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

“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

“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

“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