Arthur C. Clarke Science Quotations

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Human judges can show mercy. But against the laws of nature, there is no appeal.

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.

Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not. In either case the idea is quite staggering.

Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories.

Our lifetime may be the last that will be lived out in a technological society.

If an elderly but distinguished scientist says that something is possible, he is almost certainly right; but if he says that it is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

At the present rate of progress, it is almost impossible to imagine any technical feat that cannot be achieved - if it can be achieved at all - within the next few hundred years.

As our own species is in the process of proving, one cannot have superior science and inferior morals. The combination is unstable and self-destroying.

It will be possible in a few more years to build radio controlled rockets which can be steered into such orbits beyond the limits of the atmosphere and left to broadcast scientific information back to the Earth. A little later, manned rockets will be able to make similar flights with sufficient excess power to break the orbit and return to Earth. (1945) [Predicting communications satellites.]

Using material ferried up by rockets, it would be possible to construct a "space station" in ... orbit. The station could be provided with living quarters, laboratories and everything needed for the comfort of its crew, who would be relieved and provisioned by a regular rocket service. (1945)

Only small minds are impressed by large numbers.