I don’t believe in extraordinary concatenations of coincidence.
Interpretation
Asimov emphasizes that events happen through logical reasoning rather than mere chance.
Isaac Asimov suggests that what might seem like extraordinary coincidences are often the result of underlying principles and rational explanations. He implies that to attribute significant events to mere luck or randomness undermines the complexity and interconnectedness of existence, and that understanding these connections is key to grasping the nature of reality.
In practice
In a lecture about the nature of science and discovery, you might say, 'As Isaac Asimov once stated, I don’t believe in extraordinary concatenations of coincidence.'
Democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive it. Convenience and decency cannot survive it. As you put more and more people into the world, the value of life not only declines, but it disappears. It doesn't matter if someone dies.
Science does not promise absolute truth, nor does it consider that such a thing necessarily exists. Science does not even promise that everything in the Universe is amenable to the scientific process.
Democracy cannot survive overpopulation.
Although the time of death is approaching me, I am not afraid of dying and going to Hell or (what would be considerably worse) going to the 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.
A subtle thought that is in error may yet give rise to fruitful inquiry that can establish truths of great value.
During the century after Newton, it was still possible for a man of unusual attainments to master all fields of scientific knowledge. But by 1800, this had become entirely impracticable.
Gay men are guardians of the masculine impulse. To have anonymous sex in a dark alleyway is to pay homage to the dream of male freedom. The unknown stranger is a wandering pagan god. The altar, as in pre-history, is anywhere you kneel.
In a higher phase of communist society... only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be fully left behind and society inscribe on its banners: from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.
In this quest to seek and find God in all things, there is still an area of uncertainty. There must be. If a person says that he met God with total certainty and is not touched by a margin of uncertainty, then this is not good.
You are afraid to die, and you’re afraid to live. What a way to exist.
Solitude has soft, silky hands, but with strong fingers it grasps the heart and makes it ache with sorrow.
Love for one's country is part of faith.
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