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Quotes from The Foundation series — Isaac Asimov

1920–1992 United States

← All quotes by Isaac Asimov

80 quotes

There is social and psychological inertia, as well as physical inertia.

The Foundation series (1951)

There is too much history and there is too little of it that is told.

The Foundation series (1951)

All history shows that we do not learn from the lessons of the past.

The Foundation series (1951)

Asceticism among a ruling class—except for public show—is very rare.

The Foundation series (1951)

At odd and unpredictable times, we cling in fright to the past.

The Foundation series (1951)

It's one thing to have guts; it's another to be crazy.

The Foundation series (1951)

Societies create their own history and tend to wipe out lowly beginnings, either by forgetting them or inventing totally fictitious heroic rescues.

The Foundation series (1951)

Yet even mathematicians must be young to begin with.

The Foundation series (1951)

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.

The Foundation series (1951)

At the slightest stress, human beings seemed to divide themselves into antagonistic groups.

The Foundation series (1951)

We might not be able to give out the news for security reasons—that’s the excuse they always advance for hiding bad news—but I would know.

The Foundation series (1951)

Stories grow by accretion. Tales accumulate — like dust.

The Foundation series (1951)

It is not important what can or cannot be done. What is important is what people will or will not believe can be done.

The Foundation series (1951)

He never created a finished product. Finished products are for decadent minds.

The Foundation series (1951)

To us, all life is a series of accidents to be met with improvisations. To them, all life is purposive and should be met with precalculation.

The Foundation series (1951)

You are a valuable subject, Brodrig. You always suspect far more than is necessary, and I have but to take half your suggested precautions to be utterly safe.

The Foundation series (1951)

It is the invariable lesson to humanity that distance in time, and in space as well, lends focus. It is not recorded, incidentally, that the lesson has ever been permanently learned.

The Foundation series (1951)

I don’t want to believe it just because I want to believe it.

The Foundation series (1951)

Seldon found himself raging at the passage of time.

The Foundation series (1951)

The robot has wanted Fallom all along, Janov.

The Foundation series (1951)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Isaac Asimov (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.