To introduce something altogether new would mean to begin all over, to become ignorant again, and to run the old, old risk of failing to learn.
Interpretation
Introducing something entirely new requires starting from scratch and risks repeating past mistakes.
This quote by Isaac Asimov highlights the challenges associated with innovation and the pursuit of new knowledge. It suggests that creating something novel necessitates a regression to a state of ignorance, where the risk of repetition and failure to learn from previous experiences is significant. Asimov emphasizes the importance of understanding and building upon existing knowledge rather than completely discarding it in the quest for the new.
In practice
This quote could be used in a lecture about the importance of research and learning from past experiences.
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.
When I dance, I dance; when I sleep, I sleep; yes, and when I walk alone in a beautiful orchard, if my thoughts drift to far-off matters for some part of the time for some other part I lead them back again to the walk, the orchard, to the sweetness of this solitude, to myself.
Chess is a forcing house where the fruits of character can ripen more fully than in life
Requiescat Tread lightly, she is near Under the snow, Speak gently, she can hear The daisies grow. All her bright golden hair Tarnished with rust, She that was young and fair Fallen to dust. Lily-like, white as snow, She hardly knew She was a woman, so Sweetly she grew. Coffin-board, heavy stone, Lie on her breast, I vex my heart alone She is at rest. Peace, Peace, she cannot hear Lyre or sonnet, All my lifeβs buried here, Heap earth upon it.
I'm trying to get Americans to see that we're all pretty much the same. I believe it; I was taught God doesn't have a color. I want to better the planet a little bit.
Indifference is the revenge the world takes on mediocrities.
Capital punishment is against the best judgment of modern criminology and, above all, against the highest expression of love in the nature of God.
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