Home > Work > Pebble in the Sky (Galactic Empire #3)
1 " Old men tend to forget what thought was like in their youth; they forget the quickness of the mental jump, the daring of the youthful intuition, the agility of the fresh insight. They become accustomed to the more plodding varieties of reason, and because this is more than made up by the accumulation of experience, old men think themselves wiser than the young. "
― Isaac Asimov , Pebble in the Sky (Galactic Empire #3)
2 " There never can be a man so lost as one who is lost in the vast and intricate corridors of his own lonely mind, where none may reach and none may save. "
3 " One might accept death reasoningly, with every aspect of the conscious mind, but the body was a brute beast that knew nothing of reason. "
4 " It was obvious that bigotry was never a one-way operation, that hatred bred hatred! "
5 " All right, Schwartz, tackle my mind now. Go as deep as you want. I was born on Baronn in the Sirius Sector. I lived my life in an atmosphere of anti-Terrestrialism in the formative years, so I can't help what flaws and follies lie at the roots of my subconscious. But look on the surface and tell me if, in my adult years, I have not fought bigotry in myself. Not in others; that would be easy. But in myself, and as hard as I could. "
6 " Of course there are worlds. Millions of them! Every star you see has worlds, and most of those you don't see. "
7 " Any planet is 'Earth' to those that live on it. "
8 " They won't listen. Do you know why? Because they have certain fixed notions about the past. Any change would be blasphemy in their eyes, even if it were the truth. They don't want the truth; they want their traditions. "
9 " You see, proteins, as I probably needn't tell you, are immensely complicated groupings of amino acids and certain other specialized compounds, arranged in intricate three-dimensional patterns that are as unstable as sunbeams on a cloudy day. It is this instability that is life, since it is forever changing its position in an effort to maintain its identity--in the manner of a long rod balanced on an acrobat's nose. "
10 " Do not forget that a traitor within our ranks, known to us, can do more harm to the enemy than a loyal man can do good to us. "
11 " Give us but the chance and a new generation of Earthmen would grow to maturity, lacking insularity and believing wholeheartedly in the oneness of Man. "
12 " Earthmen may even rule at Trantor for a generation, but their children will become Trantorians, and in their turn will look down upon the remnant on Earth. "
13 " Yet he had expended much of an inquisitive nature upon random reading. By the sheer force of indiscriminate voracity, he had gleaned a smattering of practically everything, and by means of a trick memory had managed to keep it all straight. "
14 " The elderly man, flushed with pleasure, was recounting in voluble fashion his experiences and impressions. His wife joined in periodically, with meticulous corrections involving completely unimportant points; these being given and taken in the best of humor. "
15 " And as long as it is so believed, Procurator, and as long as we of Earth are treated as pariahs, you are going to find in us the characteristics to which you object. "
16 " Câți pământeni nu reacționează printr-o ură oarbă față de toți cetățenii galactici, fără deosebire? E o boală aproape universală - ură pentru ură. Doresc concetățenii dumneavostră cu adevărat egalitate, toleranță reciprocă? Nu! Cei mai mulți nu vor decât să se-ntoarcă roata, aducându-i pe ei deasupra. "
17 " - Ar refuza să ne asculte. Și știi de ce? Pentru că au anumite idei fixe cu privire la trecut. Orice schimbare e o blasfemie în ochii lor, chiar dacă e adevărul-adevărat. Nu vor adevărul; își vor doar tradițiile lor. "
18 " Politeness on Earth is like dryness in the ocean "
19 " În tinerețe părăsise Europa, plecând din Amsterdam; se schimbase ceva prin asta, nu rămăsese același om? Și dacă mai târziu oamenii părăsiseră un Pământ bolnav, îndreptându-se spre alte lumi de pe firmament, nu rămăseseră tot oameni? Nu era a sa toată Galaxia? Nu erau cu toții urmașii lui și-ai fraților săi? "
20 " - Dar eu ce gândesc?- Că și dacă pot citi ce e-n mintea omului nu-nseamnă că trebuie să spun cu voce tare ceea ce văd. "