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The fall of Empire, gentlemen, is a massive thing, however, and not easily fought. It is dictated by a rising bureaucracy, a receding initiative, a freezing of caste, a damming of curiosity—a hundred other factors.
Here we have what could have been some principles of psychohistory: When an Empire A) becomes overwhelmed by a sprawling, unruly bureacracy B) becomes lazy and content C) allows privileged classes to solidify and D) is not longer intellectually curious, said Empire may be on the decline.
Would have liked to have known Asimov's 'hundreds of other factors'.


“Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.”
― The Lathe of Heaven
― The Lathe of Heaven

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”
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