“I have great faith in optimism as a guiding principle, if only because it offers us the opportunity of creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

— Arthur C. Clarke

90th Birthday Reflections (2007)
Context: Communication technologies are necessary, but not sufficient, for us humans to get along with each other. This is why we still have many disputes and conflicts in the world. Technology tools help us to gather and disseminate information, but we also need qualities like tolerance and compassion to achieve greater understanding between peoples and nations.
I have great faith in optimism as a guiding principle, if only because it offers us the opportunity of creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. So I hope we've learnt something from the most barbaric century in history — the 20th. I would like to see us overcome our tribal divisions and begin to think and act as if we were one family. That would be real globalisation…

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I have great faith in optimism as a guiding principle, if only because it offers us the opportunity of creating a self-…" by Arthur C. Clarke?

Arthur C. Clarke photo

Arthur C. Clarke207

British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, u… 1917–2008

Related quotes

“Don’t turn the truth into a lie using self-fulfilling prophecies.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1996

“The visions we offer our children shape the future. It _matters_ what those visions are. Often they become self-fulfilling prophecies. Dreams are maps.”

Carl Sagan book Pale Blue Dot

Source: Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

“Lose the pessimism, Ms. Lane. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

Karen Marie Moning book Darkfever

Source: Darkfever

“Whatever we expect with confidence becomes our own self-fulfilling prophecy.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

“Civilisational triumph is important because if it is not actively sought, conflictual relations between members of geo-cultural domains may become a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

Nayef Al-Rodhan (1959) philosopher, neuroscientist, geostrategist, and author

Source: Sustainable History and the Dignity of Man (2009), p.219

“Humanity could live in peace - but it doesn't, because from the cradle we are taught to compete and fight, win, dominate and kill each other. These lessons and the world view behind them becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: a state of affairs is created where you have to compete, fight and kill.”

Yrjö Kallinen (1886–1976) Finnish politician

“Pessimism becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy; it reproduces itself by crippling our willingness to act.”

Howard Zinn (1922–2010) author and historian

Source: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times

“As I have heard Bush say, only a wartime president is likely to achieve greatness, in part because the epochal upheavals of war provide the opportunity for transformative change of the kind Bush hoped to achieve. In Iraq, Bush saw his opportunity to create a legacy of greatness.”

Scott McClellan book What Happened

Bush press secretary Scott McClellan, on Bush's need to be a wartime president to improve the chance of a "great" legacy, What Happened, pp. 131

“The mate of every prophecy is its fulfillment. God's Word finds its mate in fulfilled Bible prophecy, and the ones which have already occurred and been fulfilled, foretold hundreds of years in advance, have been fulfilled. Every prophecy the Bible has uttered has been fulfilled except the ones that are yet to come, and they'll be fulfilled just as surely as the ones that have been fulfilled in the past.”

David Berg (1919–1994) Children of God founder

A More Sure Word of Prophecy (2 Peter 1:19)

“It’s said that the biggest determinant of our lives is whether we see the world as welcoming or hostile. Each becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

Gloria Steinem (1934) American feminist and journalist

Source: My Life on the Road

Related topics