Sir Arthur C Clarke

Arthur C Clarke
Quotes

Photo Credit: Shahidul Alam/Drik

Arthur C Clarke liked to play with the English language. As a writer, he used everyday words and non-technical language to explain complex ideas. As a thinker, he often took the ‘big picture’ view of life and the cosmos.

He had a knack for expressing original ideas or summing up heated debates in a handful of words. His legacy thus includes not only the 100 books and over 1,000 short stories and essays he wrote, but also the rich collection of quotes, slogans, coined phrases — and a few original jokes.

Here are a few online sources for Arthur C Clarke quotes.

“ I can never look now at the Milky Way without wondering from which of those banked clouds of stars the emissaries are coming. If you will pardon so commonplace a simile, we have set off the fire alarm and have nothing to do but to wait. I do not think we will have to wait for long. ”

– Arthur C Clarke

“ My favourite definition of an intellectual: ‘Someone who has been educated beyond his/her intelligence. ”

– Arthur C Clarke

“ I don’t believe in astrology. I’m a Sagittarius and we’re skeptical. ”

– Arthur C Clarke

“ There is no reason to assume that the universe has the slightest interest in intelligence—or even in life. Both may be random accidental by-products of its operations like the beautiful patterns on a butterfly’s wings. The insect would fly just as well without them. ”

– Arthur C Clarke

“ This is the first age that’s ever paid much attention to the future, which is a little ironic since we may not have one. ”

– Arthur C Clarke

“ A hundred years ago, the electric telegraph made possible—indeed, inevitable—the United States of America. The communications satellite will make equally inevitable a United Nations of Earth; let us hope that the transition period will not be equally bloody. ”

– Arthur C Clarke

“ I can never look now at the Milky Way without wondering from which of those banked clouds of stars the emissaries are coming. If you will pardon so commonplace a simile, we have set off the fire alarm and have nothing to do but to wait. I do not think we will have to wait for long. ”

– Arthur C Clarke

“ My favourite definition of an intellectual: ‘Someone who has been educated beyond his/her intelligence. ”

– Arthur C Clarke

“ I don’t believe in astrology. I’m a Sagittarius and we’re skeptical. ”

– Arthur C Clarke

“ There is no reason to assume that the universe has the slightest interest in intelligence—or even in life. Both may be random accidental by-products of its operations like the beautiful patterns on a butterfly’s wings. The insect would fly just as well without them. ”

– Arthur C Clarke

“ This is the first age that’s ever paid much attention to the future, which is a little ironic since we may not have one. ”

– Arthur C Clarke

“ A hundred years ago, the electric telegraph made possible—indeed, inevitable—the United States of America. The communications satellite will make equally inevitable a United Nations of Earth; let us hope that the transition period will not be equally bloody. ”

– Arthur C Clarke