Forward The Foundation Quotes
"Never for one minute did he forget what he had been and who he was now and to whom he owed the change. That meant that if he had to speak harshly to Hari Seldon--for Seldon’s own good--no consideration of respect and love for the older man and no regard for his own career would stop him. He owed such harshness--and much more--to Seldon."
"It was comforting to know that if anything happened to Seldon himself before the mathematics of the field could be completely worked out--and how slowly it proceeded, and how mountainous the obstacles--there would at least remain one good mind that would continue the research."
"Even if we could not prevent the Fall, we could cushion the effects, couldn’t we?"
"The longer we have to work in peace, the greater the chance we will have to prevent the Fall or, at least, ameliorate the effects."
"He was fond of Yugo Amaryl--more than fond. Yugo was one of the four people he had encountered during that short period of his life when he was in flight across the face of the planet Trantor--Eto Demerzel, Dors Venabili, Yugo Amaryl, and Raych--four, the likes of which he had not found since."
"You may feel you owe Demerzel--this despoiler of all the millions of planets of humanity--your friendship. Be careful. What you do may shake the very foundation of the Empire."
"I ask you to help me in the name of the quadrillions of human beings who fill the Galaxy. Think of the Empire."
"I don’t think it was right for you to see those two guys."
"I am not getting old--or, at least, not that old."
"He wants all sectors to have equal rights and equal opportunities--and there ain’t nothing wrong with that, is there?"
"The pleasantness of their company outweighed the regret of their passing."
"Do you want to know what I’m thinking of? --Hair!"
"I don’t want to invite an appeal to bigotry."
"Joranum doesn’t want people to know where he really comes from."
"The Empire is in a state of decay and decline."
"I’m doing a great deal to contain discontent and blunt Joranum’s message."
"It’s what I expect. You have no solution. Demerzel himself has no solution."
"I have not reached the point where I can be guided in any way by psychohistory."
"It might be eight or eight hundred and it might not be developed to that point."
"We’re the Joranum Guard and we keep the peace here."
"Good rule, quiet behavior, seemly pleasures are all requirements."
"I have my friends--the trees and the lawns and all the animal life forms to keep me company--and growth to encourage in geometric form, even in the winter."
"My knee is three inches from your groin and, if you so much as blink, your genitals will be history."
"Psychohistory is mine and, if I can possibly manage it, I want the credit."
"I happen to think so. And I happen to be human."
"I would not be surprised if someday you were Chief Gardener."
"Every time I try to solve a problem by direct and forceful action, first Demerzel and then you talk of 'despotism' and 'tyranny.'"
"You don’t need schooling to be a philosopher. Just an active mind and experience with life."
"There be few of us on this world that work in the open, but here I be, one of the fortunate few."
"His capacity for new and tangential thinking might be dwindling, too."
"Ideally, to use psychohistory properly, one should be above worlds and sectors and deal only with humanity in the faceless abstract."
"What we gain in the straightaway, we lose in the roundabouts. That’s the way the Universe works."
"If we can manage to live with the knowledge that the actions we take, which we will mean for the best, may turn out to be for the worst."
"Human beings have been allowed to fester in the delightful game of I’m-better-than-you and cleaning up that mess isn’t easy."
"It’s all but impossible to change people’s minds and hearts."
"The interesting thing is that there seems a mutual exclusivity. One or the other. The likelihood of both together is very small."
"How can you tell me things are quiet when reports seem to reach me every other week of some serious breakdown here and there on Trantor?"
"Happy the world without a history, I always say."
"There’s never any such time. I gather that the people are experiencing serious dissatisfaction over these breakdowns. It must stop and you must see to it, Seldon."
"It’s always pleasant to think that your particular world is the world."
"One must pay civil officials to keep them honest. Failing that, they would surely make up for their inadequate salaries in other ways."
"There was no way to increase wages without increasing taxes and the populace would not sit still for increased taxes. It seemed they would rather lose ten times the credits in graft."
"Well, what was Raych to do? He was here at the hotel where Kaspalov had lived during the days immediately before his murder."
"It seemed to Raych that he must make himself conspicuous. He must show an interest in Kaspalov’s death and then someone would get interested in him and pick him up."
"I’m not. Do you know all the regulars? Just about, she said, unembarrassed."
"Raych said, 'My name doesn’t matter. I don’t have many credits.'"
"Sometimes it doesn’t take any credits at all."
"Because I think there should be more representative government in the Empire, more participation by the people, and more equality among the sectors and the worlds. Doesn’t anyone with brains and a heart think that?"
"Do you think a great many people could come to some decision quickly in times of emergency? Or would they just sit around and argue?"
"It doesn’t seem right that just a few people should have all the say over all the worlds."
"Push, pull, prod, kick. --Well, maybe we need someone like that. We must have someone like that or nothing will ever happen."
"Human beings can’t have evolved on different worlds and ended as a single species."
"I’d like to. I need a job. Do you know of any?"
"Multiply Gruber’s woes by a quadrillion and you would have the woes of all the people of the twenty-five million worlds of the Empire."
"If I were to say, ‘Take back your decision on Gruber, Your Imperial Majesty,’ he would be much more likely to relieve me of my duties than to take back his decision."
"The chance of all this working is small. ... Somewhere, someone is bound to mess up. It’s an unacceptable risk."
"Isn’t it worth it to you? You’re playing for the Imperial throne."
"Risk? I run a worse risk than any of you, just sitting here doing nothing."
"No no, Manella is one of those women invented for our quiet moments. She has no function at all, otherwise."
"Surely you’re not of the opinion that it matters much which woman you are involved with? ... Once this is over, there will be other women. Plenty of them."
"You’ll be more than that, Planchet. You’ll be going in with a blaster."
"I came prepared. I have been informed of your prowess as a Heliconian Twister and there will be no hand-to-hand combat."
"Men and women, gardeners of the Emperor, you are to undertake an important task. You will be responsible for the beauty and health of the only open land on our great world of Trantor, capital of the Galactic Empire."
"Risks are something we have to take. There’s more riding on this than individual lives."
"I understand," said Seldon, "but you mustn’t be there. Your presence would be so inappropriate that the conspirators will suspect we know too much and will abort their plan."
"Death is an essential part of life; she must learn that."
"Don’t you see how alive I am--and cheerful--and laughing? Do I look as though I’m dying?"
"She saved our lives. If it had not been for her quick action, both Raych and I would be dead."
"I’m no one’s ticket to respectability--if you’ll stop to think of it. ... What’s there for her to be proud of in me? She can do a lot better, but she wants me. And let me tell you, I want her."
"You’re arguing rationally and rationality is not going to be in fashion for a while."
"It’s good to have new and brilliant men and women in the Project. Somehow it reconciles me to the future."
"If only," said Amaryl, "he didn’t laugh so loud."
"It is not given to anybody to be a universal genius."
"He who wins will be the one who holds out the longest."
"It's not easy to say this, Maestro. You're a genius at mathematics. No one on the Project has any doubt of that."
"Sometimes the effort to insist on absolute security leads to the opposite."
"In any case, if I get into trouble, that will be far less dangerous than if you were to do so."
"What can he want to do to me if I come in as an old man, utterly harmless, to find out what he wants?"
"Every government must do its work by collecting wealth in one form or another."
"In the end, the tax situation becomes overwhelming. It inspires discontent and rebellion."
"The opposite of great complication is great simplicity."
"Your desires and your orders and your plans all take second place to your safety."
"That’s exactly what I want to find out and that’s what I want to stop."
"It stores the equations that describe the future."
"The law of conservation of personal problems."
"He’s not one of your sociable creatures, you know."
"I would like to get rid of me as director of the Project and leave the gathering responsibilities of psychohistory to others."
"How can you pretend to reach a point where you can predict and guide the future, when you cannot analyze and correct something as homegrown as personal frictions in the very Project that promises so much?"
"One didn’t usually hear political discussions in the Library. They were, in point of fact, not supposed to take place."
"If we leave Anacreon alone, what do we lose? It’s still there, right where it always was, right at the edge of the Empire."
"The Empire can’t run itself effectively anymore, anyway. It’s too big."
"The allegiance to the Emperor--What allegiance?"
"We went for years without an Emperor after Cleon was assassinated and no one seemed to mind much."
"It’s been a long time since I’ve looked at one."
"But now, at seventy, his legs gave way all too quickly and he had to take a skitter."
"Their garments were silky and off-white and were loose enough to be almost gownlike."
"Every Librarian had a rather short neatly cultivated beard running from ear to ear but leaving bare the upper lip."
"The caps came in an endless variety of colors and apparently each color had significance."
"It was like an old dowager still wearing the jewels of her youth but upon a body that was wrinkled and wattled."
"A suitable world. You wanted one far out. I think we’ve located the ideal one."