In my fiction I am careful to make everything probable and to tie up all loose ends. Real life is not hampered by such considerations. - Isaac Asimov

The analysis was the most difficult of the three by all odds. When Holk, after two days of steady work, succeeded in eliminating meaningless statements, vague gibberish, useless qualifications - in short, all the goo and dribble - he found he had nothing left. Everything cancelled out.

Lord Dorwin, gentlemen, in five days of discussion didn't say one damned thing, and said it so you never noticed.

There was an element of secrecy in a home library. It breathed of intellectual anarchy.

I mean that it is an easy matter for him to instil into a capable general, say, the emotion of utter loyalty to the Mule and complete belief in the Mule's victory. His generals are emotionally controlled. They can not betray him; they can not weaken – and the control is permanent. His most capable enemies become his most faithful subordinates. The warlord of Kalgan surrenders his planet and becomes his viceroy for the Foundation.