Stanisław Lem - Human Quotes

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It is not good for a man to be too cognizant of his physical and spiritual mechanisms. Complete knowledge reveals limits to human possibilities, and the less a man is by nature limited in his purposes, the less he can tolerate limits.

Stanisław Lem

Oh, I read good books, too, but only Earthside. Why that is, I don't really know. Never stopped to analyze it. Good books tell the truth, even when they're about things that never have been and never will be. They're truthful in a different way. When they talk about outer space, they make you feel the silence, so unlike the Earthly kind — and the lifelessness. Whatever the adventures, the message is always the same: humans will never feel at home out there.

Stanisław Lem

That human existence should repeat itself, well and good, but that it should repeat itself like a hackneyed tune, or a record a drunkard keeps playing as he feeds coins into the jukebox...

Stanisław Lem

Of the two powers, the two categories that take possession of us when we enter the world, space is by far the less mysterious.... Space is, after all, solid, monolithic.... Time, on the other hand, is a hostile element, truly treacherous, I would say even against human nature.

Stanisław Lem