three ships lost in the same sector in the same year can't be accident, and - Isaac Asimov

Grew told him of variations of chess. There was four-handed chess, in which each player had a board, touching each other at the corners, with a fifth board filling the hollow in the center as a common No Man's Land. There were three-dimensional chess games in which eight transparent boards were placed one over the other and in which each piece moved in three dimensions as they formerly moved in two, and in which the number of pieces and pawns were doubled, the win coming only when a simultaneous check of both enemy kings occurred. There were even the popular varieties, in which the original position of the chessmen were decided by throws of the dice, or where certain squares conferred advantages or disadvantages to the pieces upon them, or where new pieces with strange properties were introduced.

Debes seguir enviando tu trabajo; nunca debes dejar un manuscrito guardado en un cajón y cogiendo polvo. Manda ese trabajo una y otra vez mientras trabajas en el siguiente. Si tienes talento, alcanzarás algún tipo de éxito. Pero sólo si persistes.

Again, all over the Galaxy trade is stagnating. People think that because there are no rebellions at the moment and because things are quiet, that all is well and that the difficulties of the past few centuries are over. However, political infighting, rebellions, and unrest are all signs of a certain vitality, too. But now there's a general weariness. It's quiet, not because people are satisfied and prosperous, but because they're tired and have given up.