I
n celebration of Sir Arthur C. Clarke’s birthday on the 16th of December, I’ve been rereading some of his books, almost after a gap of eight years. Something that struck me is, apart from having been a downright brilliant storyteller, Sir Arthur had the ability to chisel out perfectly concise, crisp, witty, and yet profound quotes, and he tended to sprinkle them through his writings, for readers to discover and get ecstatic over. Here are a few of my favorite quotes by Sir Arthur C Clarke:
“Before you become too entranced with gorgeous gadgets and mesmerizing video displays, let me remind you that information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, and wisdom is not foresight. Each grows out of the other, and we need them all.”
“Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.”
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
“How inappropriate to call this planet “Earth,” when it is clearly “Ocean.”
“My favorite definition of an intellectual: ‘Someone who has been educated beyond his/her intelligence’.”
“It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value.”
“The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.”
“There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum.“
“Perhaps, as some wit remarked, the best proof that there is Intelligent Life in Outer Space is the fact it hasn’t come here. Well, it can’t hide forever – one day we will overhear it. “
Do you have any favorite quotes from Sir Arthur C Clarke? Did you like any of the ones I have chosen? Please do share in the comments.
And if you like this post, you may also like Sixteen Favorite Quotes by Gabriel García Márquez.
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Great post!
I love the the works of Clarke and have been reading since I was in my teens. He really was a visionary and to some extent these quotes reflect that. I recently reread “Childhood’s End” and was very, very impressed.
I don’t think I’ve ever read any of Clarke’s work before. These quotes are fantastic. Great post.
I used to work with Arthur C Clarke as his research assistant for over 20 years, from 1987 to 2008. See my recent essay:
In Search of Arthur Clarkeisms…
http://collidecolumn.wordpress.com/2012/12/15/when-worlds-collide-46-in-search-of-arthur-clarkeisms/