Quote

In this single galaxy of ours there are eighty-seven thousand million suns. [...] In challenging it, you would be like ants attempting to label and classify all the grains of sand in all the deserts of the world. [...] It is a bitter thought, but you must face it. The planets you may one day possess. But the stars are not for man.

Arthur C. Clarke

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Must
Single
Sand
Galaxy
Would
Challenges
Desert
Eighty
Men
Millions
Bitter
Attempting
Like
Stars
Million
Label
Classify
World
Face
Seven
Challenging
Grains
Faces
Planets
Grain
Suns
Thought
Sun
Possess
Deserts
May
Thousand
Labels
Ants

More quotes by Arthur C. Clarke

Image
God said, 'Cancel Program GENESIS.' The universe ceased to exist.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
Belief in God is apparently a psychological artifact of mammalian reproduction.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
Those wanderers must have looked on Earth, circling safely in the narrow zone between fire and ice, and must have guessed that it was the favourite of the Sun's children.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
If man survives for as long as the least successful of the dinosaurs-those creatures whom we often deride as nature's failures-then we may be certain of this: for all but a vanishingly brief instant near the dawn of history, the word 'ship' will mean- 'spaceship.'
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
I'm sure we would not have had men on the Moon if it had not been for Wells and Verne and the people who write about this and made people think about it. I'm rather proud of the fact that I know several astronauts who became astronauts through reading my books.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
I sometimes think that the universe is a machine designed for the perpetual astonishment of astronomers.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
We stand now at the turning point between two eras. Behind us is a past to which we can never return... The coming of the rocket brought to an end a million years of isolation... the childhood of our race was over and history as we know it began.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
There is the possibility that humankind can outgrow its infantile tendencies, as I suggested in 'Childhood's End.' But it is amazing how childishly gullible humans are.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
The Shuttle is to space flight what Lindbergh was to commercial aviation.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
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.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
Now I understand,” said the last man.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
One of the biggest roles of science fiction is to prepare people to accept the future without pain and to encourage a flexibility of the mind. Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
My objection to organized religion is the premature conclusion to ultimate truth that it represents.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
I think in the long run the money that s been put into the space program is one of the best investments this country has ever made . . .This is a downpayment on the future of mankind. It's as simple as that.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
Science is the only religion of mankind.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
Judge me by my deeds, though they are few, rather than my words, though they are many.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
It may be that the old astrologers had the truth exactly reversed, when they believed that the stars controlled the destinies of men. The time may come when men control the destinies of stars.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
Every revolutionary idea seems to evoke three stages of reaction. They may be summed up by the phrases: 1- It's completely impossible. 2- It's possible, but it's not worth doing. 3- I said it was a good idea all along.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
When the Sun shrinks to a dull red dwarf, it will not be dying. It will just be starting to live and everything that has gone before will merely be a prelude to its real history.
Arthur C. Clarke