Nightfall and Other Stories Quotes

“He was going mad and knew it, and
somewhere deep inside a bit of sanity was screaming, struggling to fight off
the hopeless flood of black terror. It was very horrible to go mad and know
that you were going mad -- to know that in a little minute you would be here
physically and yet all the real essence would be dead and drowned in the
black madness. For this was the Dark -- the Dark and the Cold and the Doom.”
― Isaac Asimov, Nightfall and Other Stories

“We were especially interested in the automobile angle. Suppose you had a little thinking machine on the dashboard”
― Isaac Asimov, Nightfall and Other Stories

“World War II had been something unique. That was one war there could be few idealistic qualms over. We were fighting an absolute evil that seemed quite beyond the usual defame-the-enemy routine; and there seemed a reasonable hope that once the war was over there would be some way of setting up a form of world organization to prevent future wars. The euphoria of the days of the immediate end of the war and of the setting up of the United Nations didn’t last long and the Korean War spelled final ruin to the first great hopes.”
― Isaac Asimov, Nightfall and Other Stories

“Groups”
― Isaac Asimov, Nightfall and Other Stories

“He was going mad and knew it”
― Isaac Asimov, Nightfall and Other Stories

“He did not like to witness wild murder-yearnings where others could see only a few words of unimportant quarrel.”
― Isaac Asimov, Nightfall and Other Stories

“to an ant, an anteater is a higher order of creation. He would be too big for them to comprehend, too mighty to dream of resisting. He would move among them like an unseen, inexplicable whirlwind, visiting them with destruction and death. But that wouldn’t spoil things for the ants. They would reason that destruction was simply their just punishment for evil. And the anteater wouldn’t even know he was a deity. Or care.”
― Isaac Asimov, Nightfall and Other Stories

“Boy, those were the days. I used to know madmen. Now I only come across idiots.”
― Isaac Asimov, Nightfall and Other Stories

“She said brightly when he had finished reading, “It’s pronounced vee-ick-ulls, Richard. No ‘h.’ Accent on the first syllable.”
― Isaac Asimov, Nightfall and Other Stories

“Usually, you had to drive with others who were going your way,”
― Isaac Asimov, Nightfall and Other Stories

“You’ve accomplished a great deal. Yet success and failure do not exist in themselves. Success in what? Success in working the ruin of humanity. Failure in what? In saving it? I wouldn’t change places with you. Jeff, remember this. In a good cause, there are no failures; there are only delayed successes.”
― Isaac Asimov, Nightfall and Other Stories

“So, with Doubleday’s kind permission, I have prepared Nightfall and Other Stories, with all the tales in the order of publication. “Nightfall” itself is the first and now you can see for yourself how my writing has developed (or has failed to develop) with the years. Then you can decide for yourself why (or if) “Nightfall” is better than the others. I don’t know enough about Writing to be able to tell.”
― Isaac Asimov, Nightfall and Other Stories

“to this day I don’t know How To Write. I just write any old way it comes into my mind to write and just as fast as it comes into my mind. And that’s the way I wrote “Nightfall.” Mr. Campbell never sends letters of acceptance. He sends checks, instead, and very promptly, and that is an excellent way of handling the matter. I always found it thrilling. I received a check for “Nightfall” but my initial pang of delight was almost instantly snuffed out by the fact that Mr. Campbell had made a mistake. Standard payment at that time was a munificent 1 ¢ a word. (No complaints, folks; I was glad to get it.) The story was 12,000 words long and therefore I expected $120.00, but the check was for $150.00. I groaned. It would be so simple to cash the check and ask no questions, but the Ten Commandments, as preached to me by my stern and rockbound father, made it absolutely necessary to call Mr. Campbell at once and make arrangements for a new and smaller check. It turned out there was no mistake. The story seemed so good to Mr. Campbell that he gave me a bonus of ¼ ¢ a word.”
― Isaac Asimov, Nightfall and Other Stories

“Isaac Asimov’s ability to take the Big Ideas so crucial to the sense of wonder in science fiction and embody them in compellingly human stories and settings—particularly in his robot stories, Foundation works, and other speculative fiction both long and short—raised the bar high for all of us who have followed him in the tradition of idea-driven science fiction. Asimov was a law unto himself, yet he gave his fellow writers laws—of robotics, and psychohistory—that have shaped all of us who have tried to write of machine intelligence or of human civilizations vast in time and space. That is his great and vital legacy.” —Howard V. Hendrix”
― Isaac Asimov, Nightfall and Other Stories

“Devoire shrugged, “About what?” He turned the desk chronometer rather ostentatiously so that Altmayer could see its gleaming metal face on which the red, glowing figures stood out sharply. They read 22:31, and even as it was”
― Isaac Asimov, Nightfall and Other Stories