Arthur C. Clarke: Trending quotes (page 8)

“To obtain a mental picture of the distance to the nearest star, compared to the nearest planet, you must imagine a world in which the closest object to you is only five feet away — and there is nothing else to see until you have travelled a thousand miles.”

Arthur C. Clarke

We'll Never Conquer Space (1960)

World , Travel , Imagination , Star

“If I may be allowed just three wishes, they would be these.
Firstly, I would like to see some evidence of extra-terrestrial life. I have always believed that we are not alone in the universe. But we are still waiting for ETs to call us — or give us some kind of a sign. We have no way of guessing when this might happen — I hope sooner rather than later!
Secondly, I would like to see us kick our current addiction to oil, and adopt clean energy sources. … Climate change has now added a new sense of urgency. Our civilisation depends on energy, but we can't allow oil and coal to slowly bake our planet…
The third wish is one closer to home. I’ve been living in Sri Lanka for 50 years — and half that time, I’ve been a sad witness to the bitter conflict that divides my adopted country.
I dearly wish to see lasting peace established in Sri Lanka as soon as possible.”

Arthur C. Clarke

90th Birthday Reflections (2007)

Life , Sadness , Peace , Hope

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

Arthur C. Clarke book The Light of Other Days

Source: The Light of Other Days (2000), Chapter 5

Guy

“All explorers are seeking something they have lost. It is seldom that they find it, and more seldom still that the attainment brings them greater happiness than the quest.”

Arthur C. Clarke book The City and the Stars

Source: The City and the Stars (1956), Chapter 23 (pp. 174-175)

Happiness

“Yet now, as he roared across the night sky toward an unknown destiny, he found himself facing that bleak and ultimate question which so few men can answer to their satisfaction. What have I done with my life, he asked himself, that the world will be poorer if I leave it.”

Arthur C. Clarke book Glide Path

Glide Path (1963) Chapter 27
1960s

Life , Men , World , Question

“Our age is in many ways unique, full of events and phenomena that never occurred before and can never happen again. They distort our thinking, making us believe that what is true now will be true forever, though perhaps on a larger scale. Because we have annihilated distance on this planet, we imagine that we can do it once again. The facts are otherwise, and we see them more clearly if we forget the present and turn our minds towards the past.”

Arthur C. Clarke

1960s, We'll Never Conquer Space (1960)

Imagination , Forgetting , Past , Thinking

“We have abolished space here on the little Earth; we can never abolish the space that yawns between the stars. Once again, as in the days when Homer sang, we are face-to-face with immensity and must accept its grandeur and terror, its inspiring possibilities and its dreadful restraints.”

Arthur C. Clarke

1960s, We'll Never Conquer Space (1960)

Star

“He had wished to convince himself that Comarre was evil. Now he knew that it was not. There would always be, even in Utopia, some for whom the world had nothing to offer but sorrow and disillusion.”

Arthur C. Clarke

The Lion of Comarre, p. 151
2000s and posthumous publications, The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke (2001)

World , Evil

“News that is sufficiently bad somehow carries its own guarantee of truth. Only good reports need confirmation.”

Arthur C. Clarke book Breaking Strain

Breaking Strain, p. 170
2000s and posthumous publications, The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke (2001)

Truth , Bad luck

“A single neutron begins the chain-reaction that in an instant can destroy a million lives and the toil of generations. Equally insignificant and unimportant are the trigger-events which can sometimes change a man’s course of action and so alter the whole pattern of his future.”

Arthur C. Clarke book Breaking Strain

Breaking Strain, p. 181
2000s and posthumous publications, The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke (2001)

Future , Change

“Now there are some forms of apparel that may be worn or discarded as the fancy pleases with no other ill effects than a possible loss of social prestige. But spacesuits are not among them.”

Arthur C. Clarke book Breaking Strain

Breaking Strain, p. 184
2000s and posthumous publications, The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke (2001)

Loss

“The extremists in his movement had discredited themselves thoroughly, and it would be a long time before the world heard of them again.”

Arthur C. Clarke

Guardian Angel, p. 220
2000s and posthumous publications, The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke (2001)

World , Time

“The future is built on the rubble of the past; wisdom lies in facing that fact, not in fighting against it.”