Quotessence
Home / Authors / Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke

Arthur C. Clarke Quotes

Film writer

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenSpaceScienceMayIfsUniverseScience FictionWorldEarthLongMindTechnologyThinkingStarsWellsHas BeensKnowsPeopleReligionStills

Famous Arthur C. Clarke Quotes

“You will find men like him in all of the world's religions. They know that we represent reason and science, and, however confident they may be in their beliefs, they fear that we will overthrow their gods. Not necessarily through any deliberate act, but in a subtler fashion. Science can destroy a religion by ignoring it as well as by disproving its tenets. No one ever demonstrated, so far as I am aware, the nonexistance of Zeus or Thor, but they have few followers now.”

KnowsMenWorldWellsMayReasonReligionBeliefFashionFollowersDeliberateFind MeZeus
Book:Childhood’s End
Create image

“I also believe - and hope - that politics and economics will cease to be as important in the future as they have been in the past; the time will come when most of our present controversies on these matters will seem as trivial, or as meaningless, as the theological debates in which the keenest minds of the Middle Ages dissipated their energies. Politics and economics are concerned with power and wealth, neither of which should be the primary, still less the exclusive, concern of full-grown men.”

MenShouldMindBelieveHas BeensStillsImportantMatterSeemsAgePastEnergyWealthMiddleConcernConcernedEconomicsDebateCeasePrimariesMeaninglessControversyExclusiveMiddle AgesTheologicalGrown ManPolitics And Economics
Author:Arthur C. Clarke
Create image

“Though the man-apes often fought and wrestled one another, their disputes very seldom resulted in serious injuries. Having no claws or fighting canine teeth, and being well protected by hair, they could not inflict much harm on one another. In any event, they had little surplus energy for such unproductive behavior; snarling and threatening was a much more efficient way of asserting their points of view.”

MenWayWellsLittlesFightingEnergyViewsEventsSeriousHairBehaviorHarmPoint Of ViewTeethInjuryEfficientProtectedThreateningDisputesApesClawsSurplusCanineUnproductiveSnarling
Book:2001: A Space Odyssey
Create image

“One can imagine a time when men who still inhabit organic bodies are regarded with pity by those who have passed on to an infinitely richer mode of existence, capable of throwing their consciousness or sphere of attention instantaneously to any point on land, sea, or sky where there is a suitable sensing organ. In adolescence we leave childhood behind; one day there may be a second and more portentous adolescence, when we bid farewell to the flesh.”

MenMayStillsBodyBehindsExistenceAttentionConsciousnessImagineSeaSkyLandChildhoodOne DayCapableFleshPityThrowingSpheresOrgansAdolescenceFarewellSuitableSensing
Book:Profiles Of The Future
Create image

“Some dangers are so spectacular and so much beyond normal experience that the mind refuses to accept them as real, and watches the approach of doom without any sense of apprehension. The man who looks at the onrushing tidal wave, the descending avalanche, or the spinning funnel of the tornado, yet makes no attempt to flee, is not necessarily paralyzed with fright or resigned to an unavoidable fate. He may simply be unable to believe that the message of his eyes concerns him personally. It is all happening to somebody else.”

MenMindBelieveLooksMayRealEyeFearAcceptingWatchesFateDangerNormalApproachMessagesHappeningsConcernWaveRefuseHis EyesDoomSpectacularSpinningApprehensionFrightParalyzedResignedDescendingTornadoesAvalanchesTidal Waves
Author:Arthur C. Clarke
Create image

“No utopia can ever give satisfaction to everyone, all the time. As their material conditions improve, men raise their sights and become discontented with power and possessions that once would have seemed beyond their wildest dreams. And even when the external world has granted all it can, there still remain the searchings of the mind and the longings of the heart.”

MenWorldGivingMindHeartStillsDreamConditionsMaterialsSightRaisesLongingSatisfactionPossessionGrantedUtopiaWildest Dreams
Book:Childhood’s End
Create image

“There's no real objection to escapism, in the right places... We all want to escape occasionally. But science fiction is often very far from escapism, in fact you might say that science fiction is escape into reality... It's a fiction which does concern itself with real issues: the origin of man; our future. In fact I can't think of any form of literature which is more concerned with real issues, reality.”

ThinkingMenWantDoeI CanRealFactsRealityMightFormLiteratureFictionIssuesConcernConcernedScience FictionOur FutureRight PlaceEscapismObjectionsOrigin Of Man
Author:Arthur C. Clarke
Create image

“A wise man once said that all human activity is a form of play. And the highest form of play is the search for Truth, Beauty and Love. What more is needed? Should there be a ‘meaning’ as well, that will be a bonus? If we waste time looking for life’s meaning, we may have no time to live — or to play.”

IfsMenShouldHumansWellsMaySaidPlayFormWiseNeededActivityWasteHighestAnd LoveWasting TimeWise Man Once SaidBonusHuman ActivitySearch For TruthBeauty And Love
Author:Arthur C. Clarke
Create image

“In this single galaxy of ours there are eighty-seven thousand million suns. [...] In challenging it, you would be like ants attempting to label and classify all the grains of sand in all the deserts of the world. [...] It is a bitter thought, but you must face it. The planets you may one day possess. But the stars are not for man.”

MenWorldMayWould BeFacesStarsChallengesMillionsSunPlanetsOne DayThousandSevenBitterLabelsDesertSandGrainGalaxyAttemptingEightyAntsGrains Of Sand
Author:Arthur C. Clarke
Create image