All roads lead to Trantor, says the old proverb, and that is where all stars end.

Why this reluctance to make the change? We fear the process of reeducation.

God, how that stings! I've spent a lifetime loving science fiction and now I find that you must expect nothing of something that's just science fiction.

A subtle thought that is in error may yet give rise to fruitful inquiry that can establish truths of great value.

I prefer rationalism to atheism. The question of God and other objects-of-faith are outside reason and play no part in rationalism, thus you don't have to waste your time in either attacking or defending.

Surely, if we take on thinking partners - or, at the least, thinking servants - in the form of machines, we will be more comfortable with them, and will relate to them more easily, if they are shaped like humans. It will be easier to be friends with human-shaped robots than with specialized machines of unrecognizable shape. And I sometimes think that, in the desperate straits of humanity today, we would be grateful to have nonhuman friends, even if they are only the friends we build ourselves.

Nonsense! The most hopelessly stupid man is he who is not aware that he is wise.