Foundation

childishness comes almost as naturally to a man as to a child

• p. 11 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

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

• p. 15 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

A. I have said, and I say again, that Trantor will lie in ruins within the next three centuries.

Q. You do not consider your statement a disloyal one?

A. No, sir. Scientific truth is beyond loyalty and disloyalty.

• p. 23 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

Q. [...] Can the overall history of the human race be changed?

A. Yes.

Q. Easily?

A. No. With great difficulty.

• p. 24 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

Even if the Empire were admitted to be a bad thing (an admission I do not make), the state of anarchy which would follow its fall would be worse. It is that state of anarchy which my project is pledged to fight. The fall of Empire, gentlemen, is a massive thing, however, and not easily fought. It is dictated by a rising bureaucracy, a receding initiative, a freezing of caste, a damming of curiosity—a hundred other factors. It has been going on, as I have said, for centuries, and it is too majestic and massive a movement to stop.

• p. 26 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

Politicians by the very nature of their work must have an instinctive feeling for the truths of psychohistory.

• p. 30 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

Hardin, as he sat at the foot of the table, speculated idly as to just what it was that made physical scientists such poor administrators. It might be merely that they were too used to inflexible fact and far too unused to pliable people.

• p. 43 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

Are you [scientists], though? That's a nice hallucination, isn't it? Your bunch here is a perfect example of what's been wrong with the entire Galaxy for thousands of years. What kind of science is it to be stuck out here for centuries classifying the work of scientists of the last millennium? Have you ever thought of working onward, extending their knowledge and improving upon it? No! You're quite happy to stagnate.

• p. 45 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

Fara turned to Hardin. "Didn't you study psychology under Alurin?"

Hardin answered, half in reverie: "Yes, I never completed my studies, though. I got tired of theory. 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."

• pp. 46-47 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

Hardin remained silent for a short while. Then he said, "When did Lameth write his book?"

"Oh—I should say about eight hundwed yeahs ago. Of cohse, he has based it lahgely on the pwevious wuhk of Gleen."

"Then why rely on him? Why not go to Arcturus and study the remains for yourself?"

Lord Dorwin raised his eyebrows and took a pinch of snuff hurriedly. "Why, whatevah foah, my dear fellow?"

"To get the information firsthand, of course."

"But wheah's the necessity? It seems an uncommonly woundabout and hopelessly wigmawolish method of getting anywheahs. Look heah, now, I've got the wuhks of all the old mastahs—the gweat ahchaeologists of the past. I weight them against each othah—balance the disagweements—analyze the conflicting statements—decide which is pwobably cowwect—and come to a conclusion. That is the scientific method. At least"—patronizingly—"as I see it. How insuffewably cwude it would be to go to Ahctuwus, oah to Sol, foah instance, and blundah about, when the old mastahs have covahed the gwound so much moah effectually than we could possibly hope to do."

Hardin murmured politely, "I see."

• pp. 49-50 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

• p. 54 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)
• p. 89 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

"We are to do nothing, is that right, except to wait in quiet serenity and utter faith for the deus ex machina to pop out of the Vault?"

"Stripped of your emotional phraseology, that's the idea."

"Such unsubtle escapism! Really, Dr. Fara, such folly smacks of genius. A lesser mind would be incapable of it."

• p. 54 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

"Seldon was not a magician. There are no trick methods of escaping from a dilemma that he can see and we can't."

"But, Hardin," reminded Fara, "we can't!"

"But you haven't tried. you haven't tried once. First, you refused to admit that there was a menace at all! Then you reposed an absolutely blind faith in the Emperor! Now you've shifted it to Hari Seldon. Throughout you have invariably relied on authority or on the past—never on yourselves."

His fists balled spasmodically. "It amounts to a diseased attitude—a conditioned reflex that shunts aside the independence of your minds whenever it is a question of opposing authority. There seems no doubt ever in your minds that the Emperor is more powerful than you are, or Hari Seldon wiser. And that's wrong, don't you see?"

• p. 55 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

We sit here, considering the Encyclopedia the all-in-all. 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? We're receding and forgetting, don't you see? Here in the Periphery they've lost nuclear power. In Gamma Andromeda, a power plant has undergone meltdown because of poor repairs, and the Chancellor of the Empire complains that nuclear technicians are scarce. And the solution? To train new ones? Never! Instead they're to restrict nuclear power.

• p. 56 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

It's got to be done, you understand, with impudence. That is, there is to be no hesitation; no time to allow them to grasp the situation. Once we are in a position to give orders, why, give them as though you were born to do so, and they'll obey out of habit. That's the essence of a coup.

• p. 57 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

They shook his hand, each one, and left; and Hardin smiled to himself. They were fundamentally sound at that; for they were scientists enough to admit that they were wrong—but for them, it was too late.

• p. 60 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

Flattery is useful when dealing with youngsters—particularly when it doesn't commit you to anything.

• p. 64 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

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.

• p. 67 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

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

• p. 70 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

"But can we afford to take chances? Can we risk the present for the sake of a nebulous future?"

"We must—because the future isn't nebulous."

• p. 73 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

Courtiers don't take wagers against the king's skill. There is the deadly danger of winning.

• p. 76 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

I consider violence an uneconomical way of attaining an end. There are always better substitutes, though they may sometimes be a little less direct.

• p. 89 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

I am not one be frightened at words. It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish when faced boldly, and I have never turned my back upon one yet.

• p. 89 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

It is the chief characteristic of the religion of science that it works.

• p. 95 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

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

• p. 99 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

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

• p. 103 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

"Traders aren't patriotic?"

"Notoriously not. Pioneers never are."

• p. 109 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

"What if the gold turns out to be impure?"

Ponyets allowed himself a dark humor in return, "When the judgement of that impurity depends on those who are most interested in finding it pure?"

• p. 113 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

The Foundation's greatest asset throughout the Periphery is its reputation of power. Do you think we can lose three ships and ask for them?

• p. 121 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

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

• p. 124 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

To succeed, planning alone is insufficient. One must improvise as well.

• p. 126 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

Korell is that frequent phenomenon in history: the republic whose ruler has every attribute of the absolute monarch but the name. It therefore enjoyed the usual despotism unrestrained even by those two moderating influences in the legitimate monarchies: regal "honor" and court etiquette.

• p. 127 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

There's no merit in discipline under ideal circumstances. I'll have it in the face of death, or it's useless.

• p. 129 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

weak emperors mean strong viceroys

• p. 144 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

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.

• p. 154 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

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.

• p. 155 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

"Mallow, you've put on a beautiful show, so don't spoil it by jumping too high. You can't seriously consider running for mayor. Mob enthusiasm is a powerful thing, but it's notoriously fickle."

"Exactly!" said Mallow, grimly, "so we must coddle it, and the best way to do that is to continue the show."

• p. 161 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

It's very hard to bear up under little things when the patriotic uplift of imminent danger is not present.

• pp. 166-167 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)

The Empire has always been a realm of colossal resources. They've calculated everything in planets, in stellar systems, in whole sectors of the Galaxy. Their generators are gigantic because they thought in gigantic fashion.

But we,—we, our little Foundation, our single world almost without metallic resources,—have had to work with brute economy. Our generators have had to be the size of our thumb, because it was all the metal we could afford. We had to develop new techniques and new methods,—techniques and methods the Empire can't follow because they have degenerated past the stage where they can make any really vital scientific advance.

With all their nuclear shields, large enough to protect a ship, a city, an entire world; they could never build one to protect a single man. To supply light and heat to a city, they have motors six stories high,—I saw them—where ours could fit into this room. And when I told one of their nuclear specialists that a lead container the size of a walnut contained a nuclear generator, he almost choked with indignation on the spot.

Why, they don't even understand their own colossi any longer. The machines work from generation to generation automatically, and the caretakers are a hereditary caste who would be helpless if a single D-tube in all that vast structure burnt out.

The whole war is a battle between those two systems; between the Empire and the Foundation; between the big and the little. To seize control of a world, they bribe with immense ships that can make war, but lack all economic significance. We, on the other hand, bribe with little things, useless in war, but vital to prosperity and profits.

A king, or a Commdor, will take the ships and even make war Arbitrary rulers throughout history have bartered their subjects' welfare for what they consider honor, and glory, and conquest. But it's still the little things in life that count—and Asper Argo won't stand up against the economic depression that will sweep all Korell in two or three years.

• p. 167 ("The Foundation Trilogy", Easton Press, 2003)