“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
Arthur C. Clarke
Born place: in Minehead, Somerset, England, The United Kingdom
Born date December 16, 1917
See more on GoodReads
“Well, maybe it started that way. As a dream, but doesn’t everything. Those buildings. These lights. This whole city. Somebody had to dream about it first. And maybe that is what I did. I dreamed about coming here, but then I did it.”
― Roald Dahl, quote from James and the Giant Peach
“I think we ought to live happily ever after," and she thought he meant it. Sophie knew that living happily ever after with Howl would be a good deal more hair-raising than any storybook made it sound, though she was determined to try. "It should be hair-raising," added Howl.
"And you'll exploit me," Sophie said.
"And then you'll cut up all my suits to teach me.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, quote from Howl's Moving Castle
“There are in this world blessed souls, whose sorrows all spring up into joys for others; whose earthly hopes, laid in the grave with many tears, are the seed from which spring healing flowers and balm for the desolate and the distressed.”
― Harriet Beecher Stowe, quote from Uncle Tom's Cabin
“Everywhere I've turned somebody has wanted to sacrifice me for my own good—only /they/ were the ones who benefited. And now we start on the old sacrificial merry-go-round. At what point do we stop?”
― Ralph Ellison, quote from Invisible Man
“Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you.
You must travel it by yourself.
It is not far. It is within reach.
Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know.
Perhaps it is everywhere - on water and land.”
― Walt Whitman, quote from Leaves of Grass
The 13th Hour
When Gravity Fails
Out of Control
Promise at Dawn
The Ill-Made Knight
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.
