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My favourite definition of an intellectual: 'Someone who has been educated beyond his/her intelligence. [ : Chapter 19]
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intelligence
intellectuals
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living. Since the dawn of time, roughly a hundred billion human beings have walked the planet Earth. Now this is an interesting number, for by a curious coincidence there are approximately a hundred billion stars in our local universe, the Milky Way. So for every man who has ever lived, in this Universe there shines a star. But every one of..
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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8fd5f6f
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In my life I have found two things of priceless worth - learning and loving. Nothing else - not fame, not power, not achievement for its own sake - can possible have the same lasting value. For when your life is over, if you can say 'I have learned' and 'I have loved,' you will also be able to say 'I have been happy.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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What was more, they had taken the first step toward genuine friendship. They had exchanged vulnerabilities.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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It was the mark of a barbarian to destroy something one could not understand.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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The more wonderful the means of communication, the more trivial, tawdry, or depressing its contents seemed to be.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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No utopia can ever give satisfaction to everyone, all the time. As their material conditions improve, men raise their sights and become discontented with power and possessions that once would have seemed beyond their wildest dreams. And even when the external world has granted all it can, there still remain the searchings of the mind and the longings of the heart.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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Science is the only religion of mankind.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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It must be wonderful to be seventeen, and to know everything.
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youth
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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A faith that cannot survive collision with the truth is not worth many regrets.
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truth
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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a104a2c
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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.
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relationships
romance
love
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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Now I'm a scientific expert; that means I know nothing about absolutely everything.
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science
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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I will not be afraid because I understand ... And understanding is happiness.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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All human plans [are] subject to ruthless revision by Nature, or Fate, or whatever one preferred to call the powers behind the Universe.
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mice-men
unpredictability
plans
planning
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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c3e941e
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The thing's hollow--it goes on forever--and--oh my God!--
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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There were some things that only time could cure. Evil men could be destroyed, but nothing could be done with good men who were deluded.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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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 nonexistence of Zeus or Thor, but they have few followers now.
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science
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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Moon-Watcher felt the first faint twinges of a new and potent emotion. It was a vague and diffuse sense of envy--of dissatisfaction with his life. He had no idea of its cause, still less of its cure; but discontent had come into his soul, and he had taken one small step toward humanity.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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83ec896
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science fiction is something that happen - but usually you wouldn't want it to. Fantasy is something that happen - though often you only wish that it could.
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science-fiction
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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Never attribute to malevolence what is merely due to incompetence
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social
incompetence
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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Whether we are based on carbon or on silicon makes no fundamental difference; we should each be treated with appropriate respect.
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robots
computers
diversity
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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Now I understand," said the last man."
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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Open the pod bay doors, Hal.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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1. 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.
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magic
science
possibility
technology
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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0cac5ea
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Then he [The Star Child] waited, marshaling his thoughts and brooding over his still untested powers. For though he was master of the world, he was not quite sure what to do next. But he would think of something.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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the newspapers of Utopia, he had long ago decided, would be terribly dull.
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psychology
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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Utopia was here at last: its novelty had not yet been assailed by the supreme enemy of all Utopias--boredom.
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utopian
utopias
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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Humor was the enemy of desire.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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When in doubt, say nothing and move on.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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In this single galaxy of ours there are eighty-seven thousand million suns. [...] In challenging it, you would be like ants attempting to label and classify all the grains of sand in all the deserts of the world. [...] It is a bitter thought, but you must face it. The planets you may one day possess. But the stars are not for man.
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science
space
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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If such a thing had happened once, it must surely have happened many times in this galaxy of a hundred billion suns.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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But he knew well enough that any man in the right circumstances could be dehumanised by panic.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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The creation of wealth is certainly not to be despised, but in the long run the only human activities really worthwhile are the search for knowledge, and the creation of beauty. This is beyond argument, the only point of debate is which comes first.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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The time was fast approaching when Earth, like all mothers, must say farewell to her children.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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Excessive interest in pathological behavior was itself pathological
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social
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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If he was indeed mad, his delusions were beautifully organized.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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Now I can rejoice that I knew you, rather than mourn because I lost you.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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So this, thought Jan, with a resignation that lay beyond all sadness, was the end of man. It was an end that no prophet had foreseen - an end that repudiated optimism and pessimism alike. Yet it was fitting: it had the sublime inevitability of a great work of art. Jan had glimpsed the universe in all its immensity, and knew now that it was no place for man. He realized at last how vain, in the ultimate analysis, had been the dream that lure..
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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Now times had changed, and the inherited wisdom of the past had become folly.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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He was prepared, he thought, for any wonder. The only thing he had never expected was the utterly commonplace.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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Bowman was aware of some changes in his behavior patterns; it would have been absurd to expect anything else in the circumstances. He could no longer tolerate silence; except when he was sleeping, or talking over the circuit to Earth, he kept the ship's sound system running at almost painful loudness. / At first, needing the companionship of the human voice, he had listened to classical plays--especially the works of Shaw, Ibsen, and Shakes..
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space
science-fiction
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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2e052f1
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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 sometimes, dispassionately, they had to weed.
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Arthur C. Clarke |