Isaac Asimov Quotes

A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.

My character is not flawless.

I like my heroes to be imperfect; I like them to be striving. I identify with that kind of aspiration to do better.

Man has demonstrated that he is master of everything except his own nature.

I recognize that I'm human, and the older I get, the more I realize how fallible I am, how fallible we all are.

I have spent seventy years finding out that I am not God.

I just try to be the best I can, but I'm human.

Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant.

Be sure the safest rule is that we should not dare to live in any scene in which we dare not die. But, once realise what the true object is in life — that it is not pleasure, not knowledge, not even fame itself, 'that last infirmity of noble minds' — but that it is the development of character, the rising to a higher, nobler, purer standard, the building-up of the perfect Man — and then, so long as we feel that this is going on, and will (we trust) go on for evermore, death has for us no terror; it is not a shadow, but a light; not an end, but a beginning!

I like unformed characters. This may be because, no matter how old I get, I am still unformed myself.

In the temple of science are many mansions, and various indeed are they that dwell therein and the motives that have led them thither. Many take to science out of a joyful sense of superior intellectual power; science is their own special sport to which they look for vivid experience and the satisfaction of ambition; many others are to be found in the temple who have offered the products of their brains on this altar for purely utilitarian purposes.

People don't alter. They may with enormous difficulty modify themselves, but they never really change.

Why do you ever mend your clothes, unless that, wearing them, you may mend your ways. Let us sing.

When I have to do a scene where I feel vulnerable as an actress, I always grow from those experiences, so I welcome them. Even though it may not feel amazing at first. You have to embrace it and use it to improve yourself.

Get to know your characters as well as you can let there be something at stake, and then let the chips fall where they may.

A generous person may not have wisdom: but, unlike others, he has the means to gain it.

I will not quarrel with a slight mistake, Such as our nature's frailty may excuse.

Study men following the law of their higher nature, the law of love, so that when you grow to manhood, you will have improved your heritage.

By prizing heartfulness above faultlessness, we may reap more from our effort because we're more likely to be changed by it.

Whoever, in the pursuit of science, seeks after immediate practical utility, may generally rest assured that he will seek in vain.

Hast thou virtue? acquire also the graces and beauties of virtue.

Repentance may begin instantly, but reformation often requires a sphere of years.

The Character which a youth acquires in the early part of his Life is of great importance towards his future prosperity-one false step may prove irretrievable to his future usefulness.

The value of culture is its effect on character. It avails nothing unless it ennobles and strengthens that. Its use is for life. Its aim is not beauty but goodness.