The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny...' by Isaac Asimov
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Earth has waited for them, All the time of their growth Fretting for their decay: Now she has them at last!
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Whatever brawls disturb the street There should be peace at home.
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Poppies whose roots are in man's veins Drop, and are ever dropping;...
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There is no need to worry about mere size. We do not necessarily respect a fat man more than a thin man. Sir Isaac Newton was very much smaller than a hippopotamus, but we do not on that account value him less.
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At two-tenths the speed of light, dust and atoms might not do significant damage even in a voyage of 40 years, but the faster you go, the worse it is--space begins to become abrasive. When you begin to approach the speed of light, hydrogen atoms become cosmic-ray particles, and they will fry the crew. ...So 60,000 kilometers per second may be the practical speed limit for space travel.
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Birds in their little nest agree; and 'Tis a shameful sight, when children of one family fall out, and chide, and fight.
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One, a robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm;
Two, a robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law; Three, a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
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When the swift iron burning bee Drained the wild honey of their youth.
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Death could drop from the dark As easily as song— But song only dropped,
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No lepidopterist's collection in the entire world...full if iridescent wings, is worth the life of a single butterfly.
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'Tis the voice of the sluggard; I heard him complain, you have waked me too soon, I must slumber again.
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The grass and coloured clay More motion have than they, Joined to the great sunk silences.
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If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul.
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John Dalton's records, carefully preserved for a century, were destroyed during the World War II bombing of Manchester. It is not only the living who are killed in war.
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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.
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Do not hover always on the surface of things, nor take up suddenly, with mere appearances; but penetrate into the depth of matters, as far as your time and circumstances allow, especially in those things which relate to your profession.
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Death, like an overflowing stream, Sweeps us away: our life's a dream,...
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Do not hover always on the surface of things, nor take up suddenly, with mere appearances but penetrate into the depth of matters, as far as your time and circumstances allow, especially in those things which relate to your profession.
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Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not.
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And while the lamp holds out to burn, The vilest sinner may return.
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In their behaviour toward creatures, all men were Nazis. Human beings see oppression vividly when they're the victims. Otherwise they victimize blindly and without a thought. The smugness with which man could do with other species as he pleased exemplified the most extreme racist theories, the principle that might is right.
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Dalton's records, carefully preserved for a century, were destroyed during the World War II bombing of Manchester. It is not only the living who are killed in war.
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Even in the worm that crawls in the earth there glows a divine spark. When you slaughter a creature, you slaughter God.
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Lord, what a thoughtless wretch was I, To mourn, and murmur and repine,...
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My God, my life, my love, To Thee, to Thee I call; I cannot live if Thou remove, For Thou art all in all.
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For Satan finds some mischief still For idle hands to do.
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The three fundamental Rules of Robotics...One: a robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm...Two:..a robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law...Three: a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First and Second Laws.
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Do not expect to arrive at certainty in every subject which you pursue. There are a hundred things wherein we mortals. . . must be content with probability, where our best light and reasoning will reach no farther.
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I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean lay all undiscovered before me.
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