Quotes from Arthur C. Clarke

There was the airfield that had a railway line crossing the main runway, and operated through a kind of nonaggression pact between the Flying Control Tower and the nearest stationmaster. When a train was scheduled to go through, no aircraft were allowed to interfere, and vice versa.

Max was nervous long before Dr. Blue started to open what Max called the "bug jar.

Archie insisted. "The fundamental laws of evolution clearly indicate that those species whose primary value is the welfare of the group will outlast those in which the individual is supreme.

Mankind now faces its ultimate emergency. In such a moment of crisis, is it not right for us to call upon the instinct that has always ensured our survival in the past? A poet in an earlier, almost equally troubled age put it better than I can ever hope to do: WE MUST LOVE ONE ANOTHER OR DIE.

By mapping out possible futures, as well as a good many improbable ones, the science fiction writer does a great service to the community. He encourages in his readers flexibility of mind, readiness to accept and even welcome change—in one word, adaptability. Perhaps no attribute is more important in this age.

Sometimes, Jean thought a little wearily, he filled to perfection the classic recipe for a small boy: "a noise surrounded by dirt.

a gentle tickling on Floyd's wrist announced an incoming call.

about twenty percent of the Lassans caught some kind of virus.

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

For the human body was a bizarre piece of improvisation, full of organs that had been diverted from one function to another, not always very successfully—and even containing discarded items, like the appendix, that were now worse than useless.

Slowly, Jimmy held up his outstretched hands. Men had been arguing for two hundred years about this gesture; would every creature, everywhere in the universe, interpret this as See--no weapons? But no one could think of anything better.

when a man sells his independence of thought for money or status, without realizing it he also sells his capacity for independence of thought; and, like the worn-out columnists and commentators, he must play the same old record over and over, because he has no capacity for taking a fresh point of view.

The Star Gate opened. The Star Gate closed. In a moment of time too short to be measured, Space turned and twisted upon itself. Then Japetus was alone once more, as it had been for three million years--alone, except for a deserted but not yet derelict ship, sending back to its makers messages which they could neither believe nor understand.

My God -- it's full of stars!

was the mark of a barbarian to destroy something one could not understand; but perhaps men were barbarians, beside the creatures who had made this thing.

To my precious daughter Nicole, and all the young people of the world, I offer one simple insight. 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 possibly 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.

Since their base number system is octal, the range for the comparatives is between one and seven.

The more wonderful the means of communication, the more trivial, tawdry or depressing its contents seemed to be

it would be ready again to lift another companion toward the shining silence which it could never reach.

He was, Sadler thought glumly, rather in the position of a man in a darkened coal cellar, looking for a black cat that might not be there. What was worse, to make the analogy more accurate he would have to be a man who didn't know what a cat looked like, even when he saw one.

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.

Verdaderamente que esa palabra de periódico resultaba un anacrónico pegote en la era de la electrónica. El texto era puesto al momento automáticamente cada hora

Utopia was here at last: its novelty had not yet been assailed by the supreme enemy of all Utopias—boredom. Perhaps

If the decades and the centuries pass with no indication that there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, the long-term effects on human philosophy will be profound, and may be disastrous. Better to have neighbors we don't like than to be utterly alone. —Arthur C. Clarke