Quotes from The Foundation Trilogy

“Habrá otras crisis en el porvenir, cuando el poder del dinero se haya convertido en una fuerza muerta como es ahora la religión.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Foundation Trilogy

“«¡Nunca permitas que el sentido de la moral te impida hacer lo que está bien!»”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Foundation Trilogy

“–La violencia –fue la contestación– es el último recurso del incompetente.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Foundation Trilogy

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

“Pero ¿podemos permitirnos el lujo de arriesgarnos? ¿Podemos arriesgar el presente por el bien de un nebuloso futuro?”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Foundation Trilogy

“Q. You do not consider your statement a disloyal one?
A. No, sir. Scientific truth is beyond loyalty and disloyalty.
Q. Can you prove that this mathematics is valid?
A. Only to another mathematician.
Q. Your claim then is that your truth is of so esoteric a nature that it is beyond the understanding of a plain man. It seems to me that truth should be clearer than that, less mysterious, more open to the mind.
A. It presents no difficulties to some minds. The physics of energy transfer, which we know as thermodynamics, has been clear and true through all the history of man since the mythical ages, yet there may be people present who would find it impossible to design a power engine. People of high intelligence, too.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Foundation Trilogy

“Habrá otras crisis en el porvenir, cuando el poder del dinero se haya convertido en una fuerza muerta como es ahora la religión. Que mis sucesores resuelvan esos nuevos problemas, como yo he resuelto el del presente.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Foundation Trilogy

“—Anda, tonto. Ahora haz una mueca de disgusto y mírame como un patito moribundo antes de reclinar tu cabeza en mi hombro para que yo acaricie tus cabellos llenos de electricidad estática. Buscabas una mentira piadosa, ¿verdad? Esperabas que yo te dijera: «¡Contigo seré feliz en cualquier parte, Toran!», o bien, «¡Las mismas profundidades interestelares serían mi hogar, amor mío, teniéndote a mi lado!» Vamos, admítelo.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Foundation Trilogy

“»Ahora bien, cualquier dogma, basado primariamente en la fe y el sentimentalismo, es un arma peligrosa usada sobre los demás, puesto que es imposible garantizar que el arma nunca se vuelva contra el que la emplea.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Foundation Trilogy

“la característica de una clase privilegiada es siempre la misma: la posesión del ocio, como única gran recompensa de su condición.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Foundation Trilogy

“Frustration of my plans to lighten the disaster will convince people that the future holds no promise for them. Already they recall the lives of their grandfathers with envy. They will see that political revolutions and trade stagnations will increase. The feeling will pervade the Galaxy that only what a man can grasp for himself at that moment will be of any account. Ambitious men will not wait and unscrupulous men will not hang back. By their every action they will hasten the decay of the worlds.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Foundation Trilogy

“me gustaría recordarle que existe una diferencia entre la osadía y la ceguera. La acción decisiva está indicada cuando se conoce al enemigo y se pueden calcular aproximadamente los riesgos; pero moverse contra un potencial desconocido ya supone una osadía de por sí. Sería lo mismo que preguntar por qué un hombre salta con éxito en una carrera de obstáculos durante el día y tropieza con los muebles de su habitación por la noche.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Foundation Trilogy

“estoy a punto de lanzar todo mi peso contra una puerta y encontrar que está abierta de par en par.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Foundation Trilogy

“Él podía ser un extranjero, pero un hombre siempre es un hombre.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Foundation Trilogy

“nunca cometía la equivocación de ser demasiado educado con un hombre de la Fundación. Él podía ser un extranjero, pero un hombre siempre es un hombre.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Foundation Trilogy

“«Para triunfar, el solo planteamiento es insuficiente. También se debe improvisar.»”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Foundation Trilogy

“sólo una mentira que no estuviera avergonzada de sí misma podía tener éxito. También dijo que nada tenía que ser cierto, pero que todo tenía que sonar como si lo fuese.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Foundation Trilogy

“»Ahora bien, cualquier dogma, basado primariamente en la fe y el sentimentalismo, es un arma peligrosa usada sobre los demás,”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Foundation Trilogy

“Siempre han confiado en la autoridad o en el pasado, nunca en sí mismos. Sus”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Foundation Trilogy

“¡Por la Galaxia! ¿Cuándo puede saber un hombre que no es un títere? ¿Cómo puede saber un hombre que no es un títere?”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Foundation Trilogy

“Estamos aquí sentados, anteponiendo la Enciclopedia a todo lo demás. Consideramos que el objeto de la ciencia es la clasificación de los datos pasados. Es importante, ¿pero no hay nada más que hacer? Estamos retrocediendo y olvidando, ¿no lo ven?”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Foundation Trilogy

“el amable arte de actuar solapadamente.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Foundation Trilogy

“la caída del imperio, caballeros, es algo monumental y no puede combatirse fácilmente. Está dictada por una burocracia en aumento, una recesión de la iniciativa, una congelación de las castas, un estancamiento de la curiosidad… y muchos factores más.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Foundation Trilogy

“Es una lección invariable a la humanidad que la distancia en el tiempo, y asimismo en el espacio, da perspectiva a las cosas.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Foundation Trilogy

“El gobernador era corpulento, macizo, bajo y de aspecto vulgar.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Foundation Trilogy

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Popular quotes

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“I felt in him what women feel in men, something so tender, swollen, tyrannical, absurd; I would never take the consequences of interfering with it.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Lives of Girls and Women

“The Mongols loved competitions of all sorts, and they organized debates among rival religions the same way they organized wrestling matches. It began on a specific date with a panel of judges to oversee it. In this case Mongke Khan ordered them to debate before three judges: a Christian, a Muslim, and a Buddhist. A large audience assembled to watch the affair, which began with great seriousness and formality. An official lay down the strict rules by which Mongke wanted the debate to proceed: on pain of death “no one shall dare to speak words of contention.” Rubruck and the other Christians joined together in one team with the Muslims in an effort to refute the Buddhist doctrines. As these men gathered together in all their robes and regalia in the tents on the dusty plains of Mongolia, they were doing something that no other set of scholars or theologians had ever done in history. It is doubtful that representatives of so many types of Christianity had come to a single meeting, and certainly they had not debated, as equals, with representatives of the various Muslim and Buddhist faiths. The religious scholars had to compete on the basis of their beliefs and ideas, using no weapons or the authority of any ruler or army behind them. They could use only words and logic to test the ability of their ideas to persuade. In the initial round, Rubruck faced a Buddhist from North China who began by asking how the world was made and what happened to the soul after death. Rubruck countered that the Buddhist monk was asking the wrong questions; the first issue should be about God from whom all things flow. The umpires awarded the first points to Rubruck. Their debate ranged back and forth over the topics of evil versus good, God’s nature, what happens to the souls of animals, the existence of reincarnation, and whether God had created evil. As they debated, the clerics formed shifting coalitions among the various religions according to the topic. Between each round of wrestling, Mongol athletes would drink fermented mare’s milk; in keeping with that tradition, after each round of the debate, the learned men paused to drink deeply in preparation for the next match. No side seemed to convince the other of anything. Finally, as the effects of the alcohol became stronger, the Christians gave up trying to persuade anyone with logical arguments, and resorted to singing. The Muslims, who did not sing, responded by loudly reciting the Koran in an effort to drown out the Christians, and the Buddhists retreated into silent meditation. At the end of the debate, unable to convert or kill one another, they concluded the way most Mongol celebrations concluded, with everyone simply too drunk to continue.”
― Jack Weatherford, quote from Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

“(The raindrops) played across the coast all through the night, until the soft new day shrugged itself awake, tried on amethyst and lavender for a while, and finally decided on pale yellow.”
― Gary D. Schmidt, quote from Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy

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