Concerning the blindness and bigotry of people, the pleasures of hatred rise superior even to the instinct of self-preservation. - Isaac Asimov

But it seemed so likely to him that on every world the earliest histories were medleys of self-serving heroisms and minidramas that were meant as morality plays and were not to be taken literally. It was surely true of Helicon, yet you would find scarcely a Heliconian who would not swear by all the tales told and insist it was all true history.

It's one thing to predict [the complete breakdown of civilization]. It's something else again to be right in the middle of it. It's a very humbling thing...for an academic like me to find his abstract theories turning into concrete reality... It was all just so many words to me, really, just a philosophical exercise, completely abstract.

You distrusted the Imperials too. Most human beings do these days, which is an important factor in the decay and deterioration of the Empire.