Quotes from book
The City and the Stars

The City and the Stars
Arthur C. Clarke

The City and the Stars is a science fiction novel by British writer Arthur C. Clarke, published in 1956. This novel is a complete rewrite of his earlier Against the Fall of Night, Clarke's first novel, which had been published in Startling Stories magazine in 1948 after John W. Campbell, Jr., editor of Astounding Science-Fiction, had rejected it, according to Clarke.

Arthur C. Clarke photo

“Khedron was content with the order of things as it was. True, he might upset that order from time to time—but only by a little. He was a critic, not a revolutionary. On the placidly flowing river of time, he wished only to make a few ripples; he shrank from diverting its course.”

Arthur C. Clarke book The City and the Stars

Source: The City and the Stars (1956), Chapter 7 (p. 44)

Arthur C. Clarke photo

“Somewhere back at the beginning I was chosen to be Jester, and there is only one Jester at a time in Diaspar. Most people think that is one too many.”

Arthur C. Clarke book The City and the Stars

Source: The City and the Stars (1956), Chapter 5 (p. 33)

Arthur C. Clarke photo

“After a while Hilvar did his best to steer the conversation away from these meaningless morasses of theology in order to concentrate on the ascertainable facts.”

Arthur C. Clarke book The City and the Stars

Source: The City and the Stars (1956), Chapter 13 (p. 100)

Arthur C. Clarke photo

“The fact was that he suffered from an incurable malady which, it seemed, attacked only Homo sapiens among all the intelligent races of the universe. That disease was religious mania.
Throughout the earlier part of its history, the human race had brought forth an endless succession of prophets, seers, messiahs, and evangelists who convinced themselves and their followers that to them alone were the secrets of the universe revealed. Some of them succeeded in establishing religions which survived for many generations and influenced billions of men; others were forgotten even before their deaths.
The rise of science, which with monotonous regularity refuted the cosmologies of the prophets and produced miracles which they could never match, eventually destroyed all these faiths. It did not destroy the awe, not the reverence and humility, which all intelligent beings felt as they contemplated the stupendous universe in which they found themselves. What it did weaken, and finally obliterate, were the countless religions, each of which claimed with unbelievable arrogance, that it was the sole repository of the truth and that its millions of rivals and predecessors were all mistaken.”

Arthur C. Clarke book The City and the Stars

Source: The City and the Stars (1956), Chapter 13 (p. 99)

Arthur C. Clarke photo

“He had discharged his destiny; now, perhaps, he could begin to live.”

Arthur C. Clarke book The City and the Stars

Source: The City and the Stars (1956), Chapter 25 (p. 187)

Arthur C. Clarke photo

“There was only one thing of which he could be certain now. Boredom would not be a serious problem for a considerable time to come.”

Arthur C. Clarke book The City and the Stars

Source: The City and the Stars (1956), Chapter 11 (pp. 77-78)

Arthur C. Clarke photo

“If the artist did not know his goal, even the most miraculous of tools could not find it for him.”

Arthur C. Clarke book The City and the Stars

Source: The City and the Stars (1956), Chapter 2 (p. 13)

Arthur C. Clarke photo

“It is not my duty as an historian to predict the future, only to observe and interpret the past. But its lesson is clear enough; we have lived too long out of contact with reality, and now the time has come to rebuild our lives.”

Arthur C. Clarke book The City and the Stars

Source: The City and the Stars (1956), Chapter 24 (p. 183)

Arthur C. Clarke photo

“There still remained, for all men to share, the linked worlds of love and art. Linked, because love without art is merely the slaking of desire, and art cannot be enjoyed unless it is approached with love.”

Arthur C. Clarke book The City and the Stars

Source: The City and the Stars (1956), Chapter 5 (p. 37)

Arthur C. Clarke photo

“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)

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