Profiles of the Future Quotes

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible

“The creation of wealth is certainly not to be despised, but in the long run the only human activities really worthwhile are the search for knowledge, and the creation of beauty. This is beyond argument, the only point of debate is which comes first.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible

“This implies, of course, the development of a really compact and light-weight method of storing or producing electricity, at least an order of magnitude better than our present clumsy batteries. Such an invention has been overdue for about fifty years;”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Profiles of the Future

“And yet—this fascination with the future has generated its own antithesis, particularly in the so-called affluent or developed societies. There is a growing disenchantment with "progress" (however this may be defined) and even a feeling that, in many directions, we have already gone too far.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible

“a new Astronomer Royal arrived in England to take up his appointment. The Press asked him to give his views on space-flight, and after two decades Dr Richard van der Riet Woolley had seen no reason to change his mind. ‘Space travel,’ he snorted, ‘is utter bilge.’ The newspapers did not allow him to forget this when Sputnik I went up the very next year. Later – irony piled upon irony – Dr Woolley became, by virtue of his position as Astronomer Royal, a leading member of the committee advising the British government on space-research. The feelings of those who have been trying, for a generation, to get the United Kingdom interested in space can well be imagined.*”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Profiles of the Future

“Jede hinreichend fortschrittliche Technologie ist von Magie nicht zu unterscheiden”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible