Home > Work > The Fountains of Paradise
1 " Because politics is the science of the possible, it only appeals to second-rate minds. The first raters only interested in the impossible "
― Arthur C. Clarke , The Fountains of Paradise
2 " Instantly, there had been cries of protest from the industrial archaeologists, outraged at such vandalism, and from the naturalists, who pointed out that the penguins simply loved the abandoned pipeline. "
3 " Belief in God is apparently a psychological arti-fact of mammalian reproduction. "
4 " But there was no substitute for reality; one should beware of imitations. "
5 " Tranquillity was not a state of mind that could be sustained for long. "
6 " There is something very strange about a universe where a few dead butterflies can balance a billion-ton tower. "
7 " Though he had a devoted coterie of fans who subscribed to his information service—in an earlier age, he would have been called a pop scientist—he had an even larger circle of critics. The kinder ones considered that he had been educated beyond his intelligence. The others labeled him a self-employed idiot. It "
8 " And as for you, Paul, I assured him that you could keep a secret for up to six days without apoplexy. "
9 " The hypothesis you refer to as God, though not disprovable by logic alone, is unnecessary for the following reason. “If you assume that the universe can be quote explained unquote as the creation of an entity known as God, he must obviously be of a higher degree of organization than his product. Thus you have more than doubled the size of the original problem, and have taken the first step on a diverging infinite regress. "