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Arthur C. Clarke
183 quotes
“I can never look now at the Milky Way without wondering from which of those banked clouds of stars the emissaries are coming. If you will pardon so commonplace a simile, we have broken the glass of the fire-alarm and have nothing to do but to wait. I do not think we will have to wait for long”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Sentinel" (1948), originally titled "Sentinel of Eternity".
“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.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) first seen 1951 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Exploration of Space (1951), p. 111
“It is not easy to see how the more extreme forms of nationalism can long survive when men have seen the Earth in its true perspective as a single small globe against the stars.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) first seen 1951 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Exploration of Space (1951), p. 187
“Others, one suspects, are afraid that the crossing of space, and above all contact with intelligent but nonhuman races, may destroy the foundations of their religious faith. They may be right, but in any event their attitude is one which does not bear logical examination — for a faith which cannot survive collision with the truth is not worth many regrets.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) first seen 1951 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Exploration of Space (1951)
“We stand now at the turning point between two eras. Behind us is a past to which we can never return ... The coming of the rocket brought to an end a million years of isolation ... the childhood of our race was over and history as we know it began.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Exploration of Space (1952)
“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.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) first seen 1953 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Childhood's End (1953), p. 15
“Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) first seen 1953 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (1953)
“If the artist did not know his goal, even the most miraculous of tools could not find it for him.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Somewhere back at the beginning I was chosen to be Jester, and there is only one Jester at a time in Diaspar. Most people think that is one too many.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There still remained, for all men to share, the linked worlds of love and art. Linked, because love without art is merely the slaking of desire, and art cannot be enjoyed unless it is approached with love.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Khedron was content with the order of things as it was. True, he might upset that order from time to time—but only by a little. He was a critic, not a revolutionary. On the placidly flowing river of time, he wished only to make a few ripples; he shrank from diverting its course.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There was only one thing of which he could be certain now. Boredom would not be a serious problem for a considerable time to come.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“After a while Hilvar did his best to steer the conversation away from these meaningless morasses of theology in order to concentrate on the ascertainable facts.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All explorers are seeking something they have lost. It is seldom that they find it, and more seldom still that the attainment brings them greater happiness than the quest.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is not my duty as an historian to predict the future, only to observe and interpret the past. But its lesson is clear enough; we have lived too long out of contact with reality, and now the time has come to rebuild our lives.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He had discharged his destiny; now, perhaps, he could begin to live.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They will have time enough, in those endless aeons, to attempt all things, and to gather all knowledge ... no Gods imagined by our minds have ever possessed the powers they will command ... But for all that, they may envy us, basking in the bright afterglow of Creation; for we knew the Universe when it was young.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) first seen 1962 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Profiles of the Future (1962)
“Yet now, as he roared across the night sky toward an unknown destiny, he found himself facing that bleak and ultimate question which so few men can answer to their satisfaction. What have I done with my life, he asked himself, that the world will be poorer if I leave it.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Glide Path (1963) Chapter 27
“Human judges can show mercy. But against the laws of nature, there is no appeal.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Maelstrom II" (1965)
“As our own species is in the process of proving, one cannot have superior science and inferior morals. The combination is unstable and self-destroying.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Voices from the Sky : Previews of the Coming Space Age (1967)
“Behind every man now alive stand 30 ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) first seen 1968 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) "Foreword
“The goal of the future is full unemployment, so we can play. That’s why we have to destroy the present politico-economic system.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Los Angeles Free Press" Interview (April 25 1969, p. 43)
“Our age is in many ways unique, full of events and phenomena that never occurred before and can never happen again. They distort our thinking, making us believe that what is true now will be true forever, though perhaps on a larger scale. Because we have annihilated distance on this planet, we imagine that we can do it once again. The facts are otherwise, and we see them more clearly if we forget the present and turn our minds towards the past.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When the pioneers and adventurers of our past left their homes in search of new lands, they said good-bye forever to the place of their birth and the companions of their youth. Only a lifetime ago, parents waved farewell to their emigrating children in the virtual certainty that they would never meet again. And now, within one incredible generation, all this has changed.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have abolished space here on the little Earth; we can never abolish the space that yawns between the stars. Once again, as in the days when Homer sang, we are face-to-face with immensity and must accept its grandeur and terror, its inspiring possibilities and its dreadful restraints.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To obtain a mental picture of the distance to the nearest star, compared to the nearest planet, you must imagine a world in which the closest object to you is only five feet away — and there is nothing else to see until you have travelled a thousand miles.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When you are next out of doors on a summer night, turn your head towards the zenith. Almost vertically above you will be shining the brightest star of the northern skies — Vega of the Lyre, twenty-six years away at the speed of light, near enough to the point of no return for us short-lived creatures. Past this blue-white beacon, fifty times as brilliant as our sun, we may send our minds and bodies, but never our hearts. For no man will ever turn homewards beyond Vega, to greet again those he knew and loved on Earth.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Clarke's First Law: 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.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) first seen 1962 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination" in Profiles of the Future (1962)
“Clarke's Second Law: The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) first seen 1962 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination" in Profiles of the Future (1962)
“Clarke's Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Profiles of the Future (revised edition, 1973)
“Clarke's Law of Revolutionary Ideas: Every revolutionary idea — in science, politics, art, or whatever — seems to evoke three stages of reaction. They may be summed up by the phrases:(1) "It's completely impossible — don't waste my time"; (2) "It's possible, but it's not worth doing"; (3) "I said it was a good idea all along.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) first seen 1968 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Promise of Space (1968); This and similar statements attributed to Mahatma Gandhi and J. B. S. Haldane may ultimately be derived from a statement attributed to Arthur Schopenhauer:
“I am afraid that this chapter will amply demonstrate the truth of Clarke's 69th Law, viz., "Reading computer manuals without the hardware is as frustrating as reading sex manuals without the software." In both cases the cure is simple though usually very expensive.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) first seen 1984 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Appendix II: MITE for Morons," The Odyssey File (1984), p. 123
“We seldom stop to think that we are still creatures of the sea, able to leave it only because, from birth to death, we wear the water-filled space suits of our skins.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We cannot predict the new forces, powers, and discoveries that will be disclosed to us when we reach the other planets and set up new laboratories in space. They are as much beyond our vision today as fire or electricity would be beyond the imagination of a fish.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The rash assertion that 'God made man in His own image' is ticking like a time bomb at the foundation of many faiths, and as the hierarchy of the universe is disclosed to us, we may have to recognize this chilling truth: if there are any gods whose chief concern is man, they cannot be very important gods.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of the biggest roles of science fiction is to prepare people to accept the future without pain and to encourage a flexibility of mind. Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories. Two-thirds of 2001 is realistic — hardware and technology — to establish background for the metaphysical, philosophical, and religious meanings later.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Making of Kubrick's 2001 (1970) by Jerome Agel, p. 300
“Perhaps our role on this planet is not to worship God — but to create Him.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Mind of the Machine" in Report on Planet Three and Other Speculations (1972)
“The Ramans do everything in threes.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rendezvous with Rama (1972)
“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.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) first seen 1976 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Peter Plan : A Proposal for Survival (1976) by Laurence J. Peter
“Through long and bitter experience, Rajasinghe had learned never to trust first impressions, but also never to ignore them.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am the King.” Ah, but which king? The monarch who had stood on these granite flagstones — scarcely worn then, eighteen hundred years ago — was probably an able and intelligent man; but he failed to conceive that the time could ever come when he would fade into an anonymity as deep as that of his humblest subjects.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Even though you were once a goddess, Kalidasa's heaven was only an illusion.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am unable to distinguish clearly between your religious ceremonies and apparently identical behavior at the sporting and cultural functions you have transmitted to me.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Meanwhile, among all its countless other effects upon human culture, Starglider had brought to its climax a process that was already well under way. It had put an end to the billions of the words of pious gibberish with which apparently intelligent men had addled their minds for centuries.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There was no substitute for reality; one should be aware of imitations.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Belief in God is apparently a psychological artifact of mammalian reproduction.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Long ago, he had made that choice between work and life that can seldom be avoided at the highest levels of human endeavor ... Any fool could shuffle genes, and most did. But whether or not history gave him credit, few men could have achieved what he had done — and was about to do.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One fail-safe after another had let them down. Helped by the ionospheric storm, the sheer perversity of inanimate things struck again.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The fates could not possibly be so malevolent, now that he had only a few hundred meters to go. He was whistling in the dark, of course. How many aircraft had crashed at the very edge of the runway, after safely crossing an ocean? How many times had machines or muscles failed when there were only millimeters to go? Every possible piece of luck, bad as well as good, happened to somebody, somewhere. He had no right to expect any special treatment.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source