Arthur C. Clarke Quotes

217 Sourced Quotes

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
Judge me by my deeds, though they are few, rather than my words, though they are many.

Arthur C. Clarke
The moment when one first meets a great work of art has an impact that can never again be recaptured.

Arthur C. Clarke
The menace of interplanetary imperialism can be overcome only by world-wide technical and political agreements well in advance of the actual event, and these will require continual pressure and guidance from the organizations which have studied the subject.

Arthur C. Clarke
When the first rocket lands on our satellite, the romantic writers will have lost the Moon, but it will be a small sacrifice, for the Universe will still remain as their playground.

Arthur C. Clarke
The signal vanished for agonizing seconds, then came back much clearer, though not appreciably louder... relay this information to Earth". Using my suit radio - no idea if it has enough range, but it's the only chance. Please listen carefully. THERE IS LIFE ON EUROPA. I repeat: "THERE IS LIFE ON EUROPA..."

Arthur C. Clarke
Interplanetary travel is now the only form of "conquest and empire" compatible with civilization. Without it, the human mind, compelled to circle forever in its planetary goldfish bowl, must eventually stagnate.

Arthur C. Clarke
Who can guess what strange roads there may yet be on which we may travel to the stars?

Arthur C. Clarke
Much blood has also been spilled on the carpet in attempts to distinguish between science fiction and fantasy. I have suggested an operational definition: 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.

Arthur C. Clarke
Deep beneath the surface of the Sun, enormous forces were gathering. At any moment, the energies of a million hydrogen bombs might burst forth in the awesome explosion.... Climbing at millions of miles per hour, an invisible fireball many times the size of Earth would leap from the Sun and head out across space.

Arthur C. Clarke
When beauty is universal, it loses its power to move the heart, and only its absence can produce any emotional effect.

Arthur C. Clarke
Nature never gives us something for nothing: in fact she usually takes more than she gives back.

Arthur C. Clarke
Scientists of over fifty are good for nothing except board meetings and should at all costs be kept out of the laboratory!

Arthur C. Clarke
Long before the Sun's radiation has shown any measurable increase, Man will have explored all the Solar System and, like a cautious bather testing the temperature of the sea, will be making breathless little forays into the abyss that separates him from the stars.

Arthur C. Clarke
No equation, however impressive and complex, can arrive at the truth if the initial assumptions are incorrect.

Arthur C. Clarke
Technology is almost magical, and ambition for a better life is now universal.

Arthur C. Clarke
Can the synthesis of man and machine ever be stable, or will the purely organic component become such a hindrance that it has to be discarded?

Arthur C. Clarke
Sooner or later we will come to the edge of the Solar System and will be looking out across the ultimate abyss. Then we must choose whether we reach the stars — or whether we wait until the stars reach us.

Arthur C. Clarke
In space there are no horizons; the questing eye reaches out forever, in all directions, and finds no fixed point at which to rest.

Arthur C. Clarke
I doubt if there is a single field of study so theoretical, so remote from what is laughingly called everyday life, that it may not one day produce something that will shake the world.

Arthur C. Clarke
Astronomy, as nothing else can do, teaches men humility.

Arthur C. Clarke
Given power and knowledge (wisdom is rather useful, too) nothing that does not infringe the laws of Nature need be regarded as impossible.

Arthur C. Clarke
Some facts are so incredible that they are believed at once, for no one could possibly have imagined them.

Arthur C. Clarke
The one fact about the future of which we can be certain is that it will be utterly fantastic.

Arthur C. Clarke
We will not exhaust the marvels of the physical Universe until we have explored the whole Cosmos - and that prospect is still, to say the least, satisfyingly remote, if indeed it is theoretically possible. We have scarcely begun a voyage of discovery which may never have an end.

Arthur C. Clarke
Look, whispered Chuck, and George lifted his eyes to heaven. (There is always a last time for everything.) Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.

Arthur C. Clarke
If ships from Earth ever set out to conquer other worlds they may find themselves, at the end of their journeys, in the position of painted war-canoes drawing slowly into New York Harbor.

Arthur C. Clarke
Like Great Britain, the Moon has no climate - only weather.

Arthur C. Clarke
Sorry to interrupt the festivities, but we have a problem.

Arthur C. Clarke
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