Firstborn Quotes

“The universe is full of energy, but much of it is at equilibrium. At equilibrium no energy can flow, and therefore it cannot be used for work, any more than the level waters of a pond can be used to drive a water-wheel. It is on the flow of energy out of equilibrium—the small fraction of “useful” energy, “exergy”—that life depends.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Firstborn

“They call it the War with the Sky.” Bisesa snorted. “That’s ridiculous. How can you wage war on an abstraction?” “I suspect that’s the point. It means whatever you want it to mean.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Firstborn

“My father always said that you cannot graft a culture of science and engineering onto an Iron Age society. And so it’s proving.’ Bisesa studied him. ‘You’ll have to tell me about your father.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Firstborn

“Mammoths, building a signal to Mars, on the North American ice cap.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Firstborn

“The next morning, a driverless car was waiting outside the hotel for them. It was of an odd, chunky design that Bisesa didn’t recognize.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Firstborn

“She had become something of a self-taught expert on the analysis of an AI traumatized by being ordered to lie.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Firstborn

“Galatea”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Firstborn

“holographic principle.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Firstborn

“Abdi said, “My father always said that you cannot graft a culture of science and engineering onto an Iron Age society. And so it’s proving.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Firstborn

“The gate opened. The gate closed. In a moment of time too short to be measured, space opened and turned on itself.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Firstborn

“Stakhanovite.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Firstborn

“Gravity was down to about half sea level.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Firstborn

“Oh, yes, safe for humans. Animals too. But there is an exclusion zone.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Firstborn

“The choice had been made. The bomb was already looking ahead, to the terminus of its new trajectory.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Firstborn

“The Firstborn probably believed that in their universal cauterization they were being benevolent.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Firstborn

“people will panic. Riots, looting. You’ll see. That’s why we keep secrets, Ms. Duflot. Because people can’t handle the truth.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Firstborn

“Vastitas Borealis,”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Firstborn

“If you sat down, you were heavier than when you stood up.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Firstborn

“It’s odd. Sol Invictus—he’s such a contrast to the cool thinking of the theists.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Firstborn