Quotes from Rendezvous with Rama

“If such a thing had happened once, it must surely have happened many times in this galaxy of a hundred billion suns.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from Rendezvous with Rama

“When in doubt, say nothing and move on.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from Rendezvous with Rama

“He had a suspicion of plausible answers; they were so often wrong.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from Rendezvous with Rama

“Even by the twenty-second century, no way had yet been discovered of keeping elderly and conservative scientists from occupying crucial administrative positions. Indeed, it was doubted if the problem ever would be solved.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from Rendezvous with Rama

“Training was one thing, reality another, and no one could be sure that the ancient human instincts of self-preservation would not take over in an emergency.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from Rendezvous with Rama

“Yes, it made sense, and was so absurdly simple that it would take a genius to think of it. And, perhaps, someone who did not expect to do it himself.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from Rendezvous with Rama

“Some women, Commander Norton had decided long ago, should not be allowed aboard ship; weightlessness did things to their breasts that were too damn distracting. It was bad enough when they were motionless; but when they started to move, and sympathetic vibrations set in, it was more than any warm-blooded male should be asked to take. Some women, Commander Norton had decided long ago, should not be allowed aboard ship; weightlessness did things to their breasts that were too damn distracting. It was bad enough when they were motionless; but when they started to move, and sympathetic vibrations set in, it was more than any warm-blooded male should be asked to take. He was quite sure that at least one serious space accident had been caused by acute crew distraction, after the transit of a well-upholstered lady officer through the control cabin.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from Rendezvous with Rama

“But at least we have answered one ancient question. We are not alone. The stars will never again be the same to us.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from Rendezvous with Rama

“And on far-off Earth, Dr. Carlisle Perera had as yet told no one how he had wakened from a restless sleep with the message from his subconscious still echoing in his brain: The Ramans do everything in threes.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from Rendezvous with Rama

“The meteorites of 1908 and 1947 had struck uninhabited wilderness; but by the end of the twenty-first century there was no region left on Earth that could be safely used for celestial target practice.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from Rendezvous with Rama

“In these latter days, knighthood was an honor few Englishmen escaped.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from Rendezvous with Rama

“Some women, Commander Norton had decided long ago, should not be allowed aboard ship; weightlessness did things to their breasts that were too damn distracting.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from Rendezvous with Rama

“I agree with you, Captain,” he whispered. “The human race has to live with its conscience. Whatever the Hermians argue, survival is not everything.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from Rendezvous with Rama

“Myron, like countless NCO’s before him, had discovered the ideal compromise between power and responsibility.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from Rendezvous with Rama

“Absence of noise is not a natural condition; all human senses require some input. If they are deprived of it, the mind manufactures its own substitutes.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from Rendezvous with Rama

“It seemed altogether unfair and unreasonable that the sky should be so hard.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from Rendezvous with Rama

“There was no objection when he said: “I’m going after it.” Nor did he expect there to be; his life was now his own, to do with as he pleased. He”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from Rendezvous with Rama

“electronic diplomacy was not possible over solar-system distances. Some elder statesmen, accustomed to the instantaneous communications that Earth had long taken for granted, had never reconciled themselves to the fact that radio waves took minutes, or even hours, to journey across the gulfs between the planets. “Can’t you scientists do something about it?” they had been heard to complain bitterly when told that immediate face-to-face conversation was impossible between Earth and any of its remoter children. Only the Moon had the barely acceptable one-and-a-half-second delay—with all the political and psychological consequences that implied.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from Rendezvous with Rama

“Naturally, the system would have to be rigidly closed, recycling all food, air, and other expendables. But, of course, that’s just how the Earth operates—on a slightly larger scale.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from Rendezvous with Rama

“You can’t have action without reaction.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from Rendezvous with Rama

“They would probably never even know that the human race existed. Such monumental indifference was worse than any deliberate insult. When”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from Rendezvous with Rama

“Even a doomed man might reasonably be expected to take some slight interest in a few thousand square meters of gems. He”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from Rendezvous with Rama

“The Chairman glared across three hundred and eighty thousand kilometers of space at Conrad Taylor, who reluctantly subsided, like a volcano biding its time.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from Rendezvous with Rama

“The extraordinary meeting of the Space Advisory Council was brief and stormy. Even by the twenty-second century, no way had yet been discovered of keeping elderly and conservative scientists from occupying crucial administrative positions. Indeed, it was doubted if the problem ever would be solved.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from Rendezvous with Rama

“Bose was slightly less happy about the presence of Conrad Taylor, the celebrated anthropologist, who had made his reputation by uniquely combining scholarship and eroticism in his study of puberty rites in late-twentieth-century Beverly Hills.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from Rendezvous with Rama

“This had not endeared him to exobiologists such as Dr Perera, who took exactly the opposite view. To them, the only purpose of the Universe was the production of intelligence, and they were apt to talk sneeringly about purely astronomical phenomena, 'Mere dead matter' was one of their favourite phrases.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from Rendezvous with Rama

“He was now probably the world’s leading authority on the greatest explorer of all time,”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from Rendezvous with Rama

“Feeling extremely foolish, the acting representative of Homo sapiens watched his First Contact stride away across the Raman plain, totally indifferent to his presence.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from Rendezvous with Rama

“While there was life, there was hope;”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from Rendezvous with Rama

“Can you sum up your ideas in less than—oh, a thousand bits?”
― Arthur C. Clarke, quote from Rendezvous with Rama

About the author

Popular quotes

“I saw thee once - only once - years ago:
I must not say how many - but not many.
It was a July midnight; and from out
A full-orbed moon, that, like thine own soul, soaring,
Sought a precipitate pathway up through heaven,
There fell a silvery-silken veil of light,
With quietude, and sultriness, and slumber,
Upon the upturn'd faces of a thousand
Roses that grew in an enchanted garden,
Where no wind dared stir, unless on tiptoe -
Fell on the upturn'd faces of these roses
That gave out, in return for the love-light,
Their odorous souls in an ecstatic death -
Fell on the upturn'd faces of these roses
That smiled and died in the parterre, enchanted
By thee, and by the poetry of thy presence.

Clad all in white, upon a violet bank
I saw thee half reclining; while the moon
Fell upon the upturn'd faces of the roses,
And on thine own, upturn'd - alas, in sorrow!

Was it not Fate, that, on this July midnight -
Was it not Fate, (whose name is also Sorrow,)
That bade me pause before that garden-gate,
To breathe the incense of those slumbering roses?
No footsteps stirred: the hated world all slept,
Save only thee and me. (Oh, Heaven! - oh, G**!
How my heart beats in coupling those two words!)
Save only thee and me. I paused - I looked -
And in an instant all things disappeared.
(Ah, bear in mind the garden was enchanted!)
The pearly lustre of the moon went out:
The mossy banks and the meandering paths,
The happy flowers and the repining trees,
Were seen no more: the very roses' odors
Died in the arms of the adoring airs.
All - all expired save thee - save less than thou:
Save only divine light in thine eyes -
Save but the soul in thine uplifted eyes.
I saw but them - they were the world to me.
I saw but them - saw only them for hours -
Saw only them until the moon went down.
What wild heart-histories seemed to lie enwritten
Upon those crystalline, celestial spheres!
How dark a wo! yet how sublime a hope!
How silently serene a sea of pride!
How daring an ambition! yet how deep -
How fathomless a capacity for love!
But now, at length, dear Dian sank from sight,
Into a western couch of thunder-cloud;
And thou, a ghost, amid the entombing trees
Didst glide away. Only thine eyes remained.
They would not go - they never yet have gone.
Lighting my lonely pathway home that night,
They have not left me (as my hopes have) since.
They follow me - they lead me through the years.
They are my ministers - yet I their slave.
Their office is to illumine and enkindle -
My duty, to be saved by their bright fire,
And purified in their electric fire,
And sanctified in their elysian fire.
They fill my soul with Beauty (which is Hope,)
And are far up in Heaven - the stars I kneel to
In the sad, silent watches of my night;
While even in the meridian glare of day
I see them still - two sweetly scintillant
Venuses, unextinguished by the sun!”
― Edgar Allan Poe, quote from The Raven and Other Poems

“The opening sentence alone contained thirty-six words—monstrous”
― James A. Michener, quote from Hawaii

“God changes his appearance every second. Blessed is the man who can recognize him in all his disguises.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from Zorba the Greek

“No-thing less splendid than a golden sepulchre would have suited so noble a heart.”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, quote from The Decameron

“Forgiveness, reader, is, I think, something very much like hope and love - a powerful, wonderful thing.
And a ridiculous thing, too.”
― Kate DiCamillo, quote from The Tale of Despereaux

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.