The End of Eternity Quotes

“The final end of Eternity, and the beginning of Infinity”
― Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity

“It is in meeting the great tests that mankind can most successfully rise to great heights. Out of danger and restless insecurity comes the force that pushes mankind to newer and loftier conquests. Can you understand that? Can you understand that in averting the pitfalls and miseries that beset man, Eternity prevents men from finding their own bitter and better solutions, the real solutions that come from conquering difficulty, not avoiding it?”
― Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity

“Grip the nettle firmly and it will become a stick with which to beat your enemy.”
― Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity

“But emotion had come upon him after all. Not for fifty billion people. What in Time did he care for fifty billion people? There was just one. One person.”
― Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity

“For the first time the specific and express thought came to him. And though he pushed it away in horror, he knew that, having once come, it would return. The thought was simply this: That he would ruin Eternity, if he had to. The worst of it was that he knew he had the power to do it.”
― Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity

“He turned to look at her, and she was smiling at him. It was Noÿs as she had been, and his own heart beating as it had used to.”
― Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity

“He would do worse than his worst if he had to.”
― Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity

“Yet there was this to be said for unfavorable relationships in the wealth-distribution equation. It meant the existence of a leisure class and the development of an attractive way of life which, at its best, encouraged culture and grace. As long as the other end of the scale was not too badly off, as long as the leisure classes did not entirely forget their responsibilities while enjoying their privileges, as long as their culture took no obviously unhealthy turn, there was always the tendency in Eternity to forgive the departure from the ideal wealth-distribution pattern and to search for other, less attractive maladjustments.”
― Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity

“Could he tell her any of this? Of course not. Could he tell her that women almost never qualified for Eternity because, for some reason he did not understand (Computers might, but he himself certainly did not), their abstraction from Time was from ten to a hundred times as likely to distort Reality as was the abstraction of a man.”
― Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity

“Voy gülümsedi." İşte bu fena. Ne zaman birisi belirli bir alanda tam bilgi sahibi olmadığını belirterek konuya girse, arkasından o konuda çok açık bir biçimde fikrini belirtecek demektir.”
― Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity

“Men identified themselves with the Century with which they were associated professionally. Its battles, all too often, became their own battles.”
― Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity

“Advertisement! A device for forcing the unwilling into line. Did it matter to a ground vehicle manufacturer whether a given individual felt an original or spontaneous desire for his product? If the prospect (that was the word) could be artificially persuaded or cajoled into feeling that desire and acting upon it, would that not be just as well?”
― Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity

“The music could no more repeat itself than could snowflakes, and could no more fail of beauty.”
― Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity

“Battling a sickness of the spirit was like standing in a quicksand and beating it with a stick.”
― Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity

“When one begins by expressing lack of competence in a given field, it usually implies that a flat opinion in that field will follow almost immediately”
― Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity

“a moving finger having once written could never be lured back to unwrite.”
― Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity

“Battling a sickness of the spirit was like standing in a quickstand and beating it with a stick.”
― Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity

“Century or another. Usually, the dangerous beliefs are those which concentrate particularly in the ruling classes of an era; the classes that have most contact with us and, at the same time, carry the important weight of what is called public opinion.” Finge paused as though he expected Harlan to offer some comment or ask some question. Harlan did neither. Finge continued. “Ever since the Reality Change 433–486, Serial Number”
― Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity

“Finge went on. “There are some things, however, they must not know. Prime among them, of course, is the manner in which we alter Reality when necessary. The insecurity such knowledge would arouse would be most harmful. It is always necessary to breed out of Reality any factors that might lead to such knowledge and we have never been troubled with it.”
― Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity

“Consegue entender que, ao afastar as armadilhas e vicissitudes que perseguem o homem, a Eternidade não deixa que ele encontre suas próprias soluções, boas e amargas, soluções reais que chegam quando a dificuldade é enfrentada, não evitada?”
― Isaac Asimov, O Fim da Eternidade

“Era um grande acréscimo à vida de Harlan. Ter alguém com quem conversar, com quem falar sobre sua vida, seus feitos e pensamentos. Era como se ela fosse uma parte dele, mas uma parte suficientemente separada para exigir a fala como comunicação, em vez do pensamento. Era uma parte suficientemente separada para ser capaz de responder de maneira imprevista, por meio de processos racionais independentes.”
― Isaac Asimov, O Fim da Eternidade

“In ironing out the disasters of Reality, Eternity rules out the triumphs as well, It is in meeting the great tests that mankind can most successfully rise to great heights, Out of danger and restless insecurity comes the force that pushes mankind to newer and loftier conquests, Can you understand that? Can you understand that in averting the pitfalls and miseries that beset man, Eternity prevents men from finding their own bitter and better solutions, the real solutions that come from conquering difficulty, not avoiding it.”
― Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity

“did was to locate a member of the current aristocracy, who thought it would be thrilling or exciting to work in Eternity. I placed her in this office and kept her under close observation to see if she were suitable for our purpose—” Harlan thought: Close observation! Yes! Again his anger focused itself on Finge rather than upon the woman. Finge was still speaking. “By all standards, she is suitable. We will now return her to her Time. Using her dwelling as a base, you will be able to study the social life of her circle. Do”
― Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity

“¡Los anuncios! Un procedimiento para atraer a los desinteresados. ¿Qué le importaba a un fabricante de vehículos terrestres si el deseo de un individuo desconocido hacia su producto era espontáneo o provocado? Si el cliente —esa era la palabra— podía ser artificialmente convencido o sugestionado para sentir tal deseo y actuar en consecuencia, ¿no era eso todo lo que le importaba al fabricante?”
― Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity

“Once, however, mankind learned to create his own environment, he created a pleasant and stable one, so he just naturally stopped evolving.”
― Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity

“For a full day he had checked and rechecked equations and relationships in a rattling uncertainty, mixed with growing excitement and a bitter gratitude that he had been taught at least elementary psychomathematics.”
― Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity

“I know this much: species evolve only to meet the pressures of new environments. In a stable environment, a species may remain unchanged for millions of Centuries. Primitive man evolved rapidly because his environment was a harsh and changing one. Once, however, mankind learned to create his own environment, he created a pleasant and stable one, so he just naturally stopped evolving.”
― Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity

“In ironing out the disasters of Reality, Eternity rules out the triumphs as well. It is in meeting the great tests that mankind can most successfully rise to great heights. Out of danger and restless insecurity comes the force that pushes mankind to newer and loftier conquests. Can you understand that? Can you understand that in averting the pitfalls and miseries that beset man, Eternity prevents men from finding their own bitter and better solutions, the real solutions that come from conquering difficulty, not avoiding it?”
― Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity

“In fact" —and he reached up to rub his cheek with long, spare fingers— "with the combination of factors you handed me I don't quite see how she fit in the old Reality.”
― Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity

“Above all, a Technician must be dispassionate. The Reality Change he initiates may affect the lives of as many as fifty billion people. A million or more of these may be so drastically affected as to be considered new individuals. Under these conditions, an emotional make-up is a distinct handicap.”
― Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity