To him, a stilted geometric love of arrangement was “system,” an indefatigable and feverish interest in the pettiest facets of day-to-day bureaucracy… - Isaac Asimov

What phrase was that, sir?" "You said something about interviewing people face to — — " He shook his head, his tongue dabbing quickly at his lips. "I would rather not say it. I think you know what I mean. The phrase conjured up the most striking picture of the two of us breathing — breathing one another's breath." The Solarian shuddered. "Don't you find that repulsive?" "I don't know that I've ever thought of it so." "It seems so filthy a habit. And as you said it and the picture rose in my mind, I realized that after all we were in the same room and even though I was not facing you, puffs of air that had been in your lungs must be reaching me and entering mine. With my sensitive frame of mind — — " Baley said, "Molecules all over Solaria's atmosphere have been in thousands of lungs. Jehoshaphat! They've been in the lungs of animals and the gills of fish.

Every human being lived behind an impenetrable wall of choking mist within which no other but he existed.

Ellos se extenderán por la Galaxia a un ritmo que irá en aumento, sin la Tierra para mirar con nostalgia, sin la Tierra en forma de un dios, y establecerán un Imperio Galáctico. Era preciso que lo hiciéramos posible. Hizo una pausa, y su voz se debilitó al decir: «Robots e Imperio».