When I read about the way in which library funds are being cut and cut, I can only think that American society has found one more way to destroy itself.
Interpretation
Asimov highlights the detrimental effects of reducing library funding on society's growth and knowledge.
Isaac Asimov expresses his concern over the continuous cuts to library funding, implying that this trend reflects a broader societal neglect for education and knowledge. He suggests that by undermining libraries, society is inadvertently paving its own path to decline, as libraries serve as essential sources of information, learning, and community engagement that are fundamental to a civilized society.
In practice
During a town hall meeting discussing budget cuts, one might quote Asimov to advocate for maintaining library funding.
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.
I think picture books should stretch children. I think they should be full of wonderful, amazing words.
Don't dumb down; always write for your top five percent of readers.
The Eeyore Educational System sees childhood as a waste of time, a luxury that society cannot afford . . . Put children in school at the earliest age possible; load them down with homework; take away their time, their creativity, their play, their power; then plug them into machines.
Children need models rather than critics.
Unless children have strong education and strong families and strong communities and decent housing, it's not enough to go sit in at a lunch counter.
In my work as a historian and in my relationships as a friend, teacher, wife, and mother, I have come to think that the most useful way to understand the past and make it work for you is to look at the trade-offs and contradictions that, however deeply buried, can be uncovered in every memory, good or bad.
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