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.
My idea of freedom is that we should protect the rights of people to believe what their conscience dictates, but fight equally hard to protect people from having the beliefs of others imposed upon them.
The armies of the day have chased the army of the night, Heaven and earth are filled with purity and light.
There are things than cannot ever occur with any precision. They are too big and too magnificent to be contained in mere facts. They are merely trying to occur, they are checking whether the ground of reality can carry them. And they quickly withdraw, fearing to loose their integrity in the frailty of realization.
The greatest advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science and literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government.
None are so poor that they have nothing to give...and none are so rich that they have nothing to receive.
Only on the edge of the grave can man conclude anything.
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