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Nevertheless, when you did not know what you were looking for, it was important to avoid all prejudices and preconceptions; something that at first sight seemed irrelevant, or even nonsensical, might turn out to be a vital clue.
a commander can be wrong, but never uncertain.”
Anything that had happened once on Earth should be expected millions of times elsewhere in the Universe; that was almost an article of faith among scientists.
The biology of a whole world could not be judged from a single specimen.
But it had been widely argued that advanced intelligence could never arise in the sea; there were not enough challenges in so benign and unvarying an environment. Above all, how could marine creatures ever develop a technology without the aid of fire?
the route that humanity had taken was not...
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“If we do meet again—why, we shall smile. If not, why then this parting was well made.”
“I’ve just lied to a ghost.”
the arrival of the giant rocket and the dawn of the Space Age had turned men’s minds to other worlds. Realization that the human race would soon be able to leave the planet of its birth prompted the inevitable questions: Where’s everyone, and when may we expect visitors? There was also the hope, though it was seldom spelled out in as many words, that benevolent creatures from the stars might help mankind heal its numerous self-inflicted wounds and save it from future disasters.
He was beyond love and hate and desire and fear—but he had not forgotten them, and could still understand how they ruled the world of which he had once been part.
He had become a player in a game of gods, and must learn the rules as he went along.
given the same engineering problems, evolution must produce very similar answers.
better this clean break, when physical distance softened the pain of separation. (Or did it? In some ways, it made things worse.)
Consciousness would never emerge here; even if it did, it would be doomed to a stunted existence.
And there, by one of Nature’s supreme jests, was something very precious to mankind. The core of Jupiter, forever beyond human reach, was a diamond as big as the Earth.
He was being used as a tool, and a good tool had to be sharpened, modified—adapted. And the very best tools were those that understood what they were doing.
He had not yet lost all his human feelings; that would have made him valueless.
The soul of David Bowman had passed beyond love, but it could still know compassion for those who had once been his colleagues.
THEY MUST NEVER KNOW THAT THEY ARE BEING MANIPULATED. THAT WOULD RUIN THE PURPOSE OF THE EXPERIMENT.
The Universe is not only stranger than we imagine—but stranger than we can imagine.”
Once is an accident; twice is a coincidence; three times is a conspiracy.”
having something even bigger to worry about is perhaps the best cure for any insoluble problem.
Un clavo saca a otro clavo.
terminology often survives long after the technology that gave it birth.
Some dangers are so spectacular and so much beyond normal experience that the mind refuses to accept them as real, and watches the approach of doom without any sense of apprehension.
The man who looks at the onrushing tidal wave, the descending avalanche, or the spinning funnel of the tornado, yet makes no attempt to flee, is not necessarily paralyzed with fright or resigned to an unavoidable fate. He may simply be unable to believe that the message of his eyes concerns him personally. It is all happening to somebody else.
