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Quotes About Foundation

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.
~ Isaac Asimov
In a Galaxy where the predominance—and even survival—of the Foundation still rested upon the superiority of its technology—even despite its large access of physical power in the last century and a half—a certain immunity adhered to The Scientist. He was needed, and he knew it.
~ Isaac Asimov
TRADERS … With psychohistoric inevitability, economic control of the Foundation grew. The traders grew rich; and with riches came power … It is sometimes forgotten that Hober Mallow began life as an ordinary trader. It is never forgotten that he ended it as the first of the Merchant Princes
~ Isaac Asimov
It was falling apart, that world, three centuries ago, when Seldon first established the Foundation—and if history speaks truly, it was falling apart of the triple disease of inertia, despotism, and maldistribution of the goods of the universe.
~ Isaac Asimov
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.
~ Isaac Asimov
You must find that Second Foundation.
~ Isaac Asimov
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.
~ Isaac Asimov
It is on a Foundation victory that Siwenna's hopes depend. It is for a Foundation victory that my sons are sacrificed. And Hari Seldon does not precalculate the inevitable salvation of Siwenna as he does that of the Foundation. I have no certainty for my people – only hope.
~ Isaac Asimov
Hardin groaned in spirit. The Board seemed to suffer violently from Encyclopedia on the brain. He said icily: 'Has it ever occurred to this Board that it is barely possible that Terminus may have interests other than the Encyclopedia?' Pirenne replied: 'I do not conceive, Hardin, that the Foundation can have any interest other than the Encyclopedia.' 'I didn't say the Foundation; I said Terminus.
~ Isaac Asimov
In fact,' said Fara, happily, 'you all seem to forget that Seldon was the greatest psychologist of our time and that he was the founder of our Foundation. It seems reasonable to assume that he used his science to determine the probable course of the history of the immediate future. If he did, as seems likely, I repeat, he would certainly have managed to find a way to warn us of danger and, perhaps, to point out a solution. The Encyclopedia was very dear to his heart, you know.
~ Isaac Asimov
seems to me that the whole essence of Seldon's plan was to create a world better than the ancient one of the Galactic Empire. It was falling apart, that world, three centuries ago, when Seldon first established the Foundation – and if history speaks truly, it was falling apart of the triple disease of inertia, despotism, and maldistribution of the goods of the universe.
~ Isaac Asimov
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.
~ Isaac Asimov
There must be a crisis, but I don't know how to make one. The progressive forces on the Foundation are oppressed fearfully. You Traders may have the will, but you are hunted and disunited. If all the forces of good will in and out of the Foundation could combine
~ Isaac Asimov
And so after three years of a war which was certainly the most unfought war on record, the Republic of Korell surrendered unconditionally, and Hober Mallow took his place next to Hari Seldon and Salvor Hardin in the hearts of the people of the Foundation.
~ Isaac Asimov
is fifty years now since this Foundation was established – sfifty years in which the members of the Foundation have been ignorant of what it was they were working toward. It was necessary that they be ignorant, but now the necessity is gone. 'The Encyclopedia Foundation, to begin with, is a fraud, and always has been!
~ Isaac Asimov
That clown is one of the very few that have seen him. I want him. He may be the proof I need – and I need something – Galaxy knows – to awaken the Foundation. 'It needs awakening?' broke in Bayta with sudden sharpness. 'Against what? And in what role do you act as alarm, that of rebel democrat or of secret police and provocateur?
~ Isaac Asimov
When the entire Foundation is threatened, Madame Revolutionary, both democrats and tyrants perish. Let us save the tyrants from a greater, that we may overthrow them in their turn.
~ Isaac Asimov
Ebling Mis said unhurriedly, 'You know what I'm doing these days?' 'I have your reports here,' replied the mayor, with satisfaction, 'together with authorized summaries of them. As I understand it, your investigations into the mathematics of psycho-history have been intended to duplicate Hari Seldon's work and, eventually, trace the projected course of future history, for the use of the Foundation.
~ Isaac Asimov
Nothing strong can be built on a foundation of lies and omissions.
~ Isabel Allende
Indeed there are powers in the small child that are far greater than is generally realized, because it is in this period that the construction, the building-up, of man takes place, for at birth, psychically speaking, there is nothing at all - zero!
~ Maria Montessori
I really think that education is ground zero for fixing anything.
~ Jimmy Iovine
Entrepreneurial Philanthropy is not just a philosophy or a dream. It is a promise that philanthropy is at its best when it is founded on entrepreneurial zest and agility.
~ Naveen Jain
We should be therefore supporting a larger Europe, and in so doing we should strive to expand the zone of peace and prosperity in the world which is the necessary foundation for a stable international system in which our leadership could be fruitfully exercised.
~ Zbigniew Brzezinski
Architecture begins when you place two bricks carefully together.
~ Mies van der Rohe