The robot said, 'I have been trying, friend Julius, to understand some remarks Elijah made to me earlier. Perhaps I am beginning to, for it suddenly … - Isaac Asimov

Haven't we forgotten something, gentlemen?' 'What?' asked Pirenne, peevishly. 'That in a month we celebrate our fiftieth anniversary.' Fara had a trick of uttering the most obvious platitudes with great profundity. 'What of it?' 'And on that anniversary,' continued Fara, placidly, 'Hari Seldon's Vault will open. Have you ever considered what might be in the Vault?' 'I don't know. Routine matters. A stock speech of congratulations, perhaps. I don't think any significance need be placed on the Vault – though the Journal' – and he glared at Hardin, who grinned back – 'did try to make an issue of it. I put a stop to that.' 'Ah,' said Fara, 'but perhaps you are wrong. Doesn't it strike you' – he paused and put a finger to his round little nose – 'that the Vault is opening at a very convenient time?

The purpose of aphorisms is to keep fools who have memorised them from having nothing to say.

TERMINUS … Its location (see map) was an odd one for the role it was called upon to play in Galactic history, and yet as many writers have never tired of pointing out, an inevitable one. Located on the very fringe of the Galactic spiral, an only planet of an isolated sun, poor in resources and negligible in economic value, it was never settled in the five centuries after its discovery, until the landing of the Encyclopedists …