I wanted to be a psychological engineer, but we lacked the facilities, so I did the next best thing - I went into politics. It's practically the same… - Isaac Asimov

nunca llegué a escribir un ensayo serio sobre robótica. Tengo por lo menos la esperanza de haber escrito ensayos serios sobre imperios galácticos y psicohistoria.

Above all, never think you're not good enough. Never think that. In life people will take you at your own reckoning.

It was the addition of status that brought the little things: a more comfortable seat here, a better cut of meat there, a shorter wait in line at the other place. To the philosophical mind, these items might seem scarcely worth any great trouble to acquire.
Yet no one, however philosophical, could give up those privileges, once acquired, without a pang. That was the point.