Arthur C. Clarke Quotes

He had discharged his destiny; now, perhaps, he could begin to live.

The fact was that he suffered from an incurable malady which, it seemed, attacked only Homo sapiens among all the intelligent races of the universe. That disease was religious mania. Throughout the earlier part of its history, the human race had brought forth an endless succession of prophets, seers, messiahs, and evangelists who convinced themselves and their followers that to them alone were the secrets of the universe revealed. Some of them succeeded in establishing religions which survived for many generations and influenced billions of men; others were forgotten even before their deaths. The rise of science, which with monotonous regularity refuted the cosmologies of the prophets and produced miracles which they could never match, eventually destroyed all these faiths. It did not destroy the awe, not the reverence and humility, which all intelligent beings felt as they contemplated the stupendous universe in which they found themselves. What it did weaken, and finally obliterate, were the countless religions, each of which claimed with unbelievable arrogance, that it was the sole repository of the truth and that its millions of rivals and predecessors were all mistaken.

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.

An author should never turn down the opportunity for a new experience

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.

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.

“My system saves lives!”
Crane sighed and took a long pull from his bottle. “Few would consider that a compelling argument, doctor. Saving money is more to peoples tastes.”

All the religiosity around worries me—doesn’t it you?

What was the use of wealth and power unless they could be used to shape one’s dreams?

Problems seldom go away if they’re ignored.

Atheism is unprovable, so uninteresting. However unlikely it is, we can never be certain that God once existed — and has now shot off to infinity, where no one can ever find him… Like Gautama Buddha, I take no position on this subject.

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

Faith in one’s own destiny was among the most valuable of the gifts which the gods could bestow upon a man,

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’m giving you an order, lady.”
“You’ve probably seen how well I respond to orders,” she said. “Look, you may as well save your breath.”