Stanisław Lem quotes - page 4

We are only seeking Man. We have no need of other worlds. We need mirrors. We don't know what to do with other worlds. (Stanisław Lem)
Clarity of thought is a shining point in a vast expanse of unrelieved darkness. Genius is not so much a light as it is a constant awareness of the surrounding gloom. View quote
Stanisław Lem
Like it or not, we have placed our destiny in the hands of the experts. A politician is, after all, a kind of expert, if self-styled. Even the fact that competent experts must serve under politicians of mediocre intelligence and little foresight is a problem that we are stuck with, because the experts themselves cannot agree on any major world issue. View quote
Stanisław Lem
My past had disappeared. Not that I believed for a moment that this was an accident; in fact, I had suspected for some time now that the Cosmic Command, obviously no longer able to supervise every assignment on an individual basis when there were literally trillions of matters in its charge, had switched over to a random system. View quote
Stanisław Lem
Just you think, in a rocket a man takes the risk of bursting like a balloon, or freezing, or roasting, or sweating all his blood out in a single gush, before he can even cry out, and all that remains is bits of bone floating inside armored hulls, in accordance with the laws of Newton as corrected by Einstein, those two milestones in our progress. Down the road we go, all in good faith and see where it gets us. Think about our success Kelvin; think about our cabins, the unbreakable plates, the immortal sinks, legions of faithful wardobes devoted cupboards... View quote
Stanisław Lem
To torture a man you have to know his pleasures. View quote
Stanisław Lem
Man does not create gods, in spite of appearances. The times, the age, impose them on him. Man can serve his age or rebel against it, but the target of his cooperation or rebellion comes to him from outside. View quote
Stanisław Lem
Until I started using the Internet, I hadn't known there were so many idiots in the world. View quote
Stanisław Lem
Every stink that fights the ventilator thinks it is Don Quixote. View quote
Stanisław Lem
I never read to kill time. Killing time is like killing someone's wife or a child. There is nothing more precious for me than time. View quote
Stanisław Lem
The only way to deal with technology is with another technology. Man knows more about his dangerous tendencies than he did a hundred years ago, and in the next hundred years, his knowledge will be even more advanced. Then he will make use of it. (Stanisław Lem)
To replay human existence - fine, but to replay it in the way a drunk replays a corny tune, pushing coins over and over into the jukebox? View quote
Stanisław Lem
What would happen to us if we could truly sympathize with others, feel with them, suffer for them? The fact that human anguish, fear, and suffering melt away with the death of the individual, that nothing remains of the ascents, the declines, the orgasms, and the agonies, is a praiseworthy gift of evolution, which made us like the animals. If from every unfortunate, from every victim, there remained even a single atom of his feelings, if thus grew the inheritance of the generations, if even a spark could pass from man to man, the world would be full of raw, bowel-torn howling. View quote
Stanisław Lem
All books by this Polish master of intellectual science fiction should come with a label on the cover warning: Handle With Care. Mr. Lem is a moralist, an ironist, a man of wide erudition (in both science and literature) who has little patience with the shortcomings of his fellow man. View quote
Stanisław Lem