# Help finding a quote **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 8, 2017, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-finding-a-quote/776648 "2017-01-08T20:12:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-finding-a-quote/776648/1 "2017-01-08T20:12:35Z")
My googlefu fails me so here it is as best as I can remember. “Every historical trend has three points. The first is when people who pay attention know that something’s going on. The second is when even people who don’t pay attention can’t escape that something’s going on. The third is the arbitrary point where historians say ‘This is where it happened’.” ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-finding-a-quote/776648/2 "2017-01-08T20:17:12Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > My googlefu fails me so here it is as best as I can remember. > > “Every historical trend has three points. The first is when people who pay attention know that something’s going on. The second is when even people who don’t pay attention can’t escape that something’s going on. The third is the arbitrary point where historians say ‘This is where it happened’.” It sounds like something out of an Isaac Asimov book, possibly “Foundation and Empire.” Looking more closely… ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-finding-a-quote/776648/3 "2017-01-08T20:29:20Z")
> [@chrisk](#): > > It sounds like something out of an Isaac Asimov book, possibly “Foundation and Empire.” Looking more closely… In “Foundation” there’s this quote “Somewhere in the fifty years just past is where historians of the future will place an arbitrary line and say: “This marks the Fall of the Galactic Empire” ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-finding-a-quote/776648/4 "2017-01-08T20:30:28Z")
> [@Isaac Asimov](#): > > You see, there are three times when an Empire or an Economic System or a Social Institution falls. First, there is the time when just a little nub shows up that points an inexorable way to finality. It can’t be seen or recognized until the finality arrives, when the original nub becomes visible to hindsight. > > The second point in time arrives when a signpost is raised for the expert so large and plain that it can be seen even without the aid of perspective. > > The third point? That is the least important. That is when the signpost becomes a wall with a huge ‘The End’ scrawled upon it. The only requirement for knowing that the end has come, then, is neither perspective nor training, but merely the ability to listen to the video. Paraphrased from the opening to “Mother Earth”, published in “The Early Asimov, book 2.” I left out various name-calling and specific examples. Is that more or less what you were thinking of? ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-finding-a-quote/776648/5 "2017-01-08T20:33:15Z")
> [@chrisk](#): > > Paraphrased from the opening to “Mother Earth”, published in “The Early Asimov, book 2.” I left out various name-calling and specific examples. Is that more or less what you were thinking of? Cool. Even if that’s not the OP’s quote, I’m glad to read this one. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-finding-a-quote/776648/6 "2017-01-08T21:18:15Z")
That’s got to be it. I’ve read much Asimov. Thanks.