Arthur C. Clarke > Quotes

“Science can destroy religion by ignoring it as well as by disproving its tenets.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Childhood's End

“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

“Man was, therefore, still a prisoner on his own planet. It was much fairer, but a much smaller, planet than it had been a century before. When the Overlords abolished war and hunger and disease, they had also abolished adventure.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Childhood’s End

“Science fiction could now be made far more convincing by science fact.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey

“Men knew better than they realized, when they placed the abode of the gods beyond the reach of gravity.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, 2010: Odyssey Two

“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 Songs Of Distant Earth

“Moses Kaldor had always loved mountains; they made him feel nearer to the God whose nonexistence he still sometimes resented.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Songs of Distant Earth

“The core of Jupiter, forever beyond human reach, was a diamond as big as the Earth.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, 2010: Odyssey Two

“But most of the time, with a contented resignation that comes normally to a man only at the end of a long and busy life, he sat before the keyboard and filled the air with his beloved Bach.
Perhaps he was deceiving himself, perhaps this was some merciful trick of the mind but now it seemed to Jan that this what he had always wished to do. His secret ambition had at last dared to emerge into the full light of consciousness.

Jan had always been a good pianist, and now he was the finest in the world.”
― Arthur C. Clarke

“And if there was anything beyond that, its name could only be God.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey

“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, Childhood’s End

“So the problem of Evil never really existed. To expect the universe to be benevolent was like imagining one could always win at a game of pure chance.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, The Songs Of Distant Earth

“For Jan was still suffering from the romantic illusion–the cause of so much misery and so much poetry–that every man has only one real love in his life.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Childhood’s End

“A man who grows that much hair,' critics were fond of saying, 'must have a lot to hide.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, 2061: Odyssey Three

“No wonder that people are becoming passive sponges—absorbing but never creating. Did you know that the average viewing time per person is now three hours a day? Soon people won’t be living their own lives any more. It will be a full-time job keeping up with the various family serials on TV!”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Childhood's End

“Moon-Watcher and his companions had no recollection of what they had seen, after the crystal had ceased to cast its hypnotic spell over their minds and to experiment with their bodies. The next day, as they went out to forage, they passed it with scarcely a second thought; it was now part of the disregarded background of their lives. They could not eat it, and it could not eat them; therefore it was not important.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey

“..the happy hum of humanity.”
― 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

“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, Childhood’s End

“They had not yet attained the stupefying boredom of omnipotence; their experiments did not always succeed.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, 2010: Odyssey Two

“All that had gone before was not a thousandth of what was yet to come; the story of this star had barely begun.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey

“In these latter days, knighthood was an honor few Englishmen escaped.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Rendezvous with Rama

“The limits of possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible.”
― Arthur C. Clarke

“La única posibilidad de descubrir los límites de lo posible es aventurarse un poco más allá de ellos, hacia lo imposible.”
― 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, The City and the Stars

“Death focuses the mind on the things that really matter: why are we here, and what should we do?”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Songs of Distant Earth

“Once, I believed that space could
have no power over faith, just as I believed the heavens declared the glory of God’s
handwork. Now I have seen that handwork, and my faith is sorely troubled.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, The Star

“Men had sought beauty in many forms—in sequences of sound, in lines upon paper, in surfaces of stone, in the movements of the human body, in colours ranged through space.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, The City and the Stars

“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, The City and the Stars

“When beauty is universal, it loses its power to move the heart,”
― Arthur C. Clarke, The City and the Stars