Quotes from Arthur C. Clarke

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.

I will not be afraid because I understand ... And understanding is happiness.

How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is quite clearly Ocean.

The intelligent minority of this world will mark 1 January 2001 as the real beginning of the 21st century and the Third Millennium.

Only small minds are impressed by large numbers.

No communication technology has ever disappeared, but instead becomes increasingly less important as the technological horizon widens.

We over estimate technology in the short term and under estimate technology in the long term.

The difference between machines and human beings is that human beings can be reproduced by unskilled labour.

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.

SETI is probably the most important quest of our time , and it amazes me that governments and corporations are not supporting it sufficiently.

The time was fast approaching when Earth, like all mothers, must say farewell to her children.

Sometimes a decision has to be made by a single individual, who has the authority to enforce it. That's why you need a captain. You can't run a ship by a committee-at least not all the time.

Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories.

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.

All human plans [are] subject to ruthless revision by Nature, or Fate, or whatever one preferred to call the powers behind the Universe.

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.

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.

But please remember: this is only a work of fiction. The truth, as always, will be far stranger.

Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living.

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.

Now I understand," said the last man.

Whether we are based on carbon or on silicon makes no fundamental difference; we should each be treated with appropriate respect.

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

science fiction is something that could happen - but usually you wouldn't want it to. Fantasy is something that couldn't happen - though often you only wish that it could.