I am a creature of dreams as well as of reason. - Isaac Asimov

How then to enforce peace? Not by reason, certainly, nor by
education. If a man could not look at the fact of peace and
the fact of war and choose the former in preference to the
latter, what additional argument could persuade him? What
could be more eloquent as a condemnation of war than war
itself? What tremendous feat of dialectic could carry with it
a tenth the power of a single gutted ship with its ghastly
cargo?

He had gained it originally by virtue of his position at the head of the Kalganian navy, and through a lamentable lack of caution on the part of the previous lord.

Here in the Periphery they've lost nuclear power. In Gamma Andromeda, a power plant has undergone meltdown because of poor repairs, and the Chancellor of the Empire complains that nuclear technicians are scarce. And the solution? To train new ones? Never! Instead they're to restrict nuclear power." And for the third time: "Don't you see? It's Galaxy-wide. It's a worship of the past. It's a deterioration — a stagnation!