Arthur C. Clarke Quotes

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

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

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

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.

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

The future is not to be forecast, but created.

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

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.

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!

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?

The difference between machines and human beings is that human beings can be reproduced by unskilled labour.

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

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

We have to abandon the idea that schooling is something restricted to youth. How can it be, in a world where half the things a man knows at 20 are no longer true at 40 - and half the things he knows at 40 hadn't been discovered when he was 20?

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

The more wonderful the means of communication, the more trivial, tawdry, or depressing its contents seemed to be.

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

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

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.

One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by religion. So now people assume that religion and morality have a necessary connection. But the basis of morality is really very simple and doesn't require religion at all.

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

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

Now I understand,” said the last man.

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

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