Titles are an important part of a story and I take considerable care in choosing one. In fact, I cannot start a story until I have chosen a title. - Isaac Asimov

I consider violence an uneconomical way of attaining an end. There are always better substitutes, though they may sometimes be a little less direct.

It seems to me that when it's time to die, there would be a certain pleasure in thinking that you had utilised your life well, learned as much as you could, gathered in as much as possible of the universe, and enjoyed it. There's only this one universe and only this one lifetime to try to grasp it. And while it is inconceivable that anyone can grasp more than a tiny portion of it, at least you can do that much. What a tragedy just to go through and get nothing out of it.

The Imperial forces must keep their hands off, but they find that they can do much even so. Each sector is encouraged to be suspicious of its neighbors. Within each sector, economic and social classes are encouraged to wage a kind of war with each other. The result is that all over Trantor it is impossible for the people to take united action. Everywhere, the people would rather fight each other than make a common stand against the central tyranny and the Empire rules without having to exert force.