Foundation

„childishness comes almost as naturally to a man as to a child.”

„If you’re born in a cubicle and grow up in a corridor, and work in a cell, and vacation in a crowded sun-room, then coming up into the open with nothing but sky over you might just give you a nervous breakdown.”

„As Trantor becomes more specialized, it becomes more vulnerable, less able to defend itself. Further, as it becomes more and more the administrative center of Empire, it becomes a greater prize. As the Imperial succession becomes more and more uncertain, and the feuds among the great families more rampant, social responsibility disappears.”

„The appearance of strength is all about you. It would seem to last forever. However, Mr. Advocate, the rotten tree-trunk, until the very moment when the storm-blast breaks it in two, has all the appearance of might it ever had.”

„The sum of human knowing is beyond any one man; any thousand men. With the destruction of our social fabric, science will be broken into a million pieces. Individuals will know much of exceedingly tiny facets of what there is to know. They will be helpless and useless by themselves. The bits of lore, meaningless, will not be passed on. They will be lost through the generations. But, if we now prepare a giant summary of all knowledge, it will never be lost. Coming generations will build on it, and will not have to rediscover it for themselves. One millennium will do the work of thirty thousand.”

„Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.”

„We consider the greatest end of science is the classification of past data. It is important, but is there no further work to be done?”

„The temptation was great to muster what force we could and put up a fight. It’s the easiest way out, and the most satisfactory to self-respect—but, nearly invariably, the stupidest.”

„I started that way at first because the barbarians looked upon our science as a sort of magical sorcery, and it was easiest to get them to accept it on that basis.”

„It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety.”

„difficulties vanish when faced boldly, and I have never turned my back upon one yet.”

„A fire eater must eat fire even if he has to kindle it himself.”

„Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right!”

„A trader has to know a little of everything.”

„The full depth of our religious customs, in the ritualistic rather than the ethical sense, is for the masses.”

„Any fool can tell a crisis when it arrives. The real service to the state is to detect it in embryo.”

„There’s no merit in discipline under ideal circumstances.”

„The stars may not change even in centuries, but political boundaries are all too fluid.”

„You can’t get money out of a world unless money’s there to be got.”

„Memories sting when they come suddenly.”

„Past glories are poor feeding.”

„prejudice follow any law but its own.”

„I adhere to law, and not to custom.”

„a sincere friendship through trade will be many times better than an insecure overlordship, based on the hated supremacy of a foreign spiritual power, which, once it weakens ever so slightly, can only fall entirely and leave nothing substantial behind except an immortal fear and hate.”

„any dogma, primarily based on faith and emotionalism, is a dangerous weapon to use on others, since it is almost impossible to guarantee that the weapon will never be turned on the user. For a hundred years now, we’ve supported a ritual and mythology that is becoming more and more venerable, traditional—and immovable. In some ways, it isn’t under our control any more.”

„A known enemy is relatively safe.”

„Mob enthusiasm is a powerful thing, but it’s notoriously fickle.”

„As Trantor becomes more specialized, it becomes more vulnerable, less able to defend itself. Further, as it becomes more and more the administrative center of Empire, it becomes a greater prize. As the Imperial succession becomes more and more uncertain, and the feuds among the great families more rampant, social responsibility disappears.”

„The appearance of strength is all about you. It would seem to last forever. However, Mr. Advocate, the rotten tree-trunk, until the very moment when the storm-blast breaks it in two, has all the appearance of might it ever had.”

„The sum of human knowing is beyond any one man; any thousand men. With the destruction of our social fabric, science will be broken into a million pieces. Individuals will know much of exceedingly tiny facets of what there is to know. They will be helpless and useless by themselves. The bits of lore, meaningless, will not be passed on. They will be lost through the generations. But, if we now prepare a giant summary of all knowledge, it will never be lost. Coming generations will build on it, and will not have to rediscover it for themselves. One millennium will do the work of thirty thousand.”

„Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.”

„We consider the greatest end of science is the classification of past data. It is important, but is there no further work to be done?”

„I started that way at first because the barbarians looked upon our science as a sort of magical sorcery, and it was easiest to get them to accept it on that basis.”

„It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety.”

„difficulties vanish when faced boldly, and I have never turned my back upon one yet.”

„A fire eater must eat fire even if he has to kindle it himself.”

„Any fool can tell a crisis when it arrives. The real service to the state is to detect it in embryo.”

„There’s no merit in discipline under ideal circumstances.”

„The stars may not change even in centuries, but political boundaries are all too fluid.”

„You can’t get money out of a world unless money’s there to be got.”

„prejudice follow any law but its own.”

„I adhere to law, and not to custom.”