104 Quotes & Sayings By Arthur C Clarke

Arthur Charles Clarke (8 April 1917 – 19 March 2008) was an English writer and science fiction author, most famous as the author of the classic science fiction novel 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), along with more than 1,500 other published works. He was also one of the first writers to be recognized as a space enthusiast and astronomy writer—he predicted space tourism and communication satellites. His novel Rama was made into a movie of the same name.

Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe...
1
Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying. Arthur C. Clarke
I'm sure the universe is full of intelligent life. It's...
2
I'm sure the universe is full of intelligent life. It's just been too intelligent to come here. Arthur C. Clarke
3
A faith that cannot survive collision with the truth is not worth many regrets. Arthur C. Clarke
But please remember: this is only a work of fiction....
4
But please remember: this is only a work of fiction. The truth, as always, will be far stranger. Arthur C. Clarke
5
Before you become too entranced with gorgeous gadgets and mesmerizing video displays, let me remind you that information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, and wisdom is not foresight. Each grows out of the other, and we need them all. Arthur C. Clarke
After their encounter on the approach to Jupiter, there would...
6
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. Arthur C. Clarke
Humor was the enemy of desire.
7
Humor was the enemy of desire. Arthur C. Clarke
8
He did not know that the Old One was his father, for such a relationship was utterly beyond his understanding, but as he looked at the emaciated body he felt a dim disquiet that was the ancestor of sadness. Arthur C. Clarke
One of the greatest tragedies in mankind's entire history may...
9
One of the greatest tragedies in mankind's entire history may be that morality was hijacked by religion. Arthur C. Clarke
The rash assertion that
10
The rash assertion that "God made man in His own image" is ticking like a time bomb at the foundation of many faiths. Arthur C. Clarke
Science can destroy religion by ignoring it as well as...
11
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. Arthur C. Clarke
My favourite definition of an intellectual: 'Someone who has been...
12
My favourite definition of an intellectual: 'Someone who has been educated beyond his/her intelli Arthur C. Clarke
He found it both sad and fascinating that only through...
13
He found it both sad and fascinating that only through an artificial universe of video images could she establish contact with the real world. Arthur C. Clarke
The only way of discovering the limits of the possible...
14
The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible. Arthur C. Clarke
15
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
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
16
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Arthur C. Clarke
How inappropriate to call this planet
17
How inappropriate to call this planet "Earth, " when it is clearly "Ocean. Arthur C. Clarke
Magic's just science that we don't understand yet.
18
Magic's just science that we don't understand yet. Arthur C. Clarke
When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is...
19
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. Arthur C. Clarke
20
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.2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Arthur C. Clarke
21
It is a good principle in science not to believe any 'fact'---however well attested---until it fits into some accepted frame of reference. Occasionally, of course, an observation can shatter the frame and force the construction of a new one, but that is extremely rare. Galileos and Einsteins seldom appear more than once per century, which is just as well for the equanimity of mankind. Arthur C. Clarke
Meteorites don’t fall on the Earth. They fall on the...
22
Meteorites don’t fall on the Earth. They fall on the Sun and the Earth gets in the way.” - John W. Campbell Arthur C. Clarke
23
There is no reason to assume that the universe has the slightest interest in intelligence–or even in life. Both may be random accidental by-products of its operations like the beautiful patterns on a butterfly's wings. The insect would fly just as well without them. Arthur C. Clarke
…once science had declared a thing possible, there was no...
24
…once science had declared a thing possible, there was no escape from its eventual realization… Arthur C. Clarke
This is only a work of fiction , The Truth...
25
This is only a work of fiction , The Truth as always will be far stranger Arthur C. Clarke
26
Some dangers are so spectacular and so much beyond normal experience that the mind refuses to accept them as real, and watches the approach of doom without any sense of apprehension. The man who looks at the onrushing tidal wave, the descending avalanche, or the spinning funnel of the tornado, yet makes no attempt to flee, is not necessarily paralyzed with fright or resigned to an unavoidable fate. He may simply be unable to believe that the message of his eyes concerns him personally. It is all happening to somebody else. . Arthur C. Clarke
What was more, they had taken the first step toward...
27
What was more, they had taken the first step toward genuine friendship. They had exchanged vulnerabilities. Arthur C. Clarke
Didn’t somebody once say ‘Politics is the art of the...
28
Didn’t somebody once say ‘Politics is the art of the possible’?” “Quite true–which is why only second-rate minds go into it. Genius likes to challenge the impossible. Arthur C. Clarke
29
[T]hese leaders must not believe they are actually being watched, for their behavior in no way reflects the possible existence of a set of values or ethical laws that supersedes their own dominion. Arthur C. Clarke
30
Now, before you make a movie, you have to have a script, and before you have a script, you have to have a story; though some avant-garde directors have tried to dispense with the latter item, you'll find their work only at art theaters. Arthur C. Clarke
31
It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value. Arthur C. Clarke
32
This had not endeared him to exobiologists such as Dr Perera, who took exactly the opposite view. To them, the only purpose of the Universe was the production of intelligence, and they were apt to talk sneeringly about purely astronomical phenomena, 'Mere dead matter' was one of their favourite phrases. Arthur C. Clarke
33
.. . 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. Arthur C. Clarke
34
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 Shakespeare--or poetry readings from Discovery's enormous library of recorded sounds. The problems they dealt with, however, seemed so remote, or so easily resolved with a little common sense, that after a while he lost patience with them. / So he switched to opera--usually in Italian or German, so that he was not distracted even by the minimal intellectual content that most operas contained. This phase lasted for two weeks before he realized that the sound of all these superbly trained voices was only exacerbating his loneliness. But what finally ended this cycle was Verdi's Requiem Mass, which he had never heard performed on Earth. The "Dies Irae, " roaring with ominous appropriateness through the empty ship, left him completely shattered; and when the trumpets of Doomsday echoed from the heavens, he could endure no more. / Thereafter, he played only instrumental music. He started with the romantic composers, but shed them one by one as their emotional outpourings became too oppressive. Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, Berlioz, lasted a few weeks, Beethoven rather longer. He finally found peace, as so many others had done, in the abstract architecture of Bach, occasionally ornamented with Mozart. / And so Discovery drove on toward Saturn, as often as not pulsating with the cool music of the harpsichord, the frozen thoughts of a brain that had been dust for twice a hundred years. . Arthur C. Clarke
35
...a well-stocked mind is safe from boredom. Arthur C. Clarke
36
Let us say that you might have become a telepathic cancer, a malignant mentality which in its inevitable dissolution would have poisoned other and greater minds. Arthur C. Clarke
37
The person one loves never really exists, but is a projection focused through the lens of the mind onto whatever screen it fits with least distortion. Arthur C. Clarke
38
That requires as much power as a small radio transmitter--and rather similar skills to operate. For it's the application of the power, not its amount, that matters. How long do you think Hitler's career as a dictator of Germany would have lasted, if wherever he went a voice was talking quietly in his ear? Or if a steady musical note, loud enough to drown all other sounds and to prevent sleep, filled his brain night and day? Nothing brutal, you appreciate. Yet, in the final analysis, just as irresistible as a tritium bomb. . Arthur C. Clarke
39
There's no real objection to escapism, in the right places.. We all want to escape occasionally. But science fiction is often very far from escapism, in fact you might say that science fiction is escape into reality.. It's a fiction which does concern itself with real issues: the origin of man; our future. In fact I can't think of any form of literature which is more concerned with real issues, reality. Arthur C. Clarke
40
And yet, even while they baffled him, they aroused within his heart a feeling he had never known before. When- which was not often, but sometimes happened- they burst into tears of utter frustration or despair, their tiny disappointments seemed to him more tragic than Man’s long retreat after the loss of his Galactic Empire. That was something too huge and remote for comprehension, but the weeping of a child could pierce one to the heart. Alvin had met love in Diaspar, but now he was learning something equally precious, and without which love itself could never reach its highest fulfillment but must remain forever incomplete. He was learning tenderness. Arthur C. Clarke
41
I am an optimist. Anyone interested in the future has to be otherwise he would simply shoot himself. Arthur C. Clarke
42
One thing seems certain. Our galaxy is now in the brief springtime of its life–a springtime made glorious by such brilliant blue-white stars as Vega and Sirius, and, on a more humble scale, our own Sun. Not until all these have flamed through their incandescent youth, in a few fleeting billions of years, will the real history of the universe begin. It will be a history illuminated only by the reds and infrareds of dully glowing stars that would be almost invisible to our eyes; yet the sombre hues of that all-but-eternal universe may be full of colour and beauty to whatever strange beings have adapted to it. They will know that before them lie, not the millions of years in which we measure eras of geology, nor the billions of years which span the past lives of the stars, but years to be counted literally in the trillions. They will have time enough, in those endless aeons, to attempt all things, and to gather all knowledge. They will be like gods, because no gods imagined by our minds have ever possessed the powers they will command. But for all that, they may envy us, basking in the bright afterglow of creation; for we knew the universe when it was young. Arthur C. Clarke
43
Feeling extremely foolish, the acting representative of Homo sapiens watched his First Contact stride away across the Raman plain, totally indifferent to his presence. Arthur C. Clarke
44
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. Arthur C. Clarke
45
The Chairman glared across three hundred and eighty thousand kilometers of space at Conrad Taylor, who reluctantly subsided, like a volcano biding its time. Arthur C. Clarke
46
The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible Arthur C. Clarke
47
Three million years! The infinitely crowded panorama of written history, with its empires and its kings, its triumphs and its tragedies, covered barely one thousandth of this appalling span of time. Arthur C. Clarke
48
For the last century, almost all top political appointments [on the planet Earth] had been made by random computer selection from the pool of individuals who had the necessary qualifications. It had taken the human race several thousand years to realize that there were some jobs that should never be given to the people who volunteered for them, especially if they showed too much enthusiasm. As one shrewed political commentator had remarked: “We want a President who has to be carried screaming and kicking into the White House – but will then do the best job he possibly can, so that he’ll get time off for good behavior. Arthur C. Clarke
49
What is human memory?" Manning asked. He gazed at the air as he spoke, as if lecturing an invisible audience - as perhaps he was. "It certainly is not a passive recording mechanism, like a digital disc or a tape. It is more like a story-telling machine. Sensory information is broken down into shards of perception, which are broken down again to be stored as memory fragments. And at night, as the body rests, these fragments are brought out from storage, reassembled and replayed. Each run-through etches them deeper into the brain's neural structure. And each time a memory is rehearsed or recalled it is elaborated. We may add a little, lose a little, tinker with the logic, fill in sections that have faded, perhaps even conflate disparate events. "In extreme cases, we refer to this as confabulation. The brain creates and recreates the past, producing, in the end, a version of events that may bear little resemblance to what actually occurred. To first order, I believe it's true to say that everything I remember is false. Arthur C. Clarke
50
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."" Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying. Arthur C. Clarke
51
It is hard to draw any line between compassion and love. Arthur C. Clarke
52
There is a special sadness in achievement, in the knowledge that a long-desired goal has been attained at last, and that life must now be shaped towards new ends. Arthur C. Clarke
53
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. Arthur C. Clarke
54
In this universe the night was falling; the shadows were lengthening towards an east that would not know another dawn. But elsewhere the stars were still young and the light of morning lingered; and along the path he once had followed, Man would one day go again. Arthur C. Clarke
55
Those wanderers must have looked on Earth, circling safely in the narrow zone between fire and ice, and must have guessed that it was the favourite of the Sun's children. Arthur C. Clarke
56
..the happy hum of humanity. Arthur C. Clarke
57
Even more alarming were persistent rumors that someone had smuggled an Emotion Amplifier on board 'Mentor'. The so-called joy machines were banned on all planets, except under strict medical control; but there would always be people to whom reality was not good enough, and who would want to try something better. Arthur C. Clarke
58
Oh God, there were so many stars you could have used. What was the need to give these people to the fire, that the symbol of their passing might shine above Bethlehem? Arthur C. Clarke
59
Imagine that every man’s mind is an island, surrounded by ocean. Each seems isolated, yet in reality all are linked by the bedrock from which they spring. If the ocean were to vanish, that would be the end of the islands. They would all be part of one continent, but the individuality would have gone Arthur C. Clarke
60
Once, I believed that space couldhave no power over faith, just as I believed the heavens declared the glory of God’shandwork. Now I have seen that handwork, and my faith is sorely troubled. Arthur C. Clarke
61
Sometimes, during the lonely hours on the control deck, Bowman would listen to this radiation. He would turn up the gain until the room filled with a crackling, hissing roar; out of this background, at irregular intervals, emerged brief whistles and peeps like the cries of demented birds. It was an eerie sound, for it had nothing to do with Man; it was as lonely and meaningless as the murmur of waves on a beach, or the distant crash of thunder beyond the horizon. Arthur C. Clarke
62
(..)Through the ship's telescopes, he had watched the death of the solar system. With his own eyes, he had seen the volcanoes of Mars erupt for the first time in a billion years; Venus briefly naked as her atmosphere was blasted into space before she herself was consumed; the gas giants exploding into incandescent fireballs. But these were empty, meaningless spectacles compared with the tragedy of Earth.That, too, he had watched through the lenses of cameras that had survived a few minutes longer than the devoted men who had sacrificed the last moments of their lives to set them up. He had seen ... the Great Pyramid, glowing dully red before it slumped into a puddle of molten stone ... the floor of the Atlantic, baked rock-hard in seconds, before it was submerged again, by the lava gushing from the volcanoes of the Mid-ocean Rift... the Moon rising above the flaming forests of Brazil and now itself shining almost as brilliantly as had the Sun, on its last setting, only minutes before ... the continent of Antarctica emerging briefly after its long burial, as the kilometres of ancient ice were burned away ... the mighty central span of the Gibraltar Bridge, melting even as it slumped downward through the burning air ..In that last century the Earth was haunted with ghosts - not of the dead, but of those who now could never be born. For five hundred years the birthrate had been held at a level that would reduce the human population to a few millions when the end finally came. Whole cities - even countries - had been deserted as mankind huddled together for History's closing act. Arthur C. Clarke
63
Just like the cosmonauts and their pee plants, all we have is each other. Arthur C. Clarke
64
Few artists thrive in solitude and nothing is more stimulating than the conflict of minds with similar interests. Arthur C. Clarke
65
And so Discovery drove on toward Saturn, as often as not pulsating with the cool music of the harpsichord, the frozen thoughts of a brain that had been dust for twice a hundred years. Arthur C. Clarke
66
Jan had always been a good pianist, and now he was the finest in the world. Arthur C. Clarke
67
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
68
But the characteristic that is truly special about our species...[is] our ability to model our world and understand both it and where we fit into its overall scheme.... Arthur C. Clarke
69
Now times had changed, and the inherited wisdom of the past had become folly. Arthur C. Clarke
70
As his body became more and more defenseless, so his means of offense became steadily more frightful. Arthur C. Clarke
71
Long ago the signalling had become no more than a meaningless ritual, now maintained by an animal which had forgotten to learn and a robot which had never known to forget. Arthur C. Clarke
72
It must be wonderful to be seventeen, and to know everything. Arthur C. Clarke
73
Though the man-apes often fought and wrestled one another, their disputes very seldom resulted in serious injuries. Having no claws or fighting canine teeth, and being well protected by hair, they could not inflict much harm on one another. In any event, they had little surplus energy for such unproductive behavior; snarling and threatening was a much more efficient way of asserting their points of view. Arthur C. Clarke
74
He had sometimes wondered if the real reason why men sought danger was that only thus could they find the companionship and solidarity which they unconsciously craved. Arthur C. Clarke
75
The confrontation lasted about five minutes; then the display died out as quickly as it had begun, and everyone drank his fill of the muddy water. Honor had been satisfied; each group had staked its claim to its own territory. Arthur C. Clarke
76
Western man had relearned-what the rest of the world had never forgotten-that there was nothing sinful in leisure as long as it did not degenerate into mere sloth. Arthur C. Clarke
77
Yes, it made sense, and was so absurdly simple that it would take a genius to think of it. And, perhaps, someone who did not expect to do it himself. Arthur C. Clarke
78
Men knew better than they realized, when they placed the abode of the gods beyond the reach of gravity. Arthur C. Clarke
79
After the struggle for sheer existence, they had no energy left for a civilization. Arthur C. Clarke
80
Michael O'Toole had no difficulty recognizing which questions in life should be answered by physics and which ones by religion. Arthur C. Clarke
81
…mysticism —perhaps the main aberration of the human mind. Arthur C. Clarke
82
In accordance with the terms of the Clarke-Asimov treaty, the second-bestscience writer dedicates this book to the second-best science-fictionwriter.[dedication to Isaac Asimov from Arthur C. Clarke in his book Report on Planet Three] Arthur C. Clarke
83
If man can live in Manhattan, he can live anywhere. Arthur C. Clarke
84
Excessive interest in pathological behavior was itself pathological Arthur C. Clarke
85
Many of the fundamental physical constants-which as far as one could see, God could have given any value He liked-are in fact very precised adjusted, or fine-tuned, to produce the only kind of Universe that makes our existence possible. Arthur C. Clarke
86
Never attribute to malevolence what is merely due to incompetence Arthur C. Clarke
87
The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible. Arthur C. Clarke
88
The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible. Arthur C. Clarke
89
Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not. In either case the idea is quite staggering. Arthur C. Clarke
90
Perhaps, as some wit remarked, the best proof that there is Intelligent Life in Outer Space is the fact it hasn't come here. Well, it can't hide forever - one day we will overhear it. Arthur C. Clarke
91
Reading computer manuals without the hardware is as frustrating as reading sex manuals without the software. Arthur C. Clarke
92
How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is quite clearly Ocean. Arthur C. Clarke
93
Human judges can show mercy. But against the laws of nature, there is no appeal. Arthur C. Clarke
94
If an elderly but distinguished scientist says that something is possible, he is almost certainly right; but if he says that it is impossible, he is very probably wrong. Arthur C. Clarke
95
This is the first age that's ever paid much attention to the future, which is a little ironic since we may not have one. Arthur C. Clarke
96
The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion. Arthur C. Clarke
97
I don't believe in God but I'm very interested in her. Arthur C. Clarke
98
New ideas pass through three periods: 1) It can't be done. 2) It probably can be done, but it's not worth doing. 3) I knew it was a good idea all along! Arthur C. Clarke
99
I have a fantasy where Ted Turner is elected President but refuses because he doesn't want to give up power. Arthur C. Clarke
100
It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God - but to create him. Arthur C. Clarke