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• have said, and I say again, that Trantor will lie in ruins within the next three centuries. Q.  You do not consider your statement a disloyal one? A.  No, sir. Scientific truth is beyond loyalty and disloyalty. Q.  You are sure that your statement represents scientific truth? A.  I am.
• Only to another mathematician. Q.  (with a smile) 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 kno...
• We are not here to listen to speeches, Dr. Seldon. Let us assume that you have made your point. Let me suggest to you that your predictions of disaster might be intended to destroy public confidence in the Imperial Government for purposes of your own!
• “The fall of Trantor,” said Seldon, “cannot be stopped by any conceivable effort. It can be hastened easily, however. The tale of my interrupted trial will spread through the Galaxy. Frustration of my plans to lighten the disaster will convince people that the future holds no promise to them. Already they recall the lives of their grandfathers with...
• “Doctor? No other title? A scholar? And he rates above the civil authority?” “Why, certainly,” replied Hardin, amiably. “We’re all scholars more or less. After all, we’re not so much a world as a scientific foundation—under the direct control of the Emperor.”