Arthur C Clarke Quotes :
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
“The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.”
“I don’t pretend we have all the answers. But the questions are certainly worth thinking about.”
“How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is quite clearly Ocean.”
“I’m sure the universe is full of intelligent life. It’s just been too intelligent to come here.”
“Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.”
“The greatest tragedy in mankind’s entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion.”
“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.”
“The best measure of a man’s honesty isn’t his income tax return. It’s the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.”
“Science is the only religion of mankind.”
“Reading computer manuals without the hardware is as frustrating as reading sex manuals without the software.”
“A faith that cannot survive collision with the truth is not worth many regrets.”
“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!”
“The future isn’t what it used to be.”
“It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value.”
“The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible.”
“We have to abandon the idea that schooling is something restricted to youth. How can it be, in a world where half the things a man knows at 20 are no longer true at 40 — and half the things he knows at 40 hadn’t been discovered when he was 20?”
“A single test which proves some piece of new science wrong is more valuable than a hundred tests showing something to be true.”
“The only real problem in life is what to do next.”
“It is better to be wrong than to be vague.”
“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.”
“For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert.”
“Our lifetime may be the last that will be lived out in a technological society.”
“Human judges can show mercy. But against the laws of nature, there is no appeal.”
“Perhaps it is better to be un-sane and happy, than sane and un-happy. But it is the best of all to be sane and happy.”
“The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.”
“The difference between machines and human beings is that human beings can be reproduced by unskilled labor.”
“One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by religion.”
“We stand now at the turning point between two eras. Behind us is a past to which we can never return. The coming of the rocket brought to an end a million years of isolation. The childhood of our race was over and history as we know it began.”
“I have great faith in optimism as a guiding principle, if only because it offers us the opportunity of creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
“The goal of the future is full unemployment, so we can play. That’s why we have to destroy the present politico-economic system.”
“The greatest tragedy in mankind’s entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion.”
“If an elderly but distinguished scientist says that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. If he says that it is impossible, he is very probably wrong.”
“I’m sure the universe is full of intelligent life. It’s just been too intelligent to come here.”
“Civilization will reach maturity only when it learns to value diversity of character and of ideas.”
“There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum.”
“I don’t pretend we have all the answers. But the questions are certainly worth thinking about.”
“As the old saw says well: every end does not appear together with its beginning.”
“To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit.”
“We have to abandon the idea that schooling is something restricted to youth. How can it be in a world where half the things a man knows at 20 are no longer true at 40 and half the things he knows at 40 hadn’t been discovered when he was 20?”
“I have a fantasy where Ted Turner is elected President but refuses because he doesn’t want to give up power.”
“Utopia is a boring place. It lacks intellectual rigour.”
“The realisation that we are all essentially children of the stars is one of the great revelations of 20th-century science.”
“If there are any gods whose chief concern is man, they can’t be very important gods.”
“It is better to be wrong than to be vague.”
“Science demands patience.”
“The old guard dies, but it dies hard.”
“I’m very fond of the future.”
“One day, we will encounter an alien intelligence that has learned to live with its machines.”
“The moon is the first milestone on the road to the stars.”
“No utopia can ever give satisfaction to everyone, all the time.”
“The greatest danger to man is not the technology but the nature of man himself.”
“The best measure of a man’s honesty isn’t his income tax return. It’s the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.”
“Religion is the most malevolent of all mind viruses.”
“We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the universe. That makes us something very special.”
“Our lifetime may be the last that will be lived out in a technological society.”
“Faith is the most powerful force in the universe.”
“There is no reason that a well-managed microbe could not have been designed to dispose of nuclear waste.”
“Sometimes I think we’re alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we’re not. In either case, the idea is quite staggering.”
“I’m sure the universe is full of intelligent life. It’s just been too intelligent to come here.”
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