When asked for advice by beginners. Know your ending, I say, or the river of your story may finally sink into the desert sands and never reach the sea.
Interpretation
Planning your journey is crucial to avoid failing to achieve your goals.
Isaac Asimov emphasizes the importance of having a clear vision or destination when embarking on any endeavor. Without knowing where you want to end up, your efforts may become misguided, leading to wasted time and potential, similar to how a river may dry up leaving it unable to reach the ocean if it loses its course.
In practice
This quote can be used in a motivational speech to inspire students about the importance of planning their future.
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.
There are a million 'oughts' in the world. There's a million ways in which I ought to be serving the world. But the ways I'm gifted to serve and the opportunities that come to me to serve are not a million.
I know of a charm by way of a prayer that will preserve a man from the violence of guns and all manner of fire-weapons and engines but it will do me no good because I do not believe it
She felt that she would have to be much more than just a doctor or an engineer. She would have to be a saint.
We build our character from the bricks of habit we pile up day by day.
If you think you’re the only person for whom life is painful, you’re wrong. And if you don’t mind letting yourself die like a dog, at least have the decency to remember that there are those of us who do care – although, to tell the truth, I don’t see why?
One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an interest on themselves. You don't choose your passions; your passions choose you.
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