“It is the obvious which is so difficult to see most of the time. People say 'It's as plain as the nose on your face.' But how much of the nose on your face can you see, unless someone holds a mirror up to you?”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from I, Robot
“The Three Laws of Robotics:
1: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm;
2: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law;
3: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law;
The Zeroth Law: A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from I, Robot
“You can prove anything you want by coldly logical reason---if you pick the proper postulates.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from I, Robot
“Fifty years," I hackneyed, "is a long time."
"Not when you're looking back at them," she said. "You wonder how they vanished so quickly.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from I, Robot
“Every period of human development has had its own particular type of human conflict---its own variety of problem that, apparently, could be settled only by force. And each time, frustratingly enough, force never really settled the problem. Instead, it persisted through a series of conflicts, then vanished of itself---what's the expression---ah, yes, 'not with a bang, but a whimper,' as the economic and social environment changed. And then, new problems, and a new series of wars.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from I, Robot
“It's your fiction that interests me. Your studies of the interplay of human motives and emotion.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from I, Robot
“Postulates are based on assumption and adhered to by faith. Nothing in the Universe can shake them.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from I, Robot
“... you just can't differentiate between a robot and the very best of humans.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from I, Robot
“All normal life, Peter, consciously or otherwise, resent domination. If the domination is by an inferior, or by a supposed inferior, the resentment becomes stronger.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from I, Robot
“There is nothing so eternally adhesive as the memory of power.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from I, Robot
“You are the only one responsible for your own wants.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from I, Robot
“I, on the other hand, am a finished product. I absorb electrical energy directly and utilize it with an almost one hundred percent efficiency. I am composed of strong metal, am continuously conscious, and can stand extremes of environment easily. These are facts which, with the self-evident proposition that no being can create another being superior to itself, smashes your silly hypothesis to nothing.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from I, Robot
“The Master created humans first as the lowest type, most easily formed. Gradually, he replaced them by robots, the next higher step, and finally he created me, to take the place of the last humans.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from I, Robot
“There is no Master but the Master,” he said, “and QT-1 is his prophet.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from I, Robot
“They recognize the Master, now that I have preached Truth to them. All the robots do.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from I, Robot
“It is always useful, you see, to subject the past life of reform politicians to rather inquisitive research.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from I, Robot
“People say 'It's as plain as the noise on your face.' But how much of the nose on your face can you see, unless someone hold a mirror up to you?”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from I, Robot
“You’ll have such proof as exists. You are the only one responsible for your own wants.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from I, Robot
“These are facts which, with the self-evident proposition that no being can create another being superior to itself, smashes your silly hypothesis to nothing.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from I, Robot
“Oh, hell! I can’t sleep!” “Neither can I! But I might as well try—as a matter of principle.” Twelve hours later, sleep was still just that—a matter of principle, unattainable in practice.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from I, Robot
“First of Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics:
A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from I, Robot
“And his idea of solid comfort was to be left in utter solitude for two or three hours.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from I, Robot
“Cada período del desarrollo humano, Susan, tiene su tipo particular de conflicto, sus problemas distintos que, aparentemente sólo pueden resolverse por la fuerza. Y jamás, por decepcionante que esto sea, la fuerza resuelve el problema. En su lugar, éste persiste a través de una serie de conflictos y se desvanece por sí solo... ¿cómo dice la frase?, no con un estallido, sino con su susurro, a medida que el ambiente económico y social cambia. Y entonces, nuevo problema y nueva serie de guerras. Un ciclo, al parecer, sin fin.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from I, Robot
“The first step in cooking rabbit stew is catching the rabbit.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from I, Robot
“Isaac Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics"
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from I, Robot
“-La humanidad ha perdido todo control sobre su futuro
-No lo ha tenido jamás, en realidad.Estuvo siempre a merced de unas fuerzas económicas y sociológicas que no entendía, de los caprichos del clima y de los azares de la guerra.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from I, Robot
“The unwritten motto of United States Robot and Mechanical Men Corp. was well-known: “No employee makes the same mistake twice. He is fired the first time.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from I, Robot
“George Weston, after all was only a man—poor thing—and his wife made full use of every device which a clumsier and more scrupulous sex has learned, with reason and futility, to fear.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from I, Robot
“Al parecer, cree más en la curación que en el castigo de los criminales. Considero esto muy significativo.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from I, Robot
“The real point of the matter is that what we call a ‘wrong datum’ is one which is inconsistent with all other known data. It is our only criterion of right and wrong.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from I, Robot
“You want to know what I'm afraid of? All right, I'll tell you. I'm afraid of men - yes, I'm very much afraid of men. And I'm even more afraid of women. And I'm very much afraid of the whole bloody human race. Afraid of them? Of course I'm afraid of them. Who wouldn't be afraid of a pack of damned hyenas? [...] And when I say afraid - that's just a word I use. What I really mean is that I hate them. I hate their voices, I hate their eyes, I hate the way they laugh. I hate the whole bloody business. It's cruel, it's idiotic, it's unspeakably horrible. I never had the guts to kill myself or I'd have got out of it long ago.”
― Jean Rhys, quote from Good Morning, Midnight
“On the parable of the Good Samaritan: "I imagine that the first question the priest and Levite asked was: 'If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?' But by the very nature of his concern, the good Samaritan reversed the question: 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”
― Martin Luther King Jr., quote from Strength to Love
“Visitors tried to cheer him up with the usual comforting banalities but he was not placated, until he was visited by the nun who had prepared him for his first Communion, Sister Dolores. ‘She said something that truly stuck with me,’ he later recalled, ‘and make me feel at peace: “you are imitating Christ” ’, he was told.”
― quote from Pope Francis: Untying the Knots
“An unguarded comment often proves every bit as valuable as a response to a direct question.”
― Jeffrey Archer, quote from Be Careful What You Wish For
“Et toujours ces questions si naturelles, anodines en apparence, ça marche toujours avec lui ? Est-ce que tu comptes te marier ? La désolation de mes parents devant une situation incertaine, "on aimerait bien savoir où ça va te mener tout ça". Obligé que l'amour mène quelque part. Leur peine sourde aussi. Ce serait tellement plus agréable, plus tranquille pour eux de voir se dérouler l'histoire habituelle, les faire-part dans le journal, les questions auxquelles on répond avec fierté, un jeune homme de Bordeaux, bientôt professeur, l'église, la mairie, le ménage qui se "monte", les petits-enfants. Je les prive des espérances traditionnelles. L'affolement de ma mère quand elle apprend, tu couches avec, si tu continues tu vas gâcher ta vie. Pour elle, je suis en train de me faire rouler, des tonnes de romans qui ressortent, filles séduites qu'on n'épouse pas, abandonnées avec un môme. Un combat tannant toutes les semaines entre nous deux. Je ne sais pas encore qu'au moment où l'on me pousse à liquider ma liberté, ses parents à lui jouent un scénario tout aussi traditionnel mais inverse, "tu as bien le temps d'avoir un fil à la patte, ne te laisse pas mettre le grappin dessus !", bien chouchoutée la liberté des mâles.”
― Annie Ernaux, quote from A Frozen Woman
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
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