Zitate von Arthur C. Clarke

„Ich bin sicher, das Universum ist voll von intelligentem Leben. Es war einfach zu intelligent, um hierher zu kommen.“

—  Arthur C. Clarke

„Kommunikationstechnologien sind notwendig, aber nicht ausreichend, damit wir Menschen miteinander auskommen können.“

—  Arthur C. Clarke

„Clarkes zweites Gesetz: Die einzige Möglichkeit, die Grenzen des Möglichen zu entdecken, besteht darin, sich ein Stück weit an ihnen vorbei ins Unmögliche zu wagen.“

—  Arthur C. Clarke

„Ich möchte, dass wir unsere Stammesunterschiede überwinden und anfangen, so zu denken und zu handeln, als wären wir eine Familie. Das wäre echte Globalisierung…“

—  Arthur C. Clarke

„Magie ist nur eine Wissenschaft, die wir noch nicht verstehen.“

—  Arthur C. Clarke

„Es muss wunderbar sein, siebzehn zu sein und alles zu wissen.“

—  Arthur C. Clarke

„Clarkes Drittes Gesetz: Jede hinreichend fortgeschrittene Technologie ist von Magie nicht mehr zu unterscheiden.“

—  Arthur C. Clarke

„Einsteinian time dilation.“

—  Arthur C. Clarke

2010: Odyssey Two

„Ich möchte so früh wie möglich einen dauerhaften und bedeutungsvollen Frieden in Sri Lanka erreichen. Mir ist jedoch bewusst, dass Frieden nicht nur gewünscht werden kann. Es beinhaltet harte Arbeit, Mut und Ausdauer.“

—  Arthur C. Clarke

„Jede hinreichend fortgeschrittene Technologie ist von Magie nicht mehr zu unterscheiden.“

—  Arthur C. Clarke

Clarkes Drittes Gesetz aus Profiles of the Future - zitiert von Andreas Weber in: Biokapital. Die Versöhnung von Ökonomie, Natur und Menschlichkeit, Berlin Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 3827007925, Seite 57.
Original engl.: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Profiles of the future: an inquiry into the limits of the possible (revised edition 1973). Seite 36
Variante: Jede hinreichend fortschrittliche Technologie ist von Magie nicht zu unterscheiden

„I'm sure the universe is full of intelligent life. It's just been too intelligent to come here.“

—  Arthur C. Clarke

IRC discussion at Scifi.com (1 November 1996) http://web.archive.org/web/20021201214228/http://www.scifi.com/transcripts/aclarke.txt with Clarke and Gentry Lee
1990s

„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.“

—  Arthur C. Clarke

„In my time I’ve been very fortunate to see many of my dreams come true!“

—  Arthur C. Clarke

90th Birthday Reflections (2007)
Kontext: In my time I’ve been very fortunate to see many of my dreams come true! Growing up in the 1920s and 1930s, I never expected to see so much happen in the span of a few decades. We "space cadets" of the British Interplanetary Society spent all our spare time discussing space travel — but we didn’t imagine that it lay in our own near future… I still can't quite believe that we've just marked the 50th anniversary of the Space Age! We’ve accomplished a great deal in that time, but the "Golden Age of Space" is only just beginning. Over the next 50 years, thousands of people will travel to Earth orbit — and then, to the Moon and beyond. Space travel — and space tourism — will one day become almost as commonplace as flying to exotic destinations on our own planet.

„Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.“

—  Arthur C. Clarke

As quoted in Visions : How Science Will Revolutionize the Twenty-First Century (1999) by Michio Kaku, p. 295
2000s and attributed from posthumous publications

„Clarke's Second Law: The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.“

—  Arthur C. Clarke

"Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination" in Profiles of the Future (1962)

„Clarke's Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.“

—  Arthur C. Clarke

Profiles of the Future (revised edition, 1973)
Quelle: Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry Into the Limits of the Possible

„I want to be remembered most as a writer — one who entertained readers, and, hopefully, stretched their imagination as well.“

—  Arthur C. Clarke

90th Birthday Reflections (2007)
Kontext: I'm sometimes asked how I would like to be remembered. I've had a diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer, space promoter and science populariser. Of all these, I want to be remembered most as a writer — one who entertained readers, and, hopefully, stretched their imagination as well.

„The best efforts of human scientists in this direction seemed comparable to those of Stone Age men trying to break through the armour of a bank vault with flint axes.“

—  Arthur C. Clarke

2010: Odyssey Two (1982), Ch. 43: Thought Experiment
1980s
Kontext: Plans for the final assault on Big Brother had already been worked out and agreed upon with Mission Control. Leonov would move in slowly, probing at all frequencies, and with steadily increasing power — constantly reporting back to Earth at every moment. When final contact was made, they would try to secure samples by drilling or laser spectroscopy; no one really expected these endeavours to succeed, as even after a decade of study TMA-1 resisted all attempts to analyse its material. The best efforts of human scientists in this direction seemed comparable to those of Stone Age men trying to break through the armour of a bank vault with flint axes.

„I can never look now at the Milky Way without wondering from which of those banked clouds of stars the emissaries are coming.“

—  Arthur C. Clarke

"The Sentinel" (1948), originally titled "Sentinel of Eternity" this is the short story which later provided the fundamental ideas for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) written by Clarke and Stanley Kubrick.
1940s
Kontext: 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