Arthur C. Clarke Quotes

I don't believe in astrology; I'm a Sagittarius and we're skeptical.

The only way to define your limits is by going beyond them.

One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by religion.

The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion.

Reading computer manuals without the hardware is as frustrating as reading sex manuals without the software.

In my life I have found two things of priceless worth - learning and loving. Nothing else - not fame, not power, not achievement for its own sake - can possible have the same lasting value. For when your life is over, if you can say 'I have learned' and 'I have loved,' you will also be able to say 'I have been happy.

The moon is the first milestone on the road to the stars.

I'm sure the universe is full of intelligent life. It's just been too intelligent to come here.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum.

Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.

Until we get rid of religion, we won't be able to conduct the search for God.

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.]

Using material ferried up by rockets, it would be possible to construct a "space station" in ... orbit. The station could be provided with living quarters, laboratories and everything needed for the comfort of its crew, who would be relieved and provisioned by a regular rocket service. (1945)

Isn't killing people in the name of God a pretty good definition of insanity?

Civilization will reach maturity only when it learns to value diversity of character and of ideas.

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]

I would defend the liberty of consenting adult creationists to practice whatever intellectual perversions they like in the privacy of their own homes; but it is also necessary to protect the young and innocent.

Before you become too entranced with gorgeous gadgets and mesmerizing video displays, let me remind you that information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, and wisdom is not foresight. Each grows out of the other, and we need them all.

The object of teaching a child is to enable the child to get along without the teacher. We need to educate our children for their future, not our past.

As our own species is in the process of proving, one cannot have superior science and inferior morals. The combination is unstable and self-destroying.

What we need is a machine that will let us see the other guy's point of view.

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.

The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible.

We stand now at the turning point between two eras. Behind us is a past to which we can never return...

The goal of the future is full unemployment, so we can play. That's why we have to destroy the present politico-economic system.

I don't pretend we have all the answers. But the questions are certainly worth thinking about.

New ideas pass through three periods: 1) It can't be done. 2) It probably can be done, but it's not worth doing. 3) I knew it was a good idea all along!

When you finally understand the universe, it will not only be stranger than you imagine, it will be stranger than you can imagine.

Religion is a by-product of fear. For much of human history it may have been a necessary evil, but why was it more evil than necessary? Isn’t killing people in the name of god a pretty good definition of insanity?

How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is quite clearly Ocean.

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.

You can't have it both ways. You can't have both free will and a benevolent higher power who protects you from yourself.

But please remember: this is only a work of fiction. The truth, as always, will be far stranger.

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.

It is vital to remember that information - in the sense of raw data - is not knowledge, that knowledge is not wisdom, and that wisdom is not foresight. But information is the first essential step to all of these.

The best measure of a man's honesty isn't his income tax return. It's the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.

It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value.

Invade me now, my ruthless friend, And make me cower in the dark. Remind me that I'm all alone And draw upon my face your mark. How is it that you capture me, When all my thoughts deny your force? Is it the reptile in my brain That lets your terror run its course? Baseless Fear undoes us all Despite our quest for lofty goals. We would-be Galahads don't die, Fear just freezes all our souls. It keeps us mute when feeling love, Reminding us what we might lose. And if by chance we meet success, Fear tells us which safe route to choose.

Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not. In either case the idea is quite staggering.

Science can destroy religion by ignoring it as well as by disproving its tenets. No one ever demonstrated, so far as I am aware, the nonexistence of Zeus or Thor, but they have few followers now.

A faith that cannot survive collision with the truth is not worth many regrets.

The universe must be full of voices, calling from star to star in a myriad tongues. One day we shall join that cosmic conversation.

Getting information from the internet is like getting a glass of water from the Niagara Falls.

My favorite definition of an intellectual: 'Someone who has been educated beyond his/her intelligence'.

When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong. Perhaps the adjective 'elderly' requires definition. In physics, mathematics, and astronautics it means over thirty; in the other disciplines, senile decay is sometimes postponed to the forties. There are, of course, glorious exceptions; but as every researcher just out of college knows, scientists of over fifty are good for nothing but board meetings, and should at all costs be kept out of the laboratory!

People go through four stages before any revolutionary development: 1. It's nonsense, don't waste my time. 2. It's interesting, but not important. 3. I always said it was a good idea. 4. I thought of it first.

Every revolutionary idea seems to evoke three stages of reaction. They may be summed up by the phrases: 1- It's completely impossible. 2- It's possible, but it's not worth doing. 3- I said it was a good idea all along.

Finally, I would like to assure my many Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, and Muslim friends that I am sincerely happy that the religion which Chance has given you has contributed to your peace of mind (and often, as Western medical science now reluctantly admits, to your physical well-being). Perhaps it is better to be un-sane and happy, than sane and un-happy. But it is the best of all to be sane and happy. Whether our descendants can achieve that goal will be the greatest challenge of the future. Indeed, it may well decide whether we have any future.

It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God - but to create him.