Quote

A single test which proves some piece of theory wrong is more valuable than a hundred tests showing that idea might be true.

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
Ideas
Prove
Might
Hundred
Theory
Proves
Pieces
Showing
Single
Test
Wrong
Tests
Idea
Valuable
True
Piece

More quotes by Arthur C. Clarke

Image
'2001' was written in an age which now lies beyond one of the great divides in human history we are sundered from it forever by the moment when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped out on to the Sea of Tranquility. Now history and fiction have become inexorably intertwined.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
Whether we are based on carbon or on silicon makes no fundamental difference we should each be treated with appropriate respect.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
A man who grows that much hair,' critics were fond of saying, 'must have a lot to hide.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
The numbers of distinct human societies or nations, when our race is twice its present age, may be far greater than the total number of all the men who have ever lived up to the present time.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
All human plans [are] subject to ruthless revision by Nature, or Fate, or whatever one preferred to call the powers behind the Universe.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
The crossing of space ... may do much to turn men's minds outwards and away from their present tribal squabbles. In this sense, the rocket, far from being one of the destroyers of civilisation, may provide the safety-value that is needed to preserve it.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
Before the current decade ends, fee-paying passengers will be experiencing suborbital flights aboard privately funded vehicles. . . . It won't be too long before bright young men and women set their eyes on careers in Earth orbit and say: I want to work 200 kilometers from home-straight up!
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
God said, 'Cancel Program GENESIS.' The universe ceased to exist.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
Deep beneath the surface of the Sun, enormous forces were gathering. At any moment, the energies of a million hydrogen bombs might burst forth in the awesome explosion.... Climbing at millions of miles per hour, an invisible fireball many times the size of Earth would leap from the Sun and head out across space.
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
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
But he knew well enough that any man in the right circumstances could be dehumanised by panic.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
Once you can reproduce a phenomenon, you are well on the way to understanding it.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
The only way to define your limits is by going beyond them.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
Open the pod bay doors, Hal.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
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.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
The goal of the future is full unemployment, so we can play. That's why we have to destroy the present politico-economic system.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
Utopia was here at last: its novelty had not yet been assailed by the supreme enemy of a ll Utopias - boredom.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
I sometimes think that the universe is a machine designed for the perpetual astonishment of astronomers.
Arthur C. Clarke
Image
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