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Arthur C. Clarke Quotes - Page 11

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Finding intelligent life would encourage people and also of course the opportunity of learning a tremendous amount, but this is a danger. We might be so overwhelmed with knowledge and information, that we might be

Finding intelligent life would encourage people and also of course the opportunity of learning a tremendous amount, but this is a danger. We might be so overwhelmed with knowledge and information, that we might be depressed or even become suicidal - because what's the point if they're thousands of years ahead of us? Why should we bother? - or become the ultimate couch potatoes.

Arthur C. Clarke
Suicidal, Intelligent, Opportunity
Source: www.salon.com

In fact, one of the arguments for searching for intelligent life in space, elsewhere, is that we have no evidence that intelligence has any survival value. The most successful creatures on this planet are the cockroaches. They've been around, what is it, 100 million years or so and I suspect they'll still be there 100 million years in the future. Maybe intelligence is an evolutionary aberration which dooms its possessors in the way armor may have doomed some of the dinosaurs.

Arthur C. Clarke
Successful, Intelligent, Survival
Source: www.salon.com

I don't think there are any secrets to writing in the - everybody has their own techniques. You must be widely read, that's one thing, because you have to resolve a tremendous amount of background information. Also, you should know what the competition is writing, just so you're not wasting your time doing the same thing. Unless you do it better, of course.

Arthur C. Clarke
Writing, Thinking, Competition
Source: www.salon.com

The success of a science fiction writer is if he can write a good read.

Arthur C. Clarke
Writing, Science Fiction
Source: www.salon.com

Any smoothly functioning technology will have the appearance of magic.

Arthur C. Clarke
Technology, Magic, Theatre

The numbers of distinct human societies or nations, when our race is twice its present age, may be far greater than the total number of all the men who have ever lived up to the present time.

Arthur C. Clarke
Men, Race, Numbers
"We'll Never Conquer Space". Essay by Arthur C. Clarke first published in "Science Digest" (June 1960); later published in Arthur C. Clarke "Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible", 1962, in Arthur C. Clarke "Voices from the Sky", 1965, and in Arthur C. Clarke "Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds!: Collected Essays, 1934-1998", 1999.

'2001' was written in an age which now lies beyond one of the great divides in human history; we are sundered from it forever by the moment when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped out on to the Sea of Tranquility. Now history and fiction have become inexorably intertwined.

Arthur C. Clarke
Lying, Sea, Forever
"Writer Arthur C. Clarke Dies at 90" by Ravi Nessman in the "Associated Press", March 18, 2008.

I'm quite fond of the writer who told a beginning author, "If you've got a message, use Western Union."

Arthur C. Clarke
Western
Source: www.avclub.com

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.

Arthur C. Clarke
Lying, Ocean, Moving

As three laws were good enough for Newton, I have modestly decided to stop there.

Arthur C. Clarke
Science, Law, Three
Arthur C. Clarke (2013). “Profiles Of The Future”, p.18, Hachette UK

I'm sometimes asked how I would like to be remembered. I've had a diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer, space promoter and science populariser. Of all these, I want to be remembered most as a writer - one who entertained readers, and, hopefully, stretched their imagination as well.

Arthur C. Clarke
Careers, Space, Imagination
"Sir Arthur C. Clarke: 90th Birthday Reflections". Arthur C. Clarke's message delivered on his 90th birthday, www.youtube.com. 2007.

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.

Arthur C. Clarke
Dream, Stars, Inspiration
Arthur C. Clarke (1968). “the Promise of Space”

Our own grandchildren may demonstrate that-sometimes- Gigantic is Beautiful.

Arthur C. Clarke
Beautiful, Ambition, Grandchildren

Attempting to define science fiction is an undertaking almost as difficult, though not so popular, as trying to define pornography... In both pornography and SF, the problem lies in knowing exactly where to draw the line.

Arthur C. Clarke
Lying, Knowing, Trying

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