Quotes About Empire

Trantor becomes more specialized, it becomes more vulnerable, less able to defend itself. Further, as it becomes more and more the administrative centre of Empire, it becomes a greater prize. As the Imperial succession becomes more and more uncertain, and the feuds among the great families more rampant, social responsibility disappears.

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. Q.

But this I can tell you: Terminus and its companion Foundation at the other end of the Galaxy are the seeds of the Renascence and the future founders of the Second Galactic Empire. And it is the present crisis that is starting Terminus off to that climax.

Trantor?' 'That's right. What was once the Empire is bare bones today, but something must still be at the centre. They've got the records there, Ebling. You may learn more of mathematical psychology; perhaps enough to be able to interpret the clown's mind. He will go with you, of course.

In three centuries the Foundation had grown from a private project of a small group of scientists to a tentacular trade empire sprawling deep into the Galaxy and half a year had flung it from its heights to the status of another conquered province.

Dr Seldon, that you are speaking of an Empire that has stood for twelve thousand years, through all the vicissitudes of the generations, and which has behind it the good wishes and love of a quadrillion human beings?

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.

Psychohistory, which can predict the fall, can make statements concerning the succeeding dark ages. The Empire, gentlemen, as has just been said, has stood twelve thousand years. The dark ages to come will endure not twelve, but thirty thousand years. A Second Empire will rise, but between it and our civilization will be one thousand generations of suffering humanity. We must fight that.

Ellos se extenderán por la Galaxia a un ritmo que irá en aumento, sin la Tierra para mirar con nostalgia, sin la Tierra en forma de un dios, y establecerán un Imperio Galáctico. Era preciso que lo hiciéramos posible. Hizo una pausa, y su voz se debilitó al decir: «Robots e Imperio».

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.

Great Space!' Hardin felt annoyed. 'What is this? Every once in a while someone mentions "Emperor" or "Empire" as if it were a magic word. The Emperor is fifty thousand parsecs away, and I doubt whether he gives a damn about us. And if he does, what can he do? What there was of the imperial navy in these regions is in the hands of the four kingdoms now and Anacreon has its share. Listen, we have to fight with guns, not with words.

A fleet of ships greater in number than all the war fleets the Empire had ever supported landed their cargoes on Trantor each day to feed the forty billions of humans who gave nothing in exchange but the fulfilment of the necessity of untangling the myriads of threads that spiralled into the central administration of the most complex government Humanity had ever known.

sector weren't knocked over with compressed-air pistols. Jael, they're getting ships from the Empire itself. Don't open your mouth like a fool. I said the Empire! It's still there, you know. It may be gone here in the Periphery but in the Galactic centre it's still very much alive. And one false move means that it, itself, may be on our neck. That's why I must be mayor and high priest. I'm the only man who knows how to fight the crisis.

We can see, now, that the social background of the Empire makes wars of conquest impossible for it. Under weak Emperors, it is torn apart by generals competing for a worthless and surely death-bringing throne. Under strong Emperors, the Empire is frozen into a paralytic rigour in which disintegration apparently ceases for the moment, but only at the sacrifice of all possible growth.

I once told Riose that not all the Empire's strength could swerve the dead hand of Hari Seldon.

It's almost a century since the last one, and in that century, every vice of the Empire has been repeated in the Foundation. Inertia! Our ruling class knows one law; no change. Despotism! They know one rule; force. Maldistribution! They know one desire; to hold what is theirs.

caída de un imperio es un suceso colosal, y no se combate con facilidad. Viene dictada por el crecimiento de la burocracia, la asfixia de la iniciativa, la esclerosis del sistema de castas, la condena de toda curiosidad...

THE FOUR KINGDOMS The name given to those portions of the Province of Anacreon which broke away from the First Empire in the early years of the Foundational Era to form independent and short-lived kingdoms. The largest and most powerful of these was Anacreon itself which in area … … Undoubtedly the most interesting aspect of the history of the Four Kingdoms involves the strange society forced temporarily upon it during the administration of Salvor Hardin …

Now the Empire is stronger than we; it always has been. But this is the first time we are in danger of its direct attack, so that strength becomes terribly menacing. Then if it can be beaten, it must be once again as in all past crises by a method other than pure force. We must find the weak side of its enemy and attack it there.

Ezio Longo, inmigrante de primera generación en el país, arquitecto sin título y constructor de oficio, quien se había propuesto fundar un imperio sobre cemento y acero y a los treinta y cinco años ya lo tenía casi consolidado

Los incas utilizaban veloces mensajeros, los chasquis, que corrían por pasos ocultos de la sierra en sistema de postas de relevo, cubriendo el imperio desde el extremo norte hasta el río Bío-Bío, en Chile.

El imperio incaico quedó chico para contenerlos a ambos. Pizarro, convertido en marqués gobernador y caballero de la Orden de Santiago, se quedó en el Perú, secundado por sus temibles hermanos, mientras Almagro se dirigía, en 1535, con un ejército de quinientos castellanos, diez mil indios yanaconas y el título de adelantado, a Chile, la región aún inexplorada, cuyo nombre, en lengua aymara, quiere decir «donde acaba la tierra».

On April 18, 1980, the last outpost of empire in Africa died. From Rhodesia's ashes rose a country that would take its place among the free nations as Zimbabwe, the last among equals. And men and women leapt to embrace this dream called Zimbabwe.

I'm from England, and like every other great empire who stole bits of the world, there is a price to pay. And I was born in 1935. So, since I've been conscious of the world, I've either been in, or been on the periphery of, a war zone.