Quotes by
Arthur Clarke |
1917-2008 , British Sci-Fi writer
British author, inventor and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Clarke were known as the “Big Three” of science fiction. | 63 quotes | 2,456 visits |
Quotations
| • | The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion. 16 |
| • | The difference between machines and human beings is that human beings can be reproduced by unskilled labor. 12 |
| • | Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living. 11 |
| • | Never attribute to malevolence what is merely due to incompetence. 8 |
| • | Religion is a byproduct of fear. 8 |
| • | When you finally understand the universe, it will not only be stranger than you imagine, it will be stranger than you can imagine. 8 |
| • | Perhaps our role on this planet is not to worship God — but to create Him. 8 |
| • | Magic's just science that we don't understand yet. 7 |
| • | There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum. 7 |
| • | Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying. 7 |
| • | My favorite definition of an intellectual: 'Someone who has been educated beyond his/her intelligence'. 6 |
| • | A well-stocked mind is safe from boredom. 6 |
| • | The only real problem in life is what to do next. 6 |
| • | Astronomy, as nothing else can do, teaches men humility. 6 |
| • | I'm sure the universe is full of intelligent life. It's just been too intelligent to come here. 6 |
| • | Science can destroy religion by ignoring it as well as by disproving its tenets. No one ever demonstrated, so far as I am aware, the non-existence of Zeus or Thor — but they have few followers now. 6 |
| • | How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is quite clearly Ocean. 5 |
| • | Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. 5 |
| • | Because politics is the science of the possible, it only appeals to second-rate minds. The first raters only interested in the impossible. 5 |
| • | Few artists thrive in solitude and nothing is more stimulating than the conflict of minds with similar interests. 4 |
| • | No one of intelligence resents the inevitable. 4 |
| • | It may be that the old astrologers had the truth exactly reversed, when they believed that the stars controlled the destinies of men. The time may come when men control the destinies of stars. 4 |
| • | Getting information from the Internet is like getting a glass of water from the Niagara Falls. 4 |
| • | Religion is the most malevolent of all mind viruses. 4 |
| • | Until we get rid of religion, we won't be able to conduct the search for God. 4 |
| • | I don't believe in God but I'm very interested in her. 4 |
| • | They could not eat it, and it could not eat them; therefore it was not important. 4 |
| • | I’m a scientific expert; that means I know nothing about absolutely everything 4 |
| • | If he was indeed mad, his delusions were beautifully organized 4 |
| • | A 100 years ago, the electric telegraph made possible-indeed, inevitable-the United States of America. The communications satellite will make equally inevitable a United Nations of Earth; let us hope that the transition period will not be equally bloody. 3 |
| • | The phenomenon of UFO doesn't say anything about the presence of intelligence in space. It just shows how rare it is here on the earth. 3 |
| • | It was the mark of a barbarian to destroy something one could not understand. 3 |
| • | We over estimate technology in the short term and under estimate technology in the long term. 3 |
| • | Utopia was here at last; its novelty had not yet been assailed by the supreme enemy of all Utopias: boredom. 3 |
| • | Since women are better at producing babies, presumably Nature has given men some talent to compensate. But for the moment I can't think of it. 3 |
| • | Before you become too entranced with gorgeous gadgets and mesmerizing video displays, let me remind you that information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, and wisdom is not foresight. Each grows out of the other, and we need them all. 3 |
| • | Civilization will reach maturity only when it learns to value diversity of character and of ideas. 3 |
| • | In my life I have found two things of priceless worth: learning and loving. Nothing else - not fame, not power, not achievement for its own sake - can possible have the same lasting value. 3 |
| • | When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong. 3 |
| • | It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value. 3 |
| • | If man can live in Manhattan, he can live anywhere. 3 |
| • | “Now I understand,” said the last man. 2 |
| • | Floyd could imagine a dozen things that could go wrong; it was little consolation that it was always the thirteenth that actually happened. 2 |
| • | I sometimes think that the universe is a machine designed for the perpetual astonishment of astronomers. 2 |
| • | Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories. 2 |
| • | Only feeble minds are paralyzed by facts. 2 |
| • | The moment when one first meets a great work of art has an impact that can never again be recaptured. 2 |
| • | If there are any gods whose chief concern is man, they can't be very important gods. 2 |
| • | Only small minds are impressed by large numbers. 2 |
| • | Sometimes a decision has to be made by a single individual, who has the authority to enforce it. That's why you need a captain. You can't run a ship by a committee-at least not all the time. 2 |
| • | When one has to ask, “Am I really in love?” the answer is always “No”. 2 |
| • | The universe must be full of voices, calling from star to star in a myriad tongues. One day we shall join that cosmic conversation. 2 |
| • | The goal of the future is full unemployment, so we can play. That's why we have to destroy the present politico-economic system. 2 |
| • | The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible. 2 |
| • | I don't pretend we have all the answers. But the questions are certainly worth thinking about. 2 |
| • | The dinosaurs disappeared because they could not adapt to their changing environment. We shall disappear if we cannot adapt to an environment that now contains spaceships, computers — and thermonuclear weapons. 2 |
| • | CNN is one of the participants in the war. I have a fantasy where Ted Turner is elected president but refuses because he doesn't want to give up power. 2 |
| • | Any teacher that can be replaced by a machine should be! 2 |
| • | This is the first age that's ever paid much attention to the future, which is a little ironic since we may not have one. 2 |
| • | If we have learned one thing from the history of invention and discovery, it is that, in the long run — and often in the short one — the most daring prophecies seem laughably conservative. 2 |
| • | Problems seldom go away if they’re ignored. 2 |
Funny Quotes
| • | I don't believe in astrology; I'm a Sagittarius and we're skeptical. 15 |
| • | No trilogy should have more than four books. 3 |
