Once there had been joy, but now there was only sadness, and it was not, he knew, alone the sadness of an empty house; it was the sadness of all else, the sadness of the Earth, the sadness of the failures and the empty triumphs. Clifford D. Simak More Quotes by Clifford D. Simak More Quotes From Clifford D. Simak Before Man goes to the stars he should learn how to live on Earth . Clifford D. Simak stars earth men These are the stories the Dogs tell, when the fires burn high and the wind is from the north. Clifford D. Simak fire dog wind Here lies one from a distant star, but the soil is not alien to him, for in death he belongs to the universe. Clifford D. Simak soil stars lying Without consciousness and intelligence, the universe would lack meaning. Clifford D. Simak universe consciousness Much of what we see in the universe ... starts out as imaginary. Often you must imagine something before you can come to terms with it. Clifford D. Simak imaginary imagine term Time is still the great mystery to us. It is no more than a concept; we don't know if it even exists. Clifford D. Simak concepts mystery stills We said, there's another second gone, there's another minute and another hour and another day, when, as a matter of fact the second or the minute or the hour was never gone. It was the same one all the time. It had just moved along and we had moved with it. Clifford D. Simak another-day matter facts I did not want to move. For I had the feeling that this was a place, once seen, that could not be seen again. If I left and then came back, it would not be the same; no matter how many times I might return to this particular spot the place and feeling would never be the same, something would be lost or something would be added, and there never would exist again, through all eternity, all the integrated factors that made it what it was in this magic moment. Clifford D. Simak magic-moments feelings moving If mankind were to continue in other than the present barbarism, a new path must be found, a new civilization based on some other method than technology Clifford D. Simak technology path civilization This is the very center of everything there is. A huge black hole eating up the galaxy. The end of everything. Clifford D. Simak holes black eating It seems to me, thinking of it, that there must be some universal plan which set in motion the orbiting of the electrons about the nucleus and the slower, more majestic orbit of the galaxies about one another to the very edge of space Clifford D. Simak orbit space thinking There is a plan, it seems to me, that reaches out of the electron to the rim of the universe and what this plan may be or how it came about is beyond my feeble intellect. But if we are looking for something on which to pin our faith- and, indeed, our hope- the plan might well be it. I think we have thought too small and have been too afraid. Clifford D. Simak unity may thinking Inside the time bubble we do not age. We age only when we are outside of it. Clifford D. Simak bubbles age This is written in the elder days as the Earth rides close to the rim of eternity, edging nearer to the dying Sun, into which her two inner companions of the solar system have already plunged to a fiery death. The Twilight of the Gods is history; and our planet drifts on and on into that oblivion from which nothing escapes, to which time itself may be dedicated in the final cosmic reckoning. Clifford D. Simak dying twilight two Could that have been what happened to the human race - a willing perversity that set at naught all human values which had been so hardly won and structured in the light of reason for a span of more than a million years? Clifford D. Simak light race years My reluctance to use alien invasion is due to the feeling that we are not likely to be invaded and taken over. Clifford D. Simak taken use feelings We came into a homeless frontier, a place where we were not welcome, where nothing that lived was welcome, where thought and logic were abhorrent and we were frightened, but we went into this place because the universe lay before us, and if we were to know ourselves, we must know the universe Clifford D. Simak abhorrent welcome logic You still could go to some industry or some university or the government and if you could persuade them you had something on the ball—why, then, they might put up the cash after cutting themselves in on just about all of the profits. And, naturally, they'd run the show because it was their money and all you had done was the sweating and the bleeding. Clifford D. Simak cutting government running I'm just a propagandist and a propagandist doesn't have to know what he is talking about, just so he talks about it most convincingly. Clifford D. Simak propagandist knows talking I have not long to live. I have lasted more than a man's average allotted span, and while I still am hale and hearty, I know full well the hand of time , while it may miss a man at one reaping, will get him at the next. Clifford D. Simak average men hands