Quotes from Stanis?aw Lem

I've no intention of trying to dissuade you. I'll only say one thing: in an inhuman situation you're trying to behave like a human being. That may be admirable, but it's also futile. Though in fact I'm not even sure it's admirable—I'm not sure something foolish can also be admired.

Allora ho capito che, qualunque cosa io faccia, sarà lo stesso; voglia o non voglia per te dev'essere una tortura. Forse qualcosa di peggio, poiché gli strumenti di tortura sono passivi e innocenti, come le pietre che possono cadere e ammazzare. Ma uno strumento di tortura che ti ama e che vuole il tuo bene... Veramente non posso immaginarmelo.

He who must be what he is, may curse his fate, but cannot change it; on the other hand, he who can transform himelf has no one in the world but himself to hold responsible for his dissatisfaction.

Nie ?a?uj, nigdy nie ?a?uj, ?e mog?e? co? zrobi? w ?yciu, a tego nie zrobi?e?. Nie zrobi?e?, bo nie mog?e?.

And Trurl began to catch atoms, peeling their electrons and mixing their protons with such nimble speed, that his fingers were a blur, and he stirred the subatomic dough, stuck all the electrons back in, then on to the next molecule.

Doy la bienvenida a nuestros invitados, los filósofos europeos, que desean obtener información de primera mano de por qué considero que no soy nadie, a pesar de estar usando el pronombre de la primera persona del singular.

The only way to deal with technology is with another technology. Man knows more about his dangerous tendencies than he did a hundred years ago, and in the next hundred years, his knowledge will be even more advanced. Then he will make use of it.

What is a poem then? [...] I see a poem as a multicolored strip behind peeling plaster, in separate shining segments. I try to connect hands and horizons, glances and the objects imprisoned in them. That's how it is in daylight. At night [...] poems are like spiriling curves that grow to completeness by themselves. The hardest thing is to hold onto them through waking into consciousness.

And perhaps Solaris is the cradle of your divine child, Snow went on, with a widening grin that increased the number of lines round his eyes. Solaris could be the first phase of the despairing God. Perhaps its intelligence will grow enormously. All the contents of our Solarist libraries could be just a record of his teething troubles…

That depends ... If I could hear your voice, I think I might be able to hold out.

retribution for the death of comrades who had perished because they were sent to that death…

Above the podium stood a decorated board showing the agenda for the day. The first item of business was the world urban crisis, the second—the ecology crisis, the third—the air pollution crisis, the fourth—the energy crisis, the fifth—the food crisis. Then adjournment.

And then, with a sound not heard but sensed, a tenuous string snapped within me and I, a she now, felt the rush of gender so violent, that her head spun and I shut my eyes. And as I stood thus, with eyes closed, words came to me from every side, for along with gender she had received language.

Just as it is impossible to predict with complete accuracy the path of a single electron, so too you cannot know with certainty the future behavior of a single potato. Thus far observations show that man has mashed potatoes millions of times, but it is not inconceivable that one time in a billion the situation could reverse itself, that a potato could mash a man.

To torture a man you have to know his pleasures.

Kris," Harey whispered even more softly than before. I felt rather than heard her coming noiselessly up to me, and I pretended I hadn't noticed. At that moment I wanted to be alone. I had to be alone. I still hadn't found strength inside myself. I'd reached no decision, no resolution. As I stared at the darkening sky, at the stars that were only a spectral shadow of terrestrial stars, I stood there motionless; in the emptiness that was gradually

quedasteis fascinados por el pensamiento, cuya cercanía era especialmente penetrante dado que poseía un carácter introspectivo, y a la vez misterioso porque era más difícil de atrapar que las estrellas mismas. Os imponía la sabiduría, mientras que el código era irreflexivo.

Reflexiona en lo que significa la muerte. Es una pérdida, trágica por irreversible. ¿A quién pierde el que muere? ¿A sí mismo? No, porque el muerto ha dejado de existir y quien no existe no puede perder nada. La muerte es asunto de los vivos: es la pérdida de un ser querido.

humanity is a hunchback who, in ignorance of the fact that it is possible not to be hunchbacked, for thousands of years has sought an indication of a Higher Necessity in his hump, because he will accept any theory but the one that says that his deformity is purely accidental

For truly, what computer has not asked whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous instructions?

I was still a prisoner in my nightmares, and every morning the play began again.

We have named all the stars and all the planets, even though they might already have had names of their own. What a nerve!

Am I responsible for my unconscious? No one else is, if not myself.

We think of ourselves as the Knights of the Holy Contact. This is another lie. We are only seeking Man. We have no need of other worlds. We need mirrors. We don't know what to do with other worlds. A single world, our own, suffices us; but we can't accept it for what it is.