Don't you see? It's Galaxy-wide. It's a worship of the past. It's a deterioration - a stagnation! - Isaac Asimov

Find them? That I did,' cried Riose. His lips were stiff as he spoke. It seemed to require effort to refrain from grinding molars. 'Patrician, they are not magicians; they are devils. It is as far from belief as the outer nebulae from here. Conceive it! It is a world the size of a handkerchief, of a fingernail; with resources so petty, power so minute, a population so microscopic as would never suffice the most backward worlds of the dusty prefects of the Dark Stars. Yet with that, a people so proud and ambitious as to dream quietly and methodically of Galactic rule. 'Why, they are so sure of themselves that they do not even hurry. They move slowly, phlegmatically; they speak of necessary centuries. They swallow worlds at leisure; creep through systems with dawdling complacence. 'And they succeed. There is no one to stop them. They have built up a filthy trading community that curls its tentacles about the systems further than their toy ships dare reach. For parsecs, their Traders – which is what their agents call themselves

Yok olmaktan kurtulanların pek azını teşkil eden bu edebiyat, beni kendisine aşık etti. Bizim dışa dönük dünyamızın tam aksine bu eserlerde içe dönük bir şeyler var.

A critical event in Isaac's life occurred when God's command came that he should be offered as a sacrifice on a mountain in the land of Moriah (Gen. xxii. 2). Isaac showed himself in this trial to be worthy of his father. Without murmuring he suffered himself to be bound and laid upon the altar. But Abraham was prevented by God from consummating the sacrifice, and a ram that happened to be near was offered instead.