Prelude to Foundation (Foundation, #6)

by Isaac Asimov

“Not all persons would be equally believed, Demerzel. A mathematician, however, who could back his prophecy with mathematical formulas and terminology, might be understood by no one and yet believed by everyone.”

He wondered if anyone could be a truly great mathematician if mathematics was all he knew.

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

“I imagine,” said Seldon, “that it helps relieve pressure as well. They work off all their resentments, enjoy all the smug self-satisfaction a young revolutionary would have, and by the time they take their place in the Imperial hierarchy, they are ready to settle down into conformity and obedience.”

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. Even Emperors manage to come to bad ends most of the time.

(If something quite accidental can easily become viewed as a tradition and be made unbreakable or nearly so, thought Seldon, would that be a law of psychohistory?

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