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Arthur C. Clarke

Arthur C. Clarke Quotes

Film writer

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Famous Arthur C. Clarke Quotes

“Space can be mapped and crossed and occupied without definable limit; but it can never be conquered. When our race has reached its ultimate achievements, and the stars themselves are scattered no more widely than the seed of Adam, even then we shall still be like ants crawling on the face of the Earth. The ants have covered the world, but have they conquered it - for what do their countless colonies know of it, or of each other?”

KnowsWorldStillsEarthFacesStarsSpaceRaceLimitsAchievementUltimateSeedsCoveredAdamAntsColonySpace TravelCrawling
Author:Arthur C. Clarke
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“The fact that we have not yet found the slightest evidence for life - much less intelligence - beyond this Earth does not surprise or disappoint me in the least. Our technology must still be laughably primitive, we may be like jungle savages listening for the throbbing of tom-toms while the ether around them carries more words per second than they could utter in a lifetime.”

MayDoeStillsFactsEarthFoundTechnologyListeningEvidenceSurpriseLifetimeCarrieTomsPrimitiveSavagesJungleDisappoint
Author:Arthur C. Clarke
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“There's a passage about 'rivers of molten rock that wound their way... until they cooled and lay like twisted dragon-shapes vomited from the tormented earth.' That's a perfect description: how did Tolkien know, a quarter century before anyone ever saw a picture of Io? Talk about Nature imitating Art.”

KnowsWayArtEarthPerfectSawsRocksCenturyShapesRiversLaysWoundsDescriptionDragonsPassagesQuartersTwistedImitatingIos
Book:2010: Odyssey Two
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“The Earth would only have to move a few million kilometers sunward-or starward-for the delicate balance of climate to be destroyed. The Antarctic icecap would melt and flood all low-lying land; or the oceans would freeze and the whole world would be locked in eternal winter. Just a nudge in either direction would be enough.”

WorldEnoughWholeWould BeEarthMovingScienceLyingMillionsLandBalanceOceanEternalLowsClimateWinterWhole WorldDestroyedDelicateLockedFloodFreezeNudge
Author:Arthur C. Clarke
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“A hundred years ago, the electric telegraph made possible-indeed, inevitable-the United States of America. The communications satellite will make equally inevitable a United Nations of Earth; let us hope that the transition period will not be equally bloody.”

YearsMadeStatesEarthAmericaPoliticsNationsUnitedUnited StatesCommunicationPeriodsHundredYears AgoInevitableTransitionElectricBloodyUnited States Of AmericaUnited NationsSatellitesTelegraph
Author:Arthur C. Clarke
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“It will be possible in a few more years to build radio controlled rockets which can be steered into such orbits beyond the limits of the atmosphere and left to broadcast scientific information back to the Earth. A little later, manned rockets will be able to make similar flights with sufficient excess power to break the orbit and return to Earth. (1945) [Predicting communications satellites.]”

YearsLittlesAbleEarthScienceLeftBreakInformationCommunicationReturnLimitsRadioFlightAtmosphereSufficientControlledExcessRocketsOrbitSatellitesPredicting
Author:Arthur C. Clarke
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“One orbit, with a radius of 42,000 kilometers, has a period of exactly 24 hours. A body in such an orbit, if its plane coincided with that of the Earth's equator, would revolve with the Earth and would thus be stationary above the same spot on the planet. It would remain fixed in the sky of a whole hemisphere ... [to] provide coverage to half the globe, and for a world service three would be required, though more could be readily utilized. (1945) [Predidicting geosynchronous communication satellites]”

IfsWorldWholeBodyWould BeEarthScienceThreeHoursHalfSkyPlanetsCommunicationPeriodsSpotsPlanesFixedGlobesCoverageOrbitSatellitesHemisphereStationaryRadiusEquator
Author:Arthur C. Clarke
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“Every age has its dreams, its symbols of romance. Past generations were moved by the graceful power of the great windjammers, by the distant whistle of locomotives pounding through the night, by the caravans leaving on the Golden Road to Samarkand, by quinqueremes of Nineveh from distant Ophir . . . Our grandchildren will likewise have their inspiration-among the equatorial stars. They will be able to look up at the night sky and watch the stately procession of the Ports of Earth-the strange new harbors where the ships of space make their planetfalls and their departures.”

LooksDreamInspirationAgeAbleEarthPastRomanceNightStarsSpaceWatchesGenerationsSkyStrangeFutureMovedLeavingShipsGoldenSymbolsLook UpPredictionsGrandchildrenHarborsPortDepartureNight SkyProcessionCaravansLocomotivesPast GenerationsSamarkand
Book:the Promise of Space
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“Mars is the next frontier, what the Wild West was, what America was 500 years ago. It's time to strike out anew....Mars is where the action is for the next thousand years....The characteristic of human nature, and perhaps our simian branch of the family, is curiosity and exploration. When we stop doing that, we won't be humans anymore. I've seen far more in my lifetime than I ever dreamed. Many of our problems on Earth can only be solved by space technology....The next step is in space. It's inevitable.”

YearsHumansProblemActionEarthAmericaNextSpaceStepsTechnologyHuman NatureThousandYears AgoLifetimeWestCuriosityStrikesInevitableCharacteristicsBranchesExplorationThousand YearsMarsFrontiersSpace ExplorationNext StepsWild West
Author:Arthur C. Clarke
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“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.”

MomentsMightEarthUniverseEnergyForceHoursSpaceMillionsSunSizeSurfaceMilesInvisibleEnormousBombsLeapClimbingGatheringExplosionsHydrogenBeneath The SurfaceHydrogen Bomb
Author:Arthur C. Clarke
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