A smart machine will first consider which is more worth its while: to perform the given task or, instead, to figure some way out of it. Stanislaw Lem More Quotes by Stanislaw Lem More Quotes From Stanislaw Lem A writer should not run around with a mirror for his countrymen; he should tell his society and his times things no one ever thought before. Stanislaw Lem mirrors should running The fate of a single man can be rich with significance, that of a few hundred less so, but the history of thousands and millions of men does not mean anything at all, in any adequate sense of the word. Stanislaw Lem fate men mean For what are myths if not the imposing of order on phenomena that do not possess order in themselves? And all myths, however they differ from philosophical systems and scientific theories, share this with them, that they negate the principle of randomness in the world. Stanislaw Lem philosophical principles order The horse respects and obeys man because its large eyes magnify everything, so man appears much larger than the horse itself. Stanislaw Lem horse eye men Come, let us hasten to a higher plane, Where dyads tread the fairy fields of Venn, Their indices bedecked from one to _ n, Commingled in an endless Markov chain! Stanislaw Lem fairy humorous fields Either something is authentic or it is unauthentic, it is either false or true, make-believe or spontaneous life; yet here we are faced with a prevaricated truth and an authentic fake, hence a thing that is at once the truth and a lie. Stanislaw Lem fake believe lying I'll grant the random access to my heart, Stanislaw Lem humorous heart two Giese was an unemotional man, but then in the study of Solaris emotion is a hindrance to the explorer. Imagination and premature theorizing are positive disadvantages in approaching a planet where-as has become clear-anything is possible... The fact is that in spite of his cautious nature the scrupulous Giese more than once jumped to premature conclusions. Even when on their guard, human beings inevitably theorize. Stanislaw Lem imagination men facts Solaristics, wrote Muntius, is a substitute for religion in the space age. It is faith wrapped in the cloak of science; contact, the goal for which we are striving, is as vague and obscure as communion with the saints or the coming of the Messiah. Stanislaw Lem space goal age There is only one positive role of the Nobel prize--it creates some common way to understand a writer. I cannot say, that I like this situation, but that's the way it goes. The books are being born and then walk around the world, just as children do. Stanislaw Lem around-the-world book children The demand for absolute purity of genres is becoming nowadays an anachronism in literature. Stanislaw Lem genre-is demand literature Really, one of us ought to have the courage to call the experiment off and shoulder the responsibility for the decision, but the majority reckons that that kind of courage would be a sign of cowardice, and the first step in a retreat. They think it would mean an undignified surrender for mankind as if there was any dignity in floundering and drowning in what we don't understand and never will. Stanislaw Lem responsibility mean thinking Practically all SF is trash. Stanislaw Lem trash I believe in no final solutions. Stanislaw Lem solutions finals believe Burn with that consuming fire of objectivity that forces a man to renew efforts that are doomed to failure. Stanislaw Lem objectivity fire men In Riemann, Hilbert or in Banach space Let superscripts and subscripts go their ways. Our symptotes no longer out of phase, We shall encounter, counting, face to face. Stanislaw Lem encounters space humorous It is not good for a man to be too cognizant of his physical and spiritual mechanisms. Complete knowledge reveals limits to human possibilities, and the less a man is by nature limited in his purposes, the less he can tolerate limits. Stanislaw Lem purpose spiritual men Of the two powers, the two categories that take possession of us when we enter the world (from where?), space is by far the less mysterious. It, too, undergoes transformations. Time, on the other hand, is a hostile element, truly treacherous, I would even say against human nature. Stanislaw Lem space two hands
