Solaris Quotes

“Let us begin by saying that no two symmetriads are alike and that the geometry of each is, as it were, an “invention” of the living ocean. So then, the symmetriad produces in its interior things that are often called “instant machines,” though these formations bear no resemblance to machines constructed by people — the term only refers to a certain “mechanical” purposiveness of operation.”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“There are no answers. Only choices.”
― Stanislas Lem, Solaris

“We are only seeking Man. We have no need of other worlds. We need mirrors. We don't know what do with other worlds. A single world, our own, suffices us; but we can't accept it for what it is. We are searching for an ideal image of our own world: we go in quest of a planet, of a civilization superior to our own but developed on the basis of a prototype of our primeval past.”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“The human mind is only capable of absorbing a few things at a time. We see what is taking place in front of us int he here and now, and cannot envisage simultaneously a succession of processes, no matter how integrated and complementary. Our faculties of perception are consequently limited even as regards fairly simple phenomena.”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“Because there may be thoughts, intentions and cruel hopes in my mind of which I know nothing, because I am a murderer unawares.”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“We all know that we are material creatures, subject to the laws of physiology and physics, and not even the power of all our feelings combined can defeat those laws. All we can do is detest them. The age-old faith of lovers and poets in the power of love, stronger than death, that finis vitae sed non amoris, is a lie, useless and not even funny.”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“The fate of a single person can mean many things, the fate of several hundred is hard to encompass; but the history of thousands, millions, means essentially nothing at all.”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“People of outstanding abilities and strength of character are born at more or less regular intervals, so it’s only the matter of their selection that is uneven.”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“Ma io, una casa, non ce l'avevo. La terra ? Pensavo alle sue grandi città affollate e rumorose dove mi sarei smarrito o addirittura perso, come se avessi fatto quello che volevo fare la seconda o la terza notte: gettarmi nell'oceano pesantemente ondeggiante nelle tenebre. Sarei annegato tra la gente. Sarei stato silenzioso e attento, e quindi un compagno apprezzato. Avrei avuto numerosi conoscenti, amici, donne, forse anche una sola donna. Per un certo tempo avrei dovuto fare uno sforzo per sorridere, salutare, alzarmi in piedi, eseguire le migliaia di piccoli gesti di cui si componeva la vita sulla Terra, finché non fossero divenuti automatici. Mi sarei trovato nuovi interessi e nuove occupazioni, ma senza dedicarmi anima e corpo: mai più avrei consacrato tutto me stesso a niente e a nessuno.”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“We don’t need other worlds. We need mirrors. We don’t know what to do with other worlds. One world is enough, even there we feel stifled. We desire to find our own idealized image; they’re supposed to be globes, civilizations more perfect than ours; in other worlds we expect to find the image of our own primitive past. Yet on the other side there’s something we refuse to accept, that we fend off; though after all, from Earth we didn’t bring merely a distillation of virtues, the heroic figure of Humankind! We came here as we truly are, and when the other side shows us that truth—the part of it we pass over in silence—we’re unable to come to terms with it!”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“We are only seeking Man. We have no need of other worlds. We need mirrors. We don't know what to do with other worlds. A single world, our own, suffices us; but we can't accept it for what it is. We are searching for an ideal image of our own world: we go in quest of a planet, of a civilization superior to our own but developed on the basis of a prototype of our primeval past. At the same time, there is something inside us which we don't like to face up to, from which we try to protect ourselves, but which nevertheless remains, since we don't leave Earth in a state of primal innocence. We arrive here as we are in reality, and when the page is turned and that reality is revealed to us — that part of our reality which we would prefer to pass over in silence — then we don't like it any more.”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“-¿Qué te sugirió el concepto de un dios imperfecto? -preguntó de repente, sin apartar la vista del resplandeciente desierto.

-No lo sé. Me pareció algo muy, muy acertado, ¿sabes? Es el único Dios en el que estaría dispuesto a creer, un dios cuyo martirio no significa redención, que no pretende salvar a nadie, ni está al servicio de nada, sino que simplemente está".”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“Kris . . . what do I have to do to put a stop to this?”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“The night transfixed me; the night took possession of me, enveloped and penetrated me, impalpable, insubstantial. Turned to stone.”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“You are doing all you can to stay human in an inhuman situation. Noble it may be, but it isn't going to get you anywhere. And I'm not so sure about it being noble-not if it's idiotic at the same time.”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“ignoramus et ignorabimus”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“The age-old faith of lovers and poets in the power of love, stronger than death, that finis vitae sed non amoris, is a lie, useless and not even funny.”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“the old doctrine of ignoramus et ignorabimus—“we do not know and will not know.”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“That is how the dream begins. All around me, something is awaiting my consent, my inner acquiescence, and I know, or rather the knowledge exists, that I must not give way to an unknown temptation, for the more the silence seems to promise, the more terrible the outcome will be. Yet I essentially know no such thing, because I would be afraid if I knew, and I never felt the slightest fear.”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“Wpatrzony w ciemniejące niebo, w gwiazdy, które były tylko widmowym cieniem ziemskich gwiazd, stałem bez ruchu, a w pustce, która zastępowała gonitwę myśli sprzed chwili, rosła bez słów martwa, obojętna pewność, że tam, dokąd nie mogłem sięgnąć, wybrałem już i udając, że nic się nie stało, nie miałem nawet tyle siły, żeby sobą wzgardzić.”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“Since, on the other hand, anyone plunging stubbornly into all this literature cannot resist the impression that though he encounters fragments of perhaps brilliant intellectual constructions, these fragments are mixed indiscriminately with the products of utter foolishness bordering on insanity, as an antithesis to the concept of the “oceanic yogi” there arose the idea of the “oceanic idiot.”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“excluded from this collection of classic Solariana, whose only connection with the field was that for a lengthy period they researched public opinion, collecting the most ordinary views, the attitudes of non-specialists, and in this way demonstrated the astonishingly close relationship between changes in such views and processes simultaneously taking place among the ranks of scholars.”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“In his most important and most extraordinary work, a mere dozen or so pages long, he sought to demonstrate that even the most seemingly abstract, sublimely theoretical, mathematicized achievements of science have in reality moved only a step or two away from a prehistoric, coarsely sensory-based, anthropomorphic understanding of the world around us.”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“Because even if she were able to leave the Station—alive—still, it’s only humans that can land on Earth, and humans are defined by their papers.”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“It could simply have taken a procedure that didn’t consist of words. As a fixed memory trace it’s a protein structure. Like the head of a spermatozoon, or an ovum. After all, in the brain there aren’t any words, feelings, the recollection of a person is an image written in the language of nucleic acids on megamolecular asynchronous crystals.”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“I mean a God whose deficiencies don’t arise from the simplemindedness of his human creators, but constitute his most essential, immanent character. This would be a God limited in his omniscience and omnipotence, one who can make mistakes in foreseeing the future of his works, who can find himself horrified by the course of events he has set in motion. This is… a cripple God, who always desires more than he’s able to have, and doesn’t always realize this to begin with.”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“So must one be resigned to being a clock that measures the passage of time, now out of order, now repaired, and whose mechanism generates despair and love as soon as its maker sets it going?”
― Stanislaw Lem, Solaris

“People of outstanding abilities and strength of character are born at more or less regular intervals, so it’s only the matter of their selection that is uneven. Their presence or absence in a particular field of inquiry can perhaps be explained by the perspectives it opens up.”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“Whether they liked it or not, human beings had to take cognizance of a neighbor that, though it was billions of miles away across the void and separated from us by entire light years, still lay in the path of their expansion, and was harder to grasp than the whole of the rest of the Universe.”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“A human being, appearances to the contrary, doesn’t create his own purposes. These are imposed by the time he’s born into; he may serve them, he may rebel against them, but the object of his service or rebellion comes from the outside.”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris