“There are no happy endings in history, only crisis points that pass.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Gods Themselves
“It is a mistake," he said, " to suppose that the public wants the environment protected or their lives saved and that they will be grateful to any idealist who will fight for such ends. What the public wants is their own individual comfort. We know that well enough from our experience in the environmental crisis of the twentieth century. Once it was well known that cigarettes increased the incidence of lung cancer, the obvious remedy was to stop smoking, but the desired remedy was a cigarette that did not cause cancer. When it became clear that the internal-combustion engine was polluting the atmosphere dangerously, the obvious remedy was to abandon such engines, and the desired remedy was to develop non-polluting engines.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Gods Themselves
“Author's Note: This story starts with section 6. This is not a mistake. I have my own subtle reasoning. So, just read, and enjoy.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Gods Themselves
“Does everyone just believe what he wants to?"
"As long as possible. Sometimes longer."
"What about you?"
"You mean, am I human? Certainly. I don't believe I'm really old. I believe I'm quite attractive. I believe you seek out my company because you think I'm charming - even when you insist on turning the conversation to physics.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Gods Themselves
“You don't beat refusal to believe in a frontal attack.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Gods Themselves
“Contra la estupidez, los propios dioses luchan en vano”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Gods Themselves
“It is a mistake,” he said, “to suppose that the public wants the environment protected or their lives saved and that they will be grateful to any idealist who will fight for such ends. What the public wants is their own individual comfort.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Gods Themselves
“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.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Gods Themselves
“ 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.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Gods Themselves
“On Earth, we are unmanned by our longing for a pastoral past that never really existed; and that, if it had existed, could never exist again...on the Moon, there is no past to long for or dream about. There is no direction but forward.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Gods Themselves
“La forma más fácil de solucionar un problema es negar su existencia.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Gods Themselves
“Of such things, petty annoyance and aimless thrusts, is history made.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Gods Themselves
“His idiot face gets redder and his eyes bulge and his ears block. I’d say his mind stops functioning, but I lack the proof of any other state from which it might stop.” Bronowski”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Gods Themselves
“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.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Gods Themselves
“É realmente muito desanimadora essa estupidez universal. Acho que eu não sofreria tanto se o suicídio da humanidade resultasse apenas de pura maldade de coração ou por mera inconsequência. Mas é de uma falha tão desgraçada de dignidade, que estamos a ponto de nos destruir como fruto da mais obtusa e impenetrável estupidez.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Gods Themselves
“Evet. Bu çok garip ama gerçekten özlemiyorum. Mavi göğü, yeşil kırları, akan suları özleyeceğimden emindim. Arza özgü bütün bu nitelikleri. Ama hiç birini de özlemiyorum. Onları rüyamda bile görmüyorum."
Selene, "Bazen öyle şeyler oluyor" dedi. "Daha doğrusu vatan özlemi çekmediklerini söyleyen bazı Göççülerle karşılaştım. Tabii öyleleri az. Ve hiç kimse bu küçük grubun müşterek özelliklerini anlayamıyor. Tabii türlü tahminler yürütülüyor. Kimisi bu Göççülerde ciddi bir duygusuzluk olduğunu, onların hiçbir şey hissedemediklerini söylüyor. Kimisi ise fazla duygulu olduklarını ve sinir krizi geçirmekten korktukları için vatan hasreti duyduklarını itiraftan kaçındıklarını.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Gods Themselves
“Bu yaygın budalalık insanın cesaretini kırıyor. Galiba insanlığın sırf kötü kalpli ve pervasız olduğu için intihar etmesine üzülmeyeceğim. Kalın kafalılık ve ahmaklık yüzünden ölmek pek vakarsızca bir şey. Madem böyle öleceksin o zaman insan olmanın ne yararı var?”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Gods Themselves
“—Es un error —comenzó— suponer que la opinión pública quiere que se proteja el medioambiente o que les salven la vida y que, por tanto, se mostrarían muy agradecidos ante cualquier idealista que luche por conseguir esos objetivos. Lo que el público quiere es bienestar individual.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Gods Themselves
“U istoriji ne postoje srećni završeci, postoje samo krizne tačke koje odu u prošlost.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Gods Themselves
“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.”
It worked perfectly. The Obin had enough time for a surprised squawk before the hovercraft’s gun struck it square in the chest, punching backward like it was a toy on a string, hurling down nearly the entire length of the hall. The other Obin in the room looked up while Harvey’s victim pinwheeled to the ground, then turned their multiple eyes toward the doorway, Harvey, and the hovercraft with its big gun poking right into the room.
“Hello, boys!” Harvey said in a big, booming voice. “The 2nd Platoon sends its regards!” And with that, he jammed down the “fire” button on the gun and set to work.
Things got messy real fast after that. It was just fucking beautiful.
Harvey loved his job.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Gods Themselves
“Contra la estupidez, los propios dioses luchan en vano.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Gods Themselves
“en la Historia no hay finales felices, solo momentos críticos que se superan.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Gods Themselves
“Você sabe que o pudor é somente o outro lado da lascívia.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Gods Themselves
“And one day he said, "I'm going to see Hallam again."
Bronowski's eyebrows lifted. "What for?"
"To have him turn me down."
"Yes, that's about your speed, Pete. You're unhappy if your troubles die down a bit.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Gods Themselves
“There's a certain drama in going down in a good cause.
Any decent politician is masochistic enough to dream now and then of going down in flames while the
angels sing. But, -Dr. Lamont, to do that one has to have a fighting chance. One has to have something to
fight for that may— justmay— win out.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Gods Themselves
“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.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Gods Themselves
“There was something I tried to put in, Gottstein, but between my not knowing how to phrase it and
Earth's reluctance to grasp my meaning, we ended up not communicating.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Gods Themselves
“Any decent politician is masochistic enough to dream now and then of going down in flames while the angels sing.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Gods Themselves
“Once it was well known that cigarettes increased the incidence of lung cancer, the obvious remedy was to stop smoking, but the desired remedy was a cigarette that did not encourage cancer. When it became clear that the internal-combustion engine was polluting the atmosphere dangerously, the obvious remedy was to abandon such engines, and the desired remedy was to develop non-polluting engines.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Gods Themselves
“En cualquier caso, en la Historia no hay finales felices, solo momentos críticos que se superan.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Gods Themselves
“Great-Uncle Merry, coming back towards the car from the Grey House, had suddenly stopped in his tracks in the middle of the road. He was gazing down at the sea; and she realised that he had caught sight of the yacht. What startled her was the expression on his face. Standing there like a craggy towering statue, he was frowning, fierce and intense, almost as if he were looking and listening with senses other than his eyes and ears. He could never look frightened, she thought, but this was the nearest thing to it that she had ever seen. Cautious, startled, alarmed . . . what was the matter with him? Was there something strange about the yacht? Then”
― Susan Cooper, quote from Over Sea, Under Stone
“Life seemed suddenly a little empty, for never again could there happen to her something so dangerous, so sublime.”
― Richard Hughes, quote from A High Wind in Jamaica
“Of all such reformers Mr. Sentiment is the most powerful. It is incredible the number of evil practices he has put down: it is to be feared he will soon lack subjects and that when he has made the working classes comfortable, and got bitter beer put into proper-sized pint bottles, there will be nothing further for him left to do. Mr. Sentiment is certainly a very powerful man, and perhaps not the less so that his good poor people are so very good; his hard rich people so very hard; and the genuinely honest so very honest. Namby-pamby in these days is not thrown away if it be introduced in the proper quarters. Divine peeresses are no longer interesting, though possessed of every virtue; but a pattern peasant or an immaculate manufacturing hero may talk as much twaddle as one of Mrs. Ratcliffe's heroines, and still be listened to. Perhaps, however, Mr. Sentiment's great attraction is in his second-rate characters. If his heroes and heroines walk upon stilts as heroes and heroines, I fear, ever must, their attendant satellites are as natural as though one met them in the street: they walk and talk like men and women, and live among our friends a rattling, lively life — yes, live, and will live till the names of their callings shall be forgotten in their own, and Buckett and Mrs. Gamp will be the only words left to us to signify detective police officer or a monthly nurse.”
― Anthony Trollope, quote from The Warden
“Children's games are stronger than you remember once you've grown up and left them behind. They're always fair, and never kind.”
― Seanan McGuire, quote from An Artificial Night
“His story remains behind, echoing inside me, a tale of impossible choices.”
― Cody McFadyen, quote from The Face of Death
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