Prelude to Foundation

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

Why, he wondered, did so many people spend their lives not trying to find answers to questions—not even thinking of questions to begin with? Was there anything more exciting in life than seeking answers?

“It is absolutely forbidden for the Imperial government to exercise any security control over the University or its members. There is complete freedom. Anything can be discussed here, anything can be said here.”

“What about violent crime?”

“Then the University authorities themselves handle it, with reason and care—and there are virtually no crimes of violence. The students and faculty appreciate their freedom and understand its terms. Too much rowdiness, the beginning of riot and bloodshed, and the government may feel it has the right to break the unwritten agreement and send in the troops. No one wants that, not even the government, so a delicate balance is maintained.”

Apparently, mathematics and the martial arts are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

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

The cure for advanced gullibility is to go to sleep and consider matters again the next day.

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

Walking is still the best form of short-distance transportation. It’s the most convenient, the cheapest, and the most healthful, Countless years of technological advance have not changed that.

You’re naïve Hari. Or not a historian, which is the same thing.

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

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

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

“But it’s been quiet under Cleon. And we’ve had fifty years of peace.”

“Yes, but soldiers who are well-paid would resent having that pay reduced just because there is peace. Admirals resist mothballing ships and having themselves reduced in rank simply because there is less for them to do. So the credits still go—unproductively—to the armed forces and vital areas of the social good are allowed to deteriorate. That’s what I call decay. Don’t you?”

But it seemed so likely to him that on every world the earliest histories were medleys of self-serving heroisms and minidramas that were meant as morality plays and were not to be taken literally. It was surely true of Helicon, yet you would find scarcely a Heliconian who would not swear by all the tales told and insist it was all true history.

Mathematicians deal with large numbers sometimes, but never in their income.

“As for status, that’s the sort of push and pull I’d just as soon avoid. I’ve seen many people with status, but I’m still looking for a happy one. Status won’t sit still under you; you have to continually fight to keep from sinking.

I have always dealt with economic forces, rather than philosophic forces, but you can’t split history into neat little nonoverlapping divisions. For instance, religions tend to accumulate wealth when successful and that eventually tends to distort the economic development of a society.

“It strikes me that no one could possibly want to be Emperor.”

“No sane person would, I agree, but the ‘Imperial wish,’ as it is frequently called, is like a disease that, when caught, drives out sanity. And the closer you get to high office, the more likely you are to catch the disease.”

Does said, “You’re not a…a believer?”

“I’m a scholar,” said Mycelium with obvious pride.

“My field of specialization is the mathematical analysis of social structure.”

“Sounds horrible.”

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

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.

You can always put something noble in a sneering fashion if you try.

Yet even mathematicians must be young to begin with.

If all human beings understood history, they might cease making the same stupid mistakes over and over.

It’s a dull world, full of farms and with lots of cattle, both four-legged and two-legged.