I’ve seen many people with status, but I’m still looking for a happy one. Status won’t sit still under you; you have to continually fight to keep from sinking.
I’m being accused of modesty, a horrible and thoroughly unnatural crime.
It's your fiction that interests me. Your studies of the interplay of human motives and emotion.
It isn’t just you. It’s the whole Galaxy. Pirenne heard Lord Dorwin’s idea of scientific research. Lord Dorwin thought the way to be a good archaeologist was to read all the books on the subject—writt...
It is the invariable lesson to humanity that distance in time, and in space as well, lends focus.
I wanted to be a psychological engineer, but we lacked the facilities, so I did the next best thing - I went into politics. It's practically the same thing.
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 rui...
Earthmen may even rule at Trantor for a generation, but their children will become Trantorians, and in their turn will look down upon the remnant on Earth.
Down—down—the results can be followed; and all the suffering that humanity ever knew can be traced to the one fact that no man in the history of the Galaxy, until Hari Seldon, and very few men thereaf...
Does everyone just believe what he wants to?As long as possible. Sometimes longer.What about you?You mean, am I human? Certainly. I don't believe I'm really old. I believe I'm quite attractive. I beli...
An individual life is one thread in the tapestry and what is one thread compared to the whole?
All normal life, Peter, consciously or otherwise, resent domination. If the domination is by an inferior, or by a supposed inferior, the resentment becomes stronger.
After all, the essential point in running a risk is that the returns justify it.
A horse having a wolf as a powerful and dangerous enemy lived in constant fear of his life. Being driven to desperation, it occurred to him to seek a strong ally. Whereupon he approached a man, and of...
The psychohistoric trend of a planet-full of people contains a huge inertia. To be changed it must be met with something possessing a similar inertia. Either as many people must be concerned, or if th...
The final end of Eternity, and the beginning of Infinity
It lacks glamour?- It lacks mob emotion-appeal.- Same thing.
It is always useful, you see, to subject the past life of reform politicians to rather inquisitive research.
How could any number of people—all together—know enough? It reminded Seldon of a puzzle that had been presented to him when he was young: Can you have a relatively small piece of platinum, with handho...
Who?Schiller. A German dramatist of three centuries ago. In a play about Joan of Arc, he said, ‘Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain.’ I’m no god and I’ll contend no longer. Let it g...