Chapter 7 “Conversation with Madmen?” (p. 58)

There was no denying that he would always be conscious of the fact that an Earthman was an Earthman. He couldn’t help that. That was the result of a childhood immersed in an atmosphere of bigotry so complete that it was almost invisible, so entire that you accepted its axioms as second nature. Then you left it and saw it for what it was when you looked back.

— Isaac Asimov

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "There was no denying that he would always be conscious of the fact that an Earthman was an Earthman. He couldn’t help that. That was the result of a childhood immersed in an atmosphere of bigotry so complete that it was almost invisible, so entire that you accepted its axioms as second nature. Then you left it and saw it for what it was when you looked back." in the context of "Chapter 7 “Conversation with Madmen?” (p. 58)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Isaac Asimov" (Quotes, Empire novels (1950–1952), Pebble in the Sky (1950): All page numbers from the 1964 Bantam Pathfinder mass market paperback edition, 6th printing ) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Isaac Asimov

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.