Chapter 86 (p. 447)
“
It is not important what can or cannot be done. What is important is what people will or will not believe can be done.
— Isaac Asimov
What It Means
This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "It is not important what can or cannot be done. What is important is what people will or will not believe can be done." in the context of "Chapter 86 (p. 447)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.
Source: Wikiquote: "Isaac Asimov" (Quotes, The Foundation series (1951–1993): The earliest eight Foundation short stories were published between May 1942 and January 1950, but these began to be reworked into the novels of the overall series in 1951., Prelude to Foundation (1988): All page numbers from the mass market edition published by Bantam Spectra in September 2004, , (29th printing)
Italics and ellipsis as in the book )
The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
About Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov (c. 2 January 1920 – 6 April 1992) was a Russian-born American biochemist who was a prolific writer of both fiction and non-fiction, his works include the Foundation series and I, Robot.
About Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov (c. 2 January 1920 – 6 April 1992) was a Russian-born American biochemist who was a prolific writer of both fiction and non-fiction, his works include the Foundation series and I, Robot.
View all quotes →