrytci.“

„Ačkoliv se blíží čas mé smrti, nemám strach, že zemřu a půjdu do pekla nebo (což by mohlo být ještě horší) do popularizované verze nebe. Očekávám, že po smrti přijde jen nicota, a děkuji ateismu za to, že mě zbavil všech možných obav.
Although the time of death is approaching me, I am not affraid of dying and going to hell or (what would be considered worse) going to a popularized version of heaven. I expect death to be nothingness and for removing me from all possible fears of death, I am thankful to atheism.“

„Psaní je pro mne přemýšlení prsty.“

“You are the only one responsible for your own wants.”

“A circle has no end.”

“Whenever I have endured or accomplished some difficult task -- such as watching television, going out socially or sleeping -- I always look forward to rewarding myself with the small pleasure of getting back to my typewriter and writing something.”

“There's soknowledge to be had that specialists cling to their specialties as a shield against having to know anything about anything else. They avoid being drowned.”

“Let us assume you've made your point.”

“Once you get it into your head that somebody is controlling events, you can interpret everything in that light and find no reasonable certainty anywhere.”

“The spell of power never quite releases its hold.”

“We abandoned the appearance of power to preserve the essence of it.”

“I know nothing of that directly; I only know what I have been told by other young ones who couldn’t have known directly either. I want to find out the truth about them and the wanting has grown until there is more of curiosity in me than fear.”

“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.”

“[Writing] is an addiction more powerful than alcohol, than nicotine, than crack. I could not conceive of not writing.”

“Outside intelligences, exploring the Solar System with true impartiality, would be quite likely to enter the Sun in their records thus: Star X, spectral class G0, 4 planets plus debris.”

“A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.”

“I’ve lived most of my life already and I suppose I can argue myself into believing that I have no great cause to love humanity. However, only a few people have hurt me, and if I hurt everyone in return that is unconscionable usury.”

“Consider the most famous pure dystopian tale of modern times, 1984, by George Orwell (1903-1950), published in 1948 (the same year in which Walden Two was published). I consider it an abominably poor book. It made a big hit (in my opinion) only because it rode the tidal wave of cold war sentiment in the United States.”

“To Mankind
And the hope that the war against folly may someday be won, after all.”

“Courtiers don’t take wagers against the king’s skill. There is the deadly danger of winning.”

“I accept nothing on authority. A hypothesis must be backed by reason, or else it is worthless.”

“You know that prudery is only the other side of prurience. The words are even on the same page in the dictionary.”

“How can the net amount of entropy of the universe be massively decreased?”

“There is no belief, however foolish, that will not gather its faithful adherents who will defend it to the death.”

“It is better to go to defeat with free will than to live in a meaningless security as a cog in a machine.”

“I don’t like anything that’s got to be. I want to know why.”

“Once you've dissected a joke, you're about where you are when you've dissected a frog. It's dead.”

“Asimov: I don't know of any science fiction writer who really attempts to be a prophet. Such authors accomplish their tasks not by being correct in their predictions, necessarily, but merely by hammering home—in story after story—the notion that life is going to be different.”

“If anyone can be considered the greatest writer who ever lived, it is Shakespeare.”

“The fall of Empire, gentlemen, is a massive thing, however, and not easily fought. It is dictated by a rising bureaucracy, a receding initiative, a freezing of caste, a damming of curiosity — a hundred other factors. It has been going on, as I have said, for centuries, and it is too majestic and massive a movement to stop.”

“He is a dreamer of ancient times, or rather, of the myths of what ancient times used to be. Such men are harmless in themselves, but their queer lack of realism makes them fools for others.”

“To the rest of the Galaxy, if they are aware of us at all, Earth is but a pebble in the sky. To us it is home, and all the home we know.”