“I can never look now at the Milky Way without wondering from which of those banked clouds of stars the emissaries are coming. If you will pardon so commonplace a simile, we have broken the glass of the fire-alarm and have nothing to do but to wait.
I do not think we will have to wait for long”

— Arthur C. Clarke

"The Sentinel" (1948), originally titled "Sentinel of Eternity" this is the short story which later provided the fundamental ideas for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) written by Clarke and Stanley Kubrick. Full text in 10 Story Fantasy, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Spring 1951), p. 41 https://archive.org/details/10_Story_Fantasy_v01n01_1951-Spring_Tawrast-EXciter/page/n39. Two versions of the next to the last sentence have been widely published since at least 1951, the other being: "If you will pardon so commonplace a simile, we have set off the fire alarm and have nothing to do but to wait."
1940s

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 can never look now at the Milky Way without wondering from which of those banked clouds of stars the emissaries are c…" by Arthur C. Clarke?

Arthur C. Clarke 207

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

Related quotes

“I can never look now at the Milky Way without wondering from which of those banked clouds of stars the emissaries are coming.”

Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host

"The Sentinel" (1948), originally titled "Sentinel of Eternity" this is the short story which later provided the fundamental ideas for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) written by Clarke and Stanley Kubrick.
1940s
Context: I can never look now at the Milky Way without wondering from which of those banked clouds of stars the emissaries are coming. If you will pardon so commonplace a simile, we have set off the fire alarm and have nothing to do but to wait.
I do not think we will have to wait for long

“We can't always do what we think we have to do. So when there's nothing else you can do, you wait… No matter what… pressure… you might feel.”

Jeff Lindsay book Dearly Devoted Dexter

Source: Dearly Devoted Dexter

“We do not have to wait for the hereafter — it is now that we are one with Christ.”

Catherine Doherty (1896–1985) Religious order founder; Servant of God

Love One Another (audio cassette, 2002)

“I'll never be bothered if I don't have a hit because you look at the songs that are hits and they're none of my favourites. Just the fact that we do have fans waiting here, that's exciting enough.”

Bert McCracken (1982) American musician

Stephen Downie (May 20, 2005) "Second coming", The Courier-Mail, News Limited, p. 51.

“Me and all my friends
We're all misunderstood.
They say we stand for nothing and
There's no way we ever could.
Now we see everything that's going wrong
With the world and those who lead it.
We just feel like we don't have the means
To rise above and beat it.So we keep waiting,
Waiting on the world to change.
We keep on waiting,
Waiting on the world to change.
It's hard to beat the system
When we're standing at a distance.
So we keep waiting,
Waiting on the world to change.”

John Mayer (1977) guitarist and singer/songwriter

Waiting on the World to Change
Song lyrics, Continuum (2006)

“The hooks have got to come off and I can wait. They are nothing but sore fingers.”

Charles Frederick Webber (1825–1863) American soldier killed in action

Charles Frederick Webber interviewed at a field hospital following the Battle of Gettysburg. He was holding his hand, from which the ends of four fingers had been shot off. He was smoking his pipe with with no sense of urgency and was allowing more wounded soldiers to go ahead of him. He died on July 19, 1863, 13 days after the wound, from the subsequent infection.
Quote
Source: [The Wounded, New York Herald, https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/New_York_Herald/1863/The_Wounded, July 6 1863]

“We do not have time to wait for the enlightenment of our neighbors so that we can work together toward the development of Asia.”

Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835–1901) Japanese author, writer, teacher, translator, entrepreneur and journalist who founded Keio University

"Datsu-a-ron" [On departure from Asia], Jiji Shimpo (1885-03-16).
Context: Once the wind of Western civilization blows to the East, every blade of grass and every tree in the East follow what the Western wind brings... We do not have time to wait for the enlightenment of our neighbors so that we can work together toward the development of Asia. It is better for us to leave the ranks of Asian nations and cast our lot with civilized nations of the West... We should deal with them exactly as the Westerners do.