Arthur C. Clarke Quotes
December 16, 1917 – March 19, 2008
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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— Glide Path (1963) Chapter 27
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— As quoted in The Making of Kubrick's 2001 (1970) by Jerome Agel, p. 300
After all, it has yet to be proved that intelligence has real survival value.
Arthur C. Clarke— The Lost Worlds of 2001
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— The City and the Stars (1956)
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— Profiles of the Future (1962)
Human judges can show mercy . But against the laws of nature , there is no appeal.
Arthur C. Clarke— "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— Voices from the Sky : Previews of the Coming Space Age (1967)
All these worlds are yours, except Europa . Attempt no landings there.
Arthur C. Clarke— 2010: Odyssey Two (1982)
I would defend the liberty of consenting adult creationists to practice whatever intellectual perversions they like in the privacy of their own homes; but it is also necessary to protect the young and innocent.
Arthur C. Clarke— 1984: Spring (1984)
Reading computer manuals without the hardware is as frustrating as reading sex manuals without the software.
Arthur C. Clarke— The Odyssey File (1984), also quoted in The Mammoth Book of Zingers, Quips, and One-Liners (2004) by Geoff Tibballs, p. 128
The fact that we have not yet found the slightest evidence for life much less intelligence beyond this Earth does not surprise or disappoint me in the least. Our technology must still be laughably primitive, we may be like jungle savages listening for the throbbing of tom-toms while the ether around them carries more words per second than they could utter in a lifetime.
Arthur C. Clarke— "Credo" (1991); also in Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds! : Collected Essays, 1934-1998 (1999), p. 360
It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value.
Arthur C. Clarke— As quoted in Duh! : The Stupid History of the Human Race (2000) by Bob Fenster, p. 208
The intelligent minority of this world will mark 1 January 2001 as the real beginning of the 21st century and the Third Millennium.
Arthur C. Clarke— As quoted in the [Sri Lanka] Sunday Times (31 December 2000)
The danger of asteroid or comet impact is one of the best reasons for getting into space … I'm very fond of quoting my friend Larry Niven: "The dinosaurs became extinct because they didn't have a space program. And if we become extinct because we don't have a space program, it'll serve us right!"
Arthur C. Clarke— "Meeting of the Minds : Buzz Aldrin Visits Arthur C. Clarke" by Andrew Chaikin (27 February 2001)
I don't pretend we have all the answers. But the questions are certainly worth thinking about..
Arthur C. Clarke— As quoted in An Enchanted Life : An Adept's Guide to Masterful Magick (2001) by Patricia Telesco, p. 135
The Information Age offers much to mankind , and I would like to think that we will rise to the challenges it presents. But 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— As quoted in "Humanity will survive information deluge — Sir Arthur C Clarke" in OneWorld South Asia (5 December 2003)
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— "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— Profiles of the Future (revised edition, 1973)
Clarke's Fourth Law: For every expert there is an equal and opposite expert.
Arthur C. Clarke— Profiles of the Future (1999, London: Victor Gollancz) p. 143
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— 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 attibuted to Arthur Schopenhauer:
There was no substitute for reality ; one should be aware of imitations.
Arthur C. Clarke— Chapter 23 “Moondozer” (p. 129)
Belief in God is apparently a psychological artifact of mammalian reproduction.
Arthur C. Clarke— Chapter 35 “Starglider Plus Eighty” (p. 190)
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— Chapter 39 “The Wounded Sun” (p. 208)
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— Chapter 43 “Fail-Safe” (p. 223)
If the WormCam had shown nothing else, he thought, it was this, with pitiless clarity: that the lives of most humans had been miserable and short, deprived of freedom and joy and comfort , their brief moments in the light reduced to sentences to be endured.
Arthur C. Clarke— Chapter 26 (The Light of Other Days (2000))
The vendors seemed comical, so intent were they on their slivers of meaningless profit, all unaware of the desolate ages that lay in their own near future, their own imminent deaths.
Arthur C. Clarke— Chapter 26 (The Light of Other Days (2000))
Maybe those nihilist philosophers are right; maybe this is all we can expect of the universe, a relentless crushing of life and spirit, because the equilibrium state of the cosmos is death ...
Arthur C. Clarke— Chapter 28 (The Light of Other Days (2000))
We always thought the living earth was a thing of beauty . It isn’t. Life has had to learn to defend itself against the planet’s random geological savagery.
Arthur C. Clarke— Chapter 28 (The Light of Other Days (2000))
Our lifetime may be the last that will be lived out in a technological society.
Arthur C. Clarke— Attributed to Clarke on the internet, this has also been attributed to Isaac Asimov in published works.
