Quotes from Second Foundation

“The most hopelessly stupid man is he who is not aware he is wise.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from Second Foundation

“...all the suffering that humanity ever knew can be traced to the one fact that no man in the history of the Galaxy, until Hari Seldon, and very few men thereafter, could really understand one another. Every human being lived behind an impenetrable wall of choking mist within which no other but he existed. Occasionally there were the dim signals from deep within the cavern in which another man was located - so that each might grope toward the other. Yet because they did not know one another, and could not understand one another, and dared not trust one another, and felt from infancy the terrors and insecurity of that ultimate isolation - there was the hunted fear of man for man, the savage rapacity of man toward man.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from Second Foundation

“All roads lead to Trantor, and that is where all stars end.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from Second Foundation

“Galaxy! When can a man know he is not a puppet? How can a man know he is not a puppet?”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from Second Foundation

“In all the known history of Mankind, advances have been made primarily in physical technology; in the capacity of handling the inanimate world about Man. Control of self and society has been left to to chance or to the vague gropings of intuitive ethical systems based on inspiration and emotion. As a result no culture of greater stability than about fifty-five percent has ever existed, and these only as the result of great human misery.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from Second Foundation

“Well, he used to say that only a lie that wasn't ashamed of itself could possibly succeed. He also said that nothing had to be true, but everything had to sound true”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from Second Foundation

“Speech, originally, was the device whereby Man learned, imperfectly, to transmit the thoughts and emotions of his mind. By setting up arbitrary sounds and combinations of sounds to represent certain mental nuances, he developed a method of communication - but one which in its clumsiness and thick-thumbed inadequacy degenerated all the delicacy of the mind into gross and guttural signaling”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from Second Foundation

“Only a lie that wasn't ashamed of itself could possibly succeed”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from Second Foundation

“...and he wreaked havoc among the buttered toast as he said it.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from Second Foundation

“Feet, for tens of thousands of years, had clogged and shuffled in the mud – and held down the minds which, for an equal time, had been fit for the companionship of the stars.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from Second Foundation

“Stoop, then, or you will be beaten to your knees. Stoop voluntarily, and you may save a remnant. You have depended on metal and power and they have sustained you as far as they could. You have ignored mind and morale and they have failed you.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from Second Foundation

“Where history concerns mainly personalities, the drawings become either black or white according to the interests of the writer.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from Second Foundation

“The most hopelessly stupid man is he who is not aware that he is wise.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from Second Foundation

“Psychohistory was the quintessence of sociology; it was the science of human behavior reduced to mathematical equations. The individual human being is unpredictable, but the reactions of human mobs, Seldon found, could be treated statistically.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from Second Foundation

“Yet because they did not know one another, and could not understand one another, and dared not trust one another, and felt from infancy the terrors and insecurity of that ultimate isolation — there was the hunted fear of man for man, the savage rapacity of man toward man”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from Second Foundation

“Down—down—the results can be followed; and all the suffering that humanity ever knew can be traced to the one fact that no man in the history of the Galaxy, until Hari Seldon, and very few men thereafter, could really understand one another. Every human being lived behind an impenetrable wall of choking mist within which no other but he existed. Occasionally there were the dim signals from deep within the cavern in which another man was located—so that each might grope toward the other. Yet because they did not know one another, and could not understand one another, and dared not trust one another, and felt from infancy the terrors and insecurity of that ultimate isolation—there was the hunted fear of man for man, the savage rapacity of man toward man.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from Second Foundation

“Galaxy! When can a man know he is not a puppet? How can a man know he is not a puppet? Arcadia”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from Second Foundation

“Why do you think it is stupid to go to windows instead of to doors?”

“Because you advertise what you’re trying to hide, silly. If I have a secret, I don’t put tape over my mouth and let everyone know I have a secret. I talk just as much as usual, only about something else. Didn’t you ever read any of the sayings of Salvor Hardin? He was our first Mayor, you know.”

“Yes, I know.”

“Well, he used to say that only a lie that wasn’t ashamed of itself could possibly succeed. He also said that nothing had to be true, but everything had to sound true. Well, when you come in through a window, it’s a lie that’s ashamed of itself and it doesn’t sound true.”

“Then what would you have done?”

“If I had wanted to see my father on top secret business, I would have made his acquaintance openly and seen him about all sorts of strictly legitimate things. And then when everyone knew all about you and connected you with my father as a matter of course, you could be as top secret as you wanted and nobody would ever think of questioning it.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from Second Foundation

“Good,” said the First Speaker. “And tell me, what do you think of all this. A finished work of art, is it not?”

“Definitely!”

“Wrong! It is not.” This, with sharpness. “It is the first lesson you must unlearn. The Seldon Plan is neither complete nor correct. Instead, it is merely the best that could be done at the time. Over a dozen generations of men have pored over these equations, worked at them, taken them apart to the last decimal place, and put them together again. They’ve done more than that. They’ve watched nearly four hundred years pass and against the predictions and equations, they’ve checked reality, and they have learned.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from Second Foundation

“Agitation from the other side of the desk.

“No—now you must take this phlegmatically. You had hoped you would qualify. You had feared you would not. Actually, both hope and fear are weaknesses. You knew you would qualify and you hesitate to admit the fact because such knowledge might stamp you as cocksure and therefore unfit. Nonsense! The most hopelessly stupid man is he who is not aware that he is wise. It is part of your qualification that you knew you would qualify.”

Relaxation on the other side of the desk.

“Exactly. Now you feel better and your guard is down. You are fitter to concentrate and fitter to understand. Remember, to be truly effective, it is not necessary to hold the mind under a tight, controlling barrier which to the intelligent probe is as informative as a naked mentality. Rather, one should cultivate an innocence, an awareness of self, and an unselfconsciousness of self which leaves one nothing to hide. My mind is open to you. Let this be so for both of us.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from Second Foundation

“It’s always easy to explain the unknown by postulating a superhuman and arbitrary will.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from Second Foundation

“He never created a finish product. Finished products are for decadent minds. His was an evolving mechanism and the Second Foundation was the instrument of that evolution.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from Second Foundation

“It was a sign of decaying culture, of course, that dams had been built against the further development of ideas.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from Second Foundation

“the intruder was an obviously mature thirty, at least—quite elderly, in fact.)”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from Second Foundation

“only a lie that wasn’t ashamed of itself could possibly succeed.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from Second Foundation

“El hombre más redomadamente estúpido es aquel que ignora su sabiduría.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from Second Foundation

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Popular quotes

“I've done everything for the wrong reasons. All the good works people credit to me are nothing because I did them expecting God to repay me. I thought if I worked hard enough, God would have to give me what I wanted. The truth is I've never served the Lord at all. I was always serving myself.”
― Francine Rivers, quote from As Sure as the Dawn

“It was too small a step,
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― Paul Auster, quote from The Brooklyn Follies

“I’ve wanted to see you wearing nothing but my ring since I bought it for you. Knowing that, like the ring I put on your finger, I'm the only one. The only one who will ever see you in nothing but my ring. The only one who will wake up to your beautiful face every day for the rest of my life. The only one who will make love to you. The only one who will make babies with you.” I watched his eyes get wet. “I can’t tell you how happy I am that you are carrying my child.”
― Aurora Rose Reynolds, quote from Until November

“Hey I'm sorry about the other day. Didn't mean to give you a hard time, I ---"

He held up his hands. "It's no problem. And I didn't mean to be pushy. But i've seen a lot of people let the bad around them make them hard or stubborn. In the end, they miss the chance to make their world bette because they only see the worst in it."

There was still something about the tone of his voice and his features that made me feel like I knew him.

"I know what you mean." I shook my head. "I don't want to be like that. But I get so angry. Sometimes I feel like I know too much, or that I've done things I can't make right, and it just hovers over me. And when I see things happen that shouldn't..."

"You don't know what to do with yourself."

"Exactly."

He nodded. "Well, I'd start by thinking about what's good. Then I'd ask myself how I could make that good even better."

I laughed. "That doesn't make sense."

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― Kiera Cass, quote from The Selection Stories: The Prince & The Guard

“La vida de un hombre se divide básicamente en tres períodos. En el primero, uno ni siguiera piensa que envejecerá, ni que el tiempo pasa ni que, desde el primer día, cuando nacemos, caminamos hacia un único fin. Pasada la primera juventud, empieza el segundo período, en el que uno se da cuenta de la fragilidad de la propia vida y lo que en un principio es una simple inquietud va creciendo en el interior como un mar de dudas e incertidumbres que te acompañan durante el resto de tus días. Por último, al final de la vida se abre el tercer período, el de la aceptación de la realidad y, consecuentemente, la resignación y la espera. A lo largo de mi existencia he conocido a muchas personas que se quedaron ancladas en alguno de esos estadios y nunca lograron superarlos. Es algo terrible.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, quote from The Prince of Mist

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