No matter how the economy and sociology of the neighboring sectors of the Galaxy changed, there was always an elite; and it is always the characteris… - Isaac Asimov

Efficiency had been forced on Earth with increasing population. Two billion people, three billion, even five billion could be supported by the planet by progressive lowering of the standard of living.

It does not actually take much to rouse resentment and latent fear of women in any man. It may be a biological matter that I, as a robot, cannot fully understand.

But the Second Foundation was a more difficult job than the First. Its complexity is hugely greater; and consequently so is its possibility of error. And if the Second Foundation should not beat the Mule, it is bad — ultimately bad. It is the end, maybe, of the human race as we know it." "No." "Yes. If the Mule's descendants inherit his mental powers — You see? Homo sapiens could not compete. There would be a new dominant race — a new aristocracy — with homo sapiens demoted to slave labor as an inferior race. Isn't that so?" "Yes, that is so." "And even if by some chance the Mule did not establish a dynasty, he would still establish a distorted new Empire upheld by his personal power only. It would die with his death; the Galaxy would be left where it was before he came, except that there would no longer be Foundations around which a real and healthy Second Empire could coalesce. It would mean thousands of years of barbarism. It would mean no end in sight.