Foundation (Foundation, #1)

by Isaac Asimov

“But you haven’t tried. You haven’t tried once. First, you refused to admit that there was a menace at all! Then you reposed an absolutely blind faith in the Emperor! Now you’ve shifted it to Hari Seldon. Throughout you have invariably relied on authority or on the past—never on yourselves.”

There’s not a light burning, except in the temples. There’s not a drop of water running, except in the temples. On the wintry half of the planet, there’s not a calorie of heat, except in the temples. The hospitals are taking in no more patients. The power plants have shut down. All ships are grounded. If you don’t like it, Wienis, you can order the priests back to their jobs. I don’t wish to.” “By Space, Hardin, I will. If it’s to be

Because the pople controlling the nucleur ergy are "priests" scienti

For it is the chief characteristic of the religion of science that it works, and

Apple it just works

brightened as it absorbed the energies of the nuclear blast. From his corner Lepold covered his eyes and moaned. And, with a yell of despair, Wienis changed his aim and shot again—and toppled to the floor with his head blown into nothingness. Hardin winced at the sight and muttered, “A man of ‘direct action’ to the end. The last refuge!”

“What if he doesn’t?” “Are you going to wear me down with your worries all your life? If he doesn’t, he won’t.”

Dont worry

“You are wisdom, itself, your Veneration. Consider—to give up a heathen is to lose nothing for your ancestors, whereas with the gold you get in exchange you can ornament the shrines of their holy spirits. And surely, were gold evil in itself, if such a thing could be, the evil would depart of necessity once the metal were put to such

pious use.” “Now by the bones of my grandfather,” said the Grand Master with surprising vehemence. His lips separated in a shrill laugh. “Pherl, what do you say of this young man? The statement is valid. It is as valid as the words of my ancestors.”

‘To succeed, planning alone is insufficient. One must improvise as well.’

“But we,—we, our little Foundation, our single world almost without metallic resources,—have had to work with brute economy. Our generators have had to be the size of our thumb, because it was all the metal we could afford.

We had to develop new techniques and new methods,—techniques and methods the Empire can’t follow because they have degenerated past the stage where they can make any really vital scientific advance.

Let my successors solve those new problems, as I have solved the one of today.”