Prelude to Foundation (Foundation, #6)

by Isaac Asimov

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.

“How harmful overspecialization is. It cuts knowledge at a million points and leaves it bleeding.”

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

the tyranny that now exists is actual. That which may exist in the future is merely potential. If we are always to draw back from change with the thought that the change may be for the worse, then there is no hope at all of ever escaping injustice.”