“The impulse patterns which carried creatures star to star were almost instantaneous, no matter what the distance.
He stood and thought about it and it still was hard, he admitted to himself, for a person to believe.”
Source: Way Station (1963), Ch. 12
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Clifford D. Simak 137
American writer, journalist 1904–1988Related quotes
“He judged the instant and let go; he flung himself loose into the stars.”
Source: The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (1877), IV
Context: They showed me their trees, and I could not understand the intense love with which they looked at them; it was as though they were talking with creatures like themselves. And perhaps I shall not be mistaken if I say that they conversed with them. Yes, they had found their language, and I am convinced that the trees understood them. They looked at all Nature like that — at the animals who lived in peace with them and did not attack them, but loved them, conquered by their love. They pointed to the stars and told me something about them which I could not understand, but I am convinced that they were somehow in touch with the stars, not only in thought, but by some living channel.
"Crucifixion" http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~trent/ochs/lyrics/crucifixion.html
Pleasures of the Harbor (1967)
Context: In the green fields a turnin', a baby is born
His cries crease the wind and mingle with the morn
An assault upon the order, the changing of the guard
Chosen for a challenge that is hopelessly hard
And the only single sound is the sighing of the stars
But to the silence and distance they are sworn.
“Tell him to seek the stars and he will kill himself with climbing.”
Source: The Roominghouse Madrigals: Early Selected Poems, 1946-1966
Attributed to Archytus by Christiaan Huygens, The Celestial Worlds Discover'd (1722) Book 1, pt.4 and quoted by Arthur Beer, Vistas in Astronomy (1955) Vol.1 https://ia600304.us.archive.org/35/items/VistasInAstronomy-Volume1/Beer-VistasInAstronomyVolume1.pdf
Source: Star Maker (1937), Chapter XV: The Maker and His Works; 2. Mature Creating (p. 179)
Pupils at Sais (1799)
Context: Over his own heart and his own thoughts he watched attentively. He knew not whither his longing was carrying him. As he grew up, he wandered far and wide; viewed other lands, other seas, new atmospheres, new rocks, unknown plants, animals, men; descended into caverns, saw how in courses and varying strata the edifice of the Earth was completed, and fashioned clay into strange figures of rocks. By and by, he came to find everywhere objects already known, but wonderfully mingled, united; and thus often extraordinary things came to shape in him. He soon became aware of combinations in all, of conjunctures, concurrences. Erelong, he no more saw anything alone. — In great variegated images, the perceptions of his senses crowded round him; he heard, saw, touched and thought at once. He rejoiced to bring strangers together. Now the stars were men, now men were stars, the stones animals, the clouds plants; he sported with powers and appearances; he knew where and how this and that was to be found, to be brought into action; and so himself struck over the strings, for tones and touches of his own.
