Asceticism among a ruling class—except for public show—is very rare. - Isaac Asimov

We speak of time and mind, which do not easily yield to categories. We separate past and future and find that time is an amalgam of both. We separate good and evil and find that mind is an amalgam of both. To understand, we must grasp the whole.

You are easy to explain – even to you. You may call yourself a soul if that pleases you, but what you are is a nexus of electromagnetic forces, so arranged that all the interconnections and interrelationships are exactly imitative of those of your brain in your Universe-existence – down to the smallest detail. Therefore you have your capacity for thought, your memories, your personality. It still seems to you that you are you.

Chen said, "Dr. Seldon, you disturb the peace of the Emperor's realm. None of the quadrillions living now among all the stars of the Galaxy will be living a century from now. Why, then, should we concern ourselves with events of three centuries distance?"