I, Robot Fear Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Story title.paragraph)

Quote #7

"Susan," said Bogert, with an air of sympathetic amusement. "I'll admit that this Frankenstein Complex you're exhibiting has a certain justification—hence the First Law in the first, place." (Little Lost Robot.66)

"Little Lost Robot" is so interesting to us because it's the only story in this book that has a dangerous robot. In the rest of the stories, Asimov shows us how robots aren't monsters and shouldn't feared. But in this story, he has the most intelligent character in the book, Susan Calvin, express fear.

Quote #8

"Listen, this junk about the space-warp knocked out Consolidated's robot, and the longhairs said it was because interstellar travel killed humans. Which robot are you going to trust?" (Escape.170)

Once again, Powell and Donovan are on the frontline of robot testing, and this means they're in some danger. Now, they shouldn't be, because robots should be incapable of hurting people. But once again, since these robots are doing something new (figuring out the warp drive), there's always a danger that the Three Laws won't hold like normal.

Quote #9

"Why not prove it? Or would you still rather try to prove it to the public?" (Evidence.56)

Quinn motivates Lanning to get involved through the threat of making his accusations public. His accusations would just be rumors, but Lanning is still afraid that people will react negatively to those rumors. In other words, Lanning is fearful that people will be more afraid of robots if Quinn says that some people might be robots. You could imagine that people would fear a Battlestar Galactica type of situation with robots infiltrating human society. Eek.