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There is no reason to assume that the universe has the slightest interest in intelligence—or even in life. Both may be random accidental by-products of its operations like the beautiful patterns on a butterfly's wings. The insect would fly just as well without them.

Arthur C. Clarke

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Arthur C. Clarke
Age: 90 †
Born: 1917
Born: December 16
Died: 2008
Died: March 19
Engineer
Explorer
Film Writer
Inventor
Novelist
Science Fiction Writer
Scientist
Screenwriter
Writer
Minehead
Somerset
Arthur Charles Clarke
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke
Charles Willis
Arthur Clarke
Wells
Wings
Insects
Without
Intelligence
Random
Well
Products
Butterfly
Even
Interest
Aliens
Would
Universe
Assume
Life
Beautiful
Operations
Insect
Like
May
Assuming
Accidental
Reason
Patterns
Slightest

More quotes by Arthur C. Clarke

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... chemistry is a trade for people without enough imagination to be physicists.
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No communication technology has ever disappeared, but instead becomes increasingly less important as the technological horizon widens.
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In accordance with the terms of the Clarke-Asimov treaty, the second-best science writer dedicates this book to the second-best science-fiction writer. [dedication to Isaac Asimov from Arthur C. Clarke in his book Report on Planet Three]
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What we need is a machine that will let us see the other guy's point of view.
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I'm sometimes asked how I would like to be remembered. I've had a diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer, space promoter and science populariser. Of all these, I want to be remembered most as a writer - one who entertained readers, and, hopefully, stretched their imagination as well.
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Whether we are based on carbon or on silicon makes no fundamental difference we should each be treated with appropriate respect.
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You don't believe in organized religion, yet a major theme in so many of your works seems to be a quest for God.
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Absolutely no religious rites of any kind, relating to any religious faith, should be associated with my funeral.
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The moment when one first meets a great work of art has an impact that can never again be recaptured.
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Only small minds are impressed by large numbers.
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Look, whispered Chuck, and George lifted his eyes to heaven. (There is always a last time for everything.) Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.
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What was more, they had taken the first step toward genuine friendship. They had exchanged vulnerabilities.
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The West needs to relearn what the rest of the world has never forgotten - that there is nothing sinful in leisure as long as it does not degenerate into mere sloth.
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We always thought the living Earth was a thing of beauty. It isn’t. Life has had to learn to defend itself against the planet’s random geological savagery.
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Don't mess up the environment until you're quite sure what you're doing.
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Until we get rid of religion, we won't be able to conduct the search for God.
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The intelligent minority of this world will mark 1 January 2001 as the real beginning of the 21st century and the Third Millennium.
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Human judges can show mercy. But against the laws of nature, there is no appeal.
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Floyd could imagine a dozen things that could go wrong it was little consolation that it was always the thirteenth that actually happened.
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The only real problem in life is what to do next.
Arthur C. Clarke