If all human beings understood history, they might cease making the same stupid mistakes over and over. - Isaac Asimov

Los equites eran lo bastante ricos como para ser senadores, pero no pertenecían a las viejas familias senatoriales. A algunos de ellos Octavio los hizo senadores, pero a otros los colocó en cargos administrativos importantes. Se convirtieron en los "funcionarios públicos" del Imperio, por así decir. Fue de esa manera como las clases medias, bien tratadas, se hicieron ardientemente leales a Octavio y a sus sucesores.

And above all things, never think that you're not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. My belief is that in life people will take you at your own reckoning.

There was no denying that he would always be conscious of the fact that an Earthman was an Earthman. He couldn’t help that. That was the result of a childhood immersed in an atmosphere of bigotry so complete that it was almost invisible, so entire that you accepted its axioms as second nature. Then you left it and saw it for what it was when you looked back.