Remember, you once said, Lije, that people sometimes mistake their own shortcomings for those of society and want to fix the Cities because they don’… - Isaac Asimov

people sometimes mistake their own shortcomings for those of society and want to fix the Cities because they don’t know how to fix themselves.

Se você tivesse nascido numa cela e crescido num corredor, trabalhando num cubículo, com férias numa varanda repleta de gente, ao sair para o ar livre, sem nada além do céu sobre si, talvez lhe desse um ataque de nervos.

[Mankind's future] was always at the mercy of economic and sociological forces it did not understand — at the whims of climate, and the fortunes of war. Now the Machines understand them; and no one can stop them, since the Machines will deal with them as they are dealing with the Society, — having, as they do, the greatest of weapons at their disposal, the absolute control of our economy.

A foreign policy of domination through spiritual means is his idée fixe, but it's my notion that his ultimate aims aren't spiritual.