Quotes About Authority

They are useful, but they are too strong—and too uncontrolled. They are Outlanders, educated apart from religion. On the one hand, we put knowledge into their hands, and on the other, we remove our strongest hold upon them.

They work off all their resentments, enjoy all the smug self-satisfaction a young revolutionary would have, and by the time they take their place in the Imperial hierarchy, they are ready to settle down into conformity and obedience.

Their whole training has been authoritarian. They are sure that the Emperor, just because he is the Emperor, is all-powerful. And they are sure that the Board of Trustees, simply because it is the Board of Trustees acting in the name of the Emperor, cannot be in a position where it does not give the orders.

When one begins by expressing lack of competence in a given field, it usually implies that a flat opinion in that field will follow almost immediately

they are trained from birth to accept authority.

Undoubtedly his greatest contributions were in the field of psychohistory. Seldon found the field little more than a set of vague axioms; he left it a profound statistical science.… … The best existing authority we have for the details of his life is the biography

Mankind has lost its own say in its future.' 'It never had any, really.

In fact, it was part of the Tyrannian military tradition that a little discomfort on the part of the soldier was good for discipline.

Siempre han confiado en la autoridad o en el pasado, nunca en sí mismos. Sus

El gobernador era corpulento, macizo, bajo y de aspecto vulgar.

even if you have right on your side, even if justice thunders condemnation, it is usually the tyranny in existence that has the balance of force on its side.

That's why I must be mayor and high priest. I'm the only man who knows how to fight the crisis." Jael swallowed dryly. "How? What are you going to do?" "Nothing." Jael smiled uncertainly. "Really! All of that!" But Mallow's answer was incisive. "When I'm boss of this Foundation, I'm going to do nothing. One hundred percent of nothing, and that is the secret of this crisis.

Invariablemente, siempre han puesto su fe en las autoridades o en el pasado, nunca en ustedes mismos.

it is an advantage for the murderer to be in charge of the murder investigation.

Men who rule by tricks of the mind need not necessarily be men in obvious power.

When I'm boss of this Foundation, I'm going to do nothing. One hundred percent of nothing, and that is the secret of this crisis.

For the first time, the Foundation has been faced, or perhaps, is in the last stages of facing, civil war. Till now, the attacks from without have been adequately beaten off, and inevitably so, according to the strict laws of psycho-history. The attack at present is that of a too-undisciplined outer group of the Foundation against the too-authoritarian central government. The procedure was necessary, the result obvious.

Young man, my powers, on paper, are enormous, but I can only succeed when the public is willing to let me. Let me give you a lesson in practical politics.

The best existing authority we have for the details of his life is the biography written by Gaal Dornick who, as a young man, met Seldon two years before the great mathematician's death. The story of the meeting …

Can you fight a force which can make you surrender willingly when it so desires; can make you a faithful servant when it so desires?

Wienis tekintete fagyossá vált, mint a jégcsap. – Felségednek szólítsalak? – Igen. – Rendben van. Felséged hülye!

Sei tu dalla parte del torto, John, quando parli di diritti "inalienabili". Quello che tu chiami un "diritto" è meramente un privilegio, generalmente accettato. Ciò che la società accetta, quello è diritto; il resto non conta.»

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.

The Foundation can never lose, but that does not mean the rulers of the Foundation can't.