The Ninth Science Fiction Megapack Quotes

“First rule of government of the people, by the people, for the people: Never tell the people!”
― Arthur C. Clarke, The Ninth Science Fiction Megapack: Classic and Modern Science Fiction

“Goddamn it, he’d missed his cue. He should have set up a scapegoat, a whole bunch of scapegoats. He should have manufactured some victims for the majority to persecute. Hell, that was the simplest formula in the book. The stupidest mayor of a stinking country town knew that one. Some blacks here, some Jews there, Catholics here, Protestants there, Irishmen, Swedes, Polacks, commies and homosexuals everywhere. Hell, with just a little twist of words, any and all of these could be made to look responsible for the Black Fleet. It always worked.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, The Ninth Science Fiction Megapack: Classic and Modern Science Fiction

“God has ended the ancient covenants and declared Himself an enemy of all mankind,” Amos said, and the chapel seemed to roll with his voice. “I say to you: He has found a worthy opponent.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, The Ninth Science Fiction Megapack: Classic and Modern Science Fiction

“I guess I’m going to hell, Amos, since I never did repent—if there is a hell! And I hope there is! I hope it’s filled with the soul of every poor damned human being who died in less than perfect grace. Because I’m going to find some way—” He straightened suddenly, coughing and fighting for breath. Then he found one final source of strength and met Amos’ eyes, a trace of his old cynical smile on his face. “—some way to urge Lucifer to join us!” he finished. He dropped back, letting all the fight go out of his body. A few seconds later, he was dead.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, The Ninth Science Fiction Megapack: Classic and Modern Science Fiction

“the Hebrews worked like the devil to get Canaan; after forty years of wandering around a few square miles, God suddenly told them this was the land—and then they had to take it by the same methods men have always used to conquer a country. The miracles didn’t really decide anything. They got out of Babylon because the old prophets were slaving night and day to hold them together as one people, and because they managed to sweat it out until they finally got a break. In our own time, they’ve done the same things to get Israel, and with no miracles! It seems to me God always took it away, but they had to it back by themselves. I don’t think much of that kind of a test in this case.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, The Ninth Science Fiction Megapack: Classic and Modern Science Fiction

“In my Father’s house are many mansions,” he quoted to Doc as they started up the street. “It’s quite possibly an allegorical reference to other worlds in the heavens.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, The Ninth Science Fiction Megapack: Classic and Modern Science Fiction

“Six-year-olds have naturally juvenile minds, so we have a lot in common. Besides, they like comics”
― Arthur C. Clarke, The Ninth Science Fiction Megapack: Classic and Modern Science Fiction

“Already they were beginning to clamp down the lid, and that meant things were heading toward a crisis again. The sudden outbreak of the new and violent plague in China four years before had brought an end to the former crisis, as all nations pitched in through altruism or sheer self-interest, and were forced to work together. But that hadn’t lasted; they’d found a cure after nearly two million deaths, and there had been nothing to hold the suddenly created co-operation of the powers. Maybe if they had new channels for their energies, such as the planets—”
― Arthur C. Clarke, The Ninth Science Fiction Megapack: Classic and Modern Science Fiction

“One hundred million dead in the twentieth century’s wars and genocides. More wealth spent on killing and preparations for killing than on any other activity.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, The Ninth Science Fiction Megapack: Classic and Modern Science Fiction

“carried the panel over to the hole made for it, and Blair said, “Lower it easy. It should be a snug fit, flush with the rest of the hull. If we set it in flat, we won’t”
― Arthur C. Clarke, The Ninth Science Fiction Megapack: Classic and Modern Science Fiction

“When you all have figgered out how to sail across space to our shores, you’ll find yourselves just as welcome as the people who come to your shores.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, The Ninth Science Fiction Megapack: Classic and Modern Science Fiction

“I should have known that a man can receive only what his mind has been prepared to receive, that all else is ignored, or interpreted to suit his prior interpretation—that man can only accept change through it being interpreted as no change, or not knowing it is change.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, The Ninth Science Fiction Megapack: Classic and Modern Science Fiction

“…A man may take one step ahead of his culture and chance being called a genius. But if he takes two steps, he is certain to be called a menace, a madman, a fool.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, The Ninth Science Fiction Megapack: Classic and Modern Science Fiction

“…Oh yes, we once tried to put this thick catsup in a wide-mouth bottle so it would pour easily, and the company almost went broke—the American housewife refused to touch it because the shape of the container had been changed. It has taken us fifteen years to enlarge the neck of the bottle by one quarter of an inch.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, The Ninth Science Fiction Megapack: Classic and Modern Science Fiction

“when a man sells his independence of thought for money or status, without realizing it he also sells his capacity for independence of thought; and, like the worn-out columnists and commentators, he must play the same old record over and over, because he has no capacity for taking a fresh point of view.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, The Ninth Science Fiction Megapack: Classic and Modern Science Fiction

“He knew damn well that humans would never go out and tackle anything stronger than they were. They had to feel they were in the majority; they had to feel that the opinion of the majority was behind them—no matter what hypocritical false front they put on for public consumption—before they would dare to stand up and be counted. Oh they were strong on crusading for perfectly safe subjects, these humans; but they had to have something weak and running in fear before they’d change over from rabbits to dogs and run baying after it in furious, frenzied chase.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, The Ninth Science Fiction Megapack: Classic and Modern Science Fiction

“The human mind, somehow, seems much more attracted by the false than by the true;”
― Arthur C. Clarke, The Ninth Science Fiction Megapack: Classic and Modern Science Fiction

“It’ll be symbolic. Let the women dress the way savages dress everywhere—bedeck themselves in old dead parts of birds and animals, smear their faces with colored clay, mash flowers over themselves to conceal their natural stench. The same way they always dress. Now, for Chrissake!”
― Arthur C. Clarke, The Ninth Science Fiction Megapack: Classic and Modern Science Fiction

“Nonsense,” he laughed. “It’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s only a purr-pull peephole eater.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, The Ninth Science Fiction Megapack: Classic and Modern Science Fiction