SWA Magazine: Talking about spacecraft, what do you think about the shuttle program? - Isaac Asimov

The troubles of modern life come from being divorced from nature.

Your bunch here is a perfect example of what's been wrong with the entire Galaxy for thousands of years. What kind of science is it to be stuck out here for centuries classifying the work of scientists of the last millennium? Have you ever thought of working onward, extending their knowledge and improving upon it? No! You're quite happy to stagnate. The whole Galaxy is, and has been for Space knows how long. That's why the Periphery is revolting; that's why communications are breaking down; that's why petty wars are becoming eternal; that's why whole systems are losing atomic power and going back to barbarous techniques of chemical power. 'If you ask me,' he cried, 'the Galaxy is going to pot!

There was even a scrap of poetry he treasured which stated that a moving finger having once written could never be lured back to unwrite.