Quotes from Arthur C. Clarke

well-stocked mind is safe from boredom.

The most trifling events can, in a mere moment of time, totally change the course of a man's life. And often it is not possible, even at the end, to decide whether the change was for better or for worse.

Vastitas Borealis

lounge-cum-dining-room

Beneath the palm trees Lora waited, watching the sea. Clyde's boat was already visible as a tiny notch on the far horizon

Beneath the palm trees Lora waited, watching the sea. Clyde's boat was already visible as a tiny notch on the far horizon—the only flaw in the perfect mating of sea and sky.

La Historia nunca se repite… pero las situaciones históricas vuelven a ocurrir.»

It's a shame that we humans are never able to pull in the same direction, Nicole said to herself. Not even when confronted by infinity.

Floyd sometimes wondered if the Newspad, and the fantastic technology behind it, was the last word in man's quest for perfect communications. Here he was, far out in space, speeding away from Earth at thousands of miles an hour, yet in a few milliseconds he could see the headlines of any newspaper he pleased. (That very word newspaper, of course, was an anachronistic hangover into the age of electronics.)

Greatness no longer matters. We see now that each human being who dies in the center of a universe: a unique spark of hope and despair, hate and love, going alone into the greater darkness.

the twilight zone

to understand the future, it was necessary to know the past.

Now it would obviously be absurd to press this analogy too far; it breaks down at many points. But I put it to you for this reason: What degree of co-operation or understanding would ever be possible between human beings and termites? When there is no conflict of interest, we tolerate each other. But when either needs the other's territory or resources, no quarter is given.

I am unable to distinguish clearly between your religious ceremonies and apparently identical behavior at the sporting and cultural functions you have transmitted to me. I refer you particularly to the Beatles, 1956;

The Defenestration of Ermintrude Inch First published in Tales from the White Hart An unusual story from the White Hart, in which Harry Purvis seemingly meets his match when his wife discovers the location of his 'quantum mechanics lectures'. It also chronicles the move from the 'White Hart' to the 'Sphere', matching the move from the White Horse to the Globe, following the landlord, Lew Mordecai.

No closed ecology can be one-hundred-per-cent efficient; there is always waste, loss—some degradation of the environment and build-up of pollutants. It may take billions of years to poison and wear out a planet, but it will happen in the end. The oceans will dry up; the atmosphere will leak away.

One of them was Moon-Watcher; once again he felt inquisitive tendrils creeping down the unused byways of his brain.

When the barriers were down at last, loneliness would vanish as personality faded.

Whatever godlike powers and principalaties lurked beyond the stars, Poole reminded himself, for ordinary humans only two things were important: Love and Death.

But they knew in their hearts that once science had declared a thing possible, there was no escape from its eventual realization… Childhood's End - Ch. 15

The time had not yet come when Man could leave his mark upon the Solar System.

The Great Bird will take its flight on the back of the great bird, bringing glory to the nest where it was born.

Someone once said that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

When his type vanished, if it ever did, the world would be a safer but less interesting place.