Second Foundation Quotes
"The individual human being is unpredictable, but the reactions of human mobs, Seldon found, could be treated statistically."
"He foresaw that the brilliant Empire which seemed so strong was in a state of irremediable decay and decline."
"Carefully, he set up two colonies of scientists that he called 'Foundations.'"
"The First Foundation, with its superior science, took over the barbarized planets that surrounded it."
"The creature known as the Mule was born with the ability to mold men's emotions and to shape their minds."
"The Mule must find it to make his conquest of the Galaxy complete."
"The very contentment with the Conversion was a prime symptom of it, but Han Pritcher was no longer even curious about the matter."
"He might have established his capital on the Foundation, but Kalgan, more centrally located, suited him better."
"The Mule was not a man to look at without derision."
"The cool, overhead warning light flickered. He could follow the progress of the man who had entered the palace."
"The Seldon Plan is neither complete nor correct. Instead, it is merely the best that could be done at the time."
"Every human being lived behind an impenetrable wall of choking mist within which no other but he existed."
"The most hopelessly stupid man is he who is not aware that he is wise."
"The only answer is a question, sir. Are you joining General Pritcher in accusing me of being a traitor?"
"If a sizable group of human beings learned of key details of the Plan, their actions would be governed by that knowledge and would no longer be random in the nature of the axioms of Psychohistory."
"It is part of your qualification that you knew you would qualify."
"The science of psychohistory is the synthesis of the calculus of n-variables and of n-dimensional geometry."
"The same basic developments of mental science that had brought about the development of the Seldon Plan, thus made it also unnecessary for the First Speaker to use words in addressing the Student."
"I knew his own brain-wave pattern much as an artist might be perfectly aware of the color of his eyes."
"It would be no trouble. She would whine a bit–"
"You're running from somebody, sweetheart? Don't be afraid to tell me. I'll help you."
"And I suppose it's not people that do it, either; I suppose even Kalganese would rather sit at home with their families and not go fooling around in ships and getting killed."
"There's a reason, my lady – but will you keep it in confidence?"
"The electrodes were adjusted. The process did not hurt, of course, from beginning to end."
"If I could only chip the palace down stone by stone, layer by layer of the aluminum sponge."
"I didn't know what it was all about, but Lord Stettin wanted me to stay–"
"You're named Arcadia, eh? That's a good Trantorian name."
"You see, it's quite obvious that if the Second Foundation is directing the historical course of the Galaxy – of us – that they must do it subtly and in as minimal a fashion as possible."
"You see, I happen to know where the Second Foundation really is."
"The greatest superstition of the age is that the Mule was somehow stopped in an all-conquering career by some mysterious entities superior even to himself."
"The one absolute fact we know about the Second Foundation, is that Hari Seldon located it at the opposite end of the Galaxy."
"I have another." He tossed his jacket aside and seized a duplicate of the control box that Anthor had been investigating, which swung from his belt.
"We haven't hurt them, you know; not really. We've destroyed some ships, killed a few thousands, torn away their Empire, taken over some of their commercial and economic power – but that all means nothing."
"Well, what mustn't I touch? I don't want to turn off the house defense by accident, you know."
"We must know not only how to win, but whom to defeat."
"I have known it from the time I learned that Arcadia had left for Trantor."
"For fifty years, we've known that the Second Foundation is the real descendant and pupil of Seldonian mathematics."