Arthur C Clarke Quotes

Reading computer manuals without the hardware is as frustrating as reading sex manuals without the software. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

They had forgotten much, but they did not know it. They were as perfectly fitted to their environment as it was to them - for both had been designed together. What was beyond the walls of the city was no concern of theirs; it was something that had been shut out of their minds. Diaspar was all that existed, all that they needed, all that they could imagine. It mattered nothing to them that Man had once possessed the stars. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

There were, however, a few exceptions.
One was Norma Dodsworth, the poet, who had not unpleasantly drunk but had been sensible enough to pass out before any violent action proved necessary. He had been deposited, not very gently, on the lawn, where it was hoped that a hyena would give him a rude awakening. For all practical purposes he could, therefore, be regarded as absent. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Never attribute to malevolence what is merely due to incompetence ~ Arthur C. Clarke

In a 1972 story titled "The Big Space Fuck," Kurt Vonnegut names his spaceship with "eight hundred pounds of freeze-dried jizzum in its nose" the Arthur C. Clarke, "in honor of a famous space pioneer." Its mission is to impregnate the Andromeda Galaxy. ~ Michael Benson

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

Any man, in the right circumstances, could be dehumanized by panic. If ~ Arthur C. Clarke

This had not endeared him to exobiologists such as Dr Perera, who took exactly the opposite view. To them, the only purpose of the Universe was the production of intelligence, and they were apt to talk sneeringly about purely astronomical phenomena, 'Mere dead matter' was one of their favourite phrases. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Clarke's First Law - Corollary: When, however, the lay public rallies round an idea that is denounced by distinguished but elderly scientists and supports that idea with great fervor and emotion - the distinguished but elderly scientists are then, after all, probably right. ~ Isaac Asimov

I'm sure we would not have had men on the Moon if it had not been for Wells and Verne and the people who write about this and made people think about it. I'm rather proud of the fact that I know several astronauts who became astronauts through reading my books. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

If we both believe that we have nothing to learn from the other, is it not obvious that we will both be wrong? ~ Arthur C. Clarke

A man who grows that much hair,' critics were fond of saying, 'must have a lot to hide. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Finally, I would like to assure my many Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, and Muslim friends that I am sincerely happy that the religion which Chance has given you has contributed to your peace of mind (and often, as Western medical science now reluctantly admits, to your physical well-being). Perhaps it is better to be un-sane and happy, than sane and un-happy. But it is best of all to be sane and happy. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

There were other thinkers, Bowman also found, who held even more exotic views. They did not believe that really advanced beings would possess organic bodies at all. Sooner or later, as their scientific knowledge progressed, they would get rid of the fragile, disease-and-accident-prone homes that Nature had given them, and which doomed them to inevitable death. They would replace their natural bodies as they wore out - or perhaps even before that - by constructions of metal and plastic, and would thus achieve immortality. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Someone once said that for every problem there is a solution that is simple, attractive ... and wrong. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Training was one thing, reality another, and no one could be sure that the ancient human instincts of self-preservation would not take over in an emergency. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

But there was no substitute for reality; one should beware of imitations. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

But the characteristic that is truly special about our species ... [is] our ability to model our world and understand both it and where we fit into its overall scheme ... ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Whatever their origin, the human race was fortunate to have seen such a wonder; it could exist for only a brief moment of time in the history of the Solar System. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Across the gulf of centuries, the blind smile of Homer is turned upon our age. Along the echoing corridors of time, the roar of the rockets merges now with the creak of the wind-taut rigging. For somewhere in the world today, still unconscious of his destiny, walks the boy who will be the first Odysseus of the Age of Space. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Now, before you make a movie, you have to have a script, and before you have a script, you have to have a story; though some avant-garde directors have tried to dispense with the latter item, you'll find their work only at art theaters. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Imagine that every man's mind is an island, surrounded by ocean. Each seems isolated, yet in reality all are linked by the bedrock from which they spring. If the ocean were to vanish, that would be the end of the islands. They would all be part of one continent, but the individuality would have gone ~ Arthur C. Clarke

It seemed unfair that this should have happened in his time, after all these centuries of rest. But men cannot bargain with Fate, and choose peace or adventure as they wish. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Personally, I refuse to drive a car - I won't have anything to do with any kind of transportation in which I can't read. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

He did not wander aimlessly, though he never knew which village would be his next port of call. He was seeking no particular place, but a mood, an influence - indeed, a way of life. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

In the words of futurist Arthur C. Clarke, 'Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. ~ Dan Brown

Now, what did "feel" really mean to a computer? Another very good question, but hardly one to be considered at that particular moment. Then, ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Only small minds are impressed by large numbers. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

My father always said that you cannot graft a culture of science and engineering onto an Iron Age society. And so it's proving.' Bisesa studied him. 'You'll have to tell me about your father. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Astronomy, as nothing else can do, teaches men humility. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Suppose, in their altruistic passion for justice and order, they had determined to reform the world, but had not realized that they were destroying the soul of man? ~ Arthur C. Clarke

As Solomon himself had remarked, 'We can be sure of talent, we can only pray for genius.' But it was a reasonable hope that in such concentrated society some interesting reactions would take place.
Few artists thrive in solitude and nothing is more stimulating than the conflict of minds with similar interests. So far, the conflict had produced worthwhile results in sculpture, music, literary criticism and film making. It was still too early to see if the group working on historical research would fulfil the hopes of its instigators, who were frankly hoping to restore mankind's pride in its own achievements.
Painting still languished which supported the views of those who considered that static, two dimensional forms of art had no further possibilities. It was noticeable, though a satisfactory explanation for this had not yet been produced that time played an essential part in the colony's achievements. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

The entire sweep of human history from the dark ages into the unknown future was considerably less important at the moment than the question of a certain girl and her feelings toward him. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

And on far-off Earth, Dr. Carlisle Perera had as yet told no one how he had wakened from a restless sleep with the message from his subconscious still echoing in his brain: The Ramans do everything in threes. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

The rise of science, which with monotonous regularity refuted the cosmologies of the prophets and produced miracles which they could never match, eventually destroyed all these faiths. It did not destroy the awe, nor the reverence and humility, which all intelligent beings felt as they contemplated the stupendous universe in which they found themselves. What it did weaken, and finally obliterate, were the countless religions each of which claimed with unbelievable arrogance, that it was the sole repository of the truth and that its millions of rivals and predecessors were all mistaken. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Discovery was no longer a happy ship. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Where was the end of the story? Surely, the final stage would be reached when the audience forgot it was an audience, and became part of the action. To achieve this would involve stimulation of all the senses, and perhaps hypnosis as well, but many believed it to be practical. When the goal was attained, there would be an enormous enrichment of human experience. A man could become - for a while, at least - any other person, and could take part in any conceivable adventure, real or imaginary. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

It is vital to remember that information
in the sense of raw data
is not knowledge, that knowledge is not wisdom, and that wisdom is not foresight. But information is the first essential step to all of these. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Yet there was also something slightly spooky about them. Norton could never understand how men with advanced scientific and technical training could possibly believe some of the things he had heard Cosmo Christers state as incontrovertible fact. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Men knew better than they realized, when they placed the abode of the gods beyond the reach of gravity. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Because Nature always balances her books, the Sun lost some velocity in the transaction; but the effect would not be measurable for a few thousand years. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Religion is the most malevolent of all mind viruses. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Moses Kaldor had always loved mountains; they made him feel nearer to the God whose nonexistence he still sometimes resented. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

The realisation that our small planet is only one of many worlds gives mankind the perspective it needs to realise sooner that our own world belongs to all its creatures. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

In accordance with the terms of the Clarke-Asimov treaty, the second-best
science writer dedicates this book to the second-best science-fiction
writer.
[dedication to Isaac Asimov from Arthur C. Clarke in his book Report on Planet Three] ~ Arthur C. Clarke

And it was difficult to imagine what answer Earth could possibly send, except a tactfully sympathetic, "Good-bye. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

They no longer formed a single group, united in the common cause of survival. Now their lives had diverged again into a score of independent aims and ambitions. Humanity had swallowed them up once more, and the ocean swallows a raindrop. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Seems like it," answered Bowman. "The unit checks out perfectly. Even under two hundred percent overload, there's no fault prediction indicated." The two men were standing in the tiny workshop-cum-lab in the carrousel, which was more convenient than the space-pod garage for minor repairs and examinations. There was no danger, here, of meeting blobs of hot solder drifting down the breeze, or of completely losing small items of equipment that had decided to go into orbit. Such things could - and did - happen in ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Even by the twenty-second century, no way had yet been discovered of keeping elderly and conservative scientists from occupying crucial administrative positions. Indeed, it was doubted if the problem ever would be solved. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

When the Sun shrinks to a dull red dwarf, it will not be dying. It will just be starting to live and everything that has gone before will merely be a prelude to its real history. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Deep beneath the surface of the Sun, enormous forces were gathering. At any moment, the energies of a million hydrogen bombs might burst forth in the awesome explosion ... Climbing at millions of miles per hour, an invisible fireball many times the size of Earth would leap from the Sun and head out across space. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Absence of noise is not a natural condition; all human senses require some input. If they are deprived of it, the mind manufactures its own substitutes. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

This was the fundamental problem with rockets - and no one had ever discovered any alternative for deep-space propulsion. It was just as difficult to lose speed as to acquire it, and carrying the necessary propellant for deceleration did not merely double the difficulty of a mission; it squared it. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Soon after her beloved young brother was killed, she asked me, "What is the purpose of grief? Does it serve any biological function? ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Atheism is unprovable, so uninteresting. However unlikely it is, we can never be certain that God once existed - and has now shot off to infinity, where no one can ever find him ... Like Gautama Buddha, I take no position on this subject. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Einsteinian time dilation. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

In their explorations, they encountered life in many forms and watched the workings of evolution on a thousand worlds. They saw how often the first faint sparks of intelligence flickered and died in the cosmic night. And because, in all the Galaxy, they had found nothing more precious than Mind, they encouraged its dawning everywhere. They became farmers in the fields of stars; they sowed, and sometimes they reaped. And ~ Arthur C. Clarke

There's an ancient philosophical joke that's much subtler than it seems. Question: Why is the Universe here? Answer: Where else would it be? ~ Arthur C. Clarke

The universe is full of energy, but much of it is at equilibrium. At equilibrium no energy can flow, and therefore it cannot be used for work, any more than the level waters of a pond can be used to drive a water-wheel. It is on the flow of energy out of equilibrium - the small fraction of "useful" energy, "exergy" - that life depends. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

The memory of war was fading into the past as a nightmare vanishes with the dawn; soon
it would lie outside the experience of all living men. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

2001 was written in an age which now lies beyond one of the great divides in human history ; we are sundered from it forever by the moment when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped out on to the Sea of Tranquility. Now history and fiction have become inexorably intertwined. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

In some ways," admitted the Overlord gravely. "In others perhaps a better analogy can be found in the history of your colonial powers. The Roman and British Empires, for that reason, have always been of considerable interest to us. The case of India is particularly instructive. The main difference between us and the British in India was that they had no real motives for going there - no conscious objectives, that is, except such trivial and temporary ones as trade or hostility to other European powers. They found themselves possessors of an empire before they knew what to do with it, and were never really happy until they had got rid of it again. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

But it had been widely argued that advanced intelligence could never arise in the sea; there were not enough challenges in so benign and unvarying an environment. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Can you sum up your ideas in less than - oh, a thousand bits? ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Anything that is theoretically possible will be achieved in practice, no matter what the technical difficulties are, if it is desired greatly enough. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

The toil of all that be Helps not the primal fault; It rains into the sea, And still the sea is salt. A. E. HOUSMAN MORE POEMS ~ Arthur C. Clarke

What is becoming more interesting than the myths themselves has been the study of how the myths were constructed from sparse or unpromising facts indeed, sometimes from no facts in a kind of mute conspiracy of longing, very rarely under anybody's conscious control. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

When you finally understand the universe, it will not only be stranger than you imagine, it will be stranger than you can imagine. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

The sign of its passing was written there upon the sky as if a giant hand had drawn a piece of chalk across the blue dome of heaven. Even as they watched, the gleaming vapor trail began to fray at the edges, breaking up into wisps of cloud, until it seemed that a bridge of snow had been thrown from horizon to horizon. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

It is hard to draw any line between compassion and love. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

The universe must be full of voices, calling from star to star in a myriad tongues. One day we shall join that cosmic conversation. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Trying to predict the future is a discouraging and hazardous occupation. If by some miracle a prophet could describe the future exactly as it was going to take place, his predictions would sound so absurd that people everyone would laugh him to scorn. The only thing we can be sure of about the future is that it will be absolutely fantastic. So, if what I say now seems to you to be very reasonable, then I will have failed completely. Only if what I tell you appears absolutely unbelievable have we any chance of visualizing the future as it really will happen, ~ Arthur C. Clarke

There is no reason to assume that the universe has the slightest interest in intelligence - or even in life. Both may be random accidental by-products of its operations like the beautiful patterns on a butterfly's wings. The insect would fly just as well without them. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

He felt no regrets as the work of a lifetime was swept away. He had labored to take man to the stars, and, in the moment of success, the stars - the aloof, indifferent stars - had come to him. This was the moment when history held its breath, and the present sheared asunder from the past as an iceberg splits from its frozen, parent cliffs, and goes sailing out to sea in lonely pride. All that the past ages had achieved was as nothing now: only one thought echoed and re-echoed through Reinhold's brain: The human race was no longer alone. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

This would involve disconnection - the computer equivalent of death. Despite ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Miss Pringle was not much larger than the handheld personal assistants of his own age, and usually lived, like the Old West's Colt 45, in a quick-draw holster at his waist. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Because each of us is the sum of all we have ever experienced. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

You will find men like him in all the world's religions. They know that we represent reason and science, and, however confident they may be in their beliefs, they fear that we will overthrow their gods. Not necessarily through any deliberate act, but in a subtler fashion. Science can destroy religion by ignoring it as well as by disproving its tenets. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

He did not know that the Old One was his father, for such a relationship was utterly beyond his understanding, but as he looked at the emaciated body he felt a dim disquiet that was the ancestor of sadness. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Civilization will reach maturity only when it learns to value diversity of character and of ideas. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Death focuses the mind on the things that really matter: why are we here, and what should we do? ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Do we use models to help us find the truth? Or do we know the truth first, and then develop the mathematics to explain it? ~ Arthur C. Clarke

After their encounter on the approach to Jupiter, there would aways be a secret bond between them
not of love, but of tenderness, which is often more enduring. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Yet among all the distractions and diversions of a planet which now seemed well on the way to becoming one vast playground, there were some who still found time to repeat an ancient and never-answered question:
"Where do we go from here? ~ Arthur C. Clarke

I would be greatly distressed if this book contributed still further to the seduction of the gullible, now cynically exploited by all the media. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Don't forget, as you enjoy your mild spring days and peaceful summer evenings, how lucky you are to live in the temperate region of the Solar System, where the air never freezes and the rocks never melt ... Earthlight by Arthur C. Clarke ~ Arthur C. Clarke

They would never know how lucky they had been. For a lifetime, mankind had achieved as much happiness as any race can ever know. It had been the Golden Age. But gold was also the color of sunset, of autumn: and only Karellen's ears could catch the first wailings of the winter storms. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Using material ferried up by rockets, it would be possible to construct a "space station" in ... orbit. The station could be provided with living quarters, laboratories and everything needed for the comfort of its crew, who would be relieved and provisioned by a regular rocket service. (1945) ~ Arthur C. Clarke

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

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

dying in an exciting situation is much better than living in a boring one. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Attempting to define science fiction is an undertaking almost as difficult, though not so popular, as trying to define pornography ... In both pornography and SF, the problem lies in knowing exactly where to draw the line. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

The more wonderful the means of communication, the more trivial, tawdry, or depressing its contents seemed to be. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Feeling extremely foolish, the acting representative of Homo sapiens watched his First Contact stride away across the Raman plain, totally indifferent to his presence. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

The timeless instant passed. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Adamski's Disease. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

They had not yet attained the stupefying boredom of omnipotence; their experiments did not always succeed. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

The time has come," said Dr. Dimitri Moisevitch to his old friend Heywood Floyd, "to talk of many things. Of shoes and spaceships and sealing wax, but mostly of monoliths and malfunctioning computers. ~ Arthur C. Clarke