“I don't believe in flying saucers... The energy requirements of interstellar travel are so great that it is inconceivable to me that any creatures piloting their ships across the vast depths of space would do so only in order to play games with us over a period of decades.”
"On Flying Saucers" in Is Anyone There? (1967), pp. 215–216
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Isaac Asimov303
American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston Uni… 1920–1992Related quotes
Alan Moore (1953) English writer primarily known for his work in comic books
De Abaitua interview (1998)
Context: Mental space and its existence is what makes things like remote viewing possible. There shouldn’t be any limit to it. As I understand mental space, one of the differences between it and physical space, is that there is no space in it. All the distances are associative. In the real world, Land's End and John O’Groats are famously far apart. Yet you can’t say one without thinking of the other. In conceptual space they are right next to one another. Distances can only be associative, even vast interstellar distances shouldn’t be a problem. Time would also function like this.
Thomas More book Utopia
Source: Utopia (1516), Ch. 1 : Discourses of Raphael Hythloday, of the Best State of a Commonwealth
Context: The island of Utopia is in the middle two hundred miles broad, and holds almost at the same breadth over a great part of it, but it grows narrower towards both ends. Its figure is not unlike a crescent. Between its horns the sea comes in eleven miles broad, and spreads itself into a great bay, which is environed with land to the compass of about five hundred miles, and is well secured from winds. In this bay there is no great current; the whole coast is, as it were, one continued harbour, which gives all that live in the island great convenience for mutual commerce. But the entry into the bay, occasioned by rocks on the one hand and shallows on the other, is very dangerous. In the middle of it there is one single rock which appears above water, and may, therefore, easily be avoided; and on the top of it there is a tower, in which a garrison is kept; the other rocks lie under water, and are very dangerous. The channel is known only to the natives; so that if any stranger should enter into the bay without one of their pilots he would run great danger of shipwreck.
Prince (1958–2016) American pop, songwriter, musician and actor
Controversy
Song lyrics, Controversy (1981)
“Play the game, but don't believe in it.”
Ralph Ellison book Invisible Man
Source: Invisible Man (1952), Chapter 7.
“They flew like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water.”
Kenneth Arnold (1915–1984) American aviator and businessman
To East Oregonian reporter Bill Bequette at the airport at Pendleton on June 25, 1947, where Arnold was refueling his private plane. Bill Bequette and editor Nolan Skiff's front page story in the evening paper of the same day, titled Impossible! Maybe, But Seein’ Is Believin’, Says Flyer, started the modern UFO era. The EO ran front page follow-ups on June 27, 28 and 30. https://www.eastoregonian.com/news/local/the-sighting/article_1dc33f61-868d-5c36-b159-87c8465fb662.html
Dejan Stojanovic (1959) poet, writer, and businessman
Inner Space http://www.poetrysoup.com/famous/poem/21400/Inner_Space <br class="br">From the poems written in English
Sarah Silverman (1970) American comedian and actress
Interview with boyfriend Jimmy Kimmel for Esquire magazine (January 2007)
John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America
1961, Speech to Special Joint Session of Congress
Context: I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. We propose to accelerate the development of the appropriate lunar space craft. We propose to develop alternate liquid and solid fuel boosters, much larger than any now being developed, until certain which is superior. We propose additional funds for other engine development and for unmanned explorations — explorations which are particularly important for one purpose which this nation will never overlook: the survival of the man who first makes this daring flight. But in a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon — if we make this judgment affirmatively, it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.