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I have great faith in optimism as a guiding principle, if only because it offers us the opportunity of creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

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
Principles
Faith
Guiding
Opportunity
Prophecy
Self
Fulfilling
Great
Optimism
Principle
Offers
Creating

More quotes by Arthur C. Clarke

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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.
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They had not yet attained the stupefying boredom of omnipotence their experiments did not always succeed.
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The Shuttle is to space flight what Lindbergh was to commercial aviation.
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Now I understand,” said the last man.
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A man who grows that much hair,' critics were fond of saying, 'must have a lot to hide.
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Please help keep the world clean: others may wish to use it. Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion with confidence. The only place success comes before work is a dictionary Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories.
Arthur C. Clarke
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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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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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One theory which can no longer be taken very seriously is that UFOs are interstellar spaceships.
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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.
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. . . Moon-Watcher felt the first faint twinges of a new and potent emotion. It was a vague and diffuse sense of envy--of dissatisfaction with his life. He had no idea of its cause, still less of its cure but discontent had come into his soul, and he had taken one small step toward humanity.
Arthur C. Clarke
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What was more, they had taken the first step toward genuine friendship. They had exchanged vulnerabilities.
Arthur C. Clarke
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We stand now at the turning point between two eras. Behind us is a past to which we can never return...
Arthur C. Clarke
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Guns are the crutches of the impotent.
Arthur C. Clarke
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There were some things that only time could cure. Evil men could be destroyed, but nothing could be done with good men who were deluded.
Arthur C. Clarke
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Moses Kaldor had always loved mountains they made him feel nearer to the God whose nonexistence he still sometimes resented.
Arthur C. Clarke
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The realisation that our small planet is only one of many worlds gives mankind the perspective it needs to realise sooner that our own world belongs to all its creatures.
Arthur C. Clarke
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The Earth would only have to move a few million kilometers sunward-or starward-for the delicate balance of climate to be destroyed. The Antarctic icecap would melt and flood all low-lying land or the oceans would freeze and the whole world would be locked in eternal winter. Just a nudge in either direction would be enough.
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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.
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In this universe the night was falling the shadows were lengthening towards an east that would not know another dawn. But elsewhere the stars were still young and the light of morning lingered and along the path he once had followed, Man would one day go again.
Arthur C. Clarke