Plentitude, when too plentitudinous, was worst than destitution, for obviously what could one do, if there was nothing one could not? Stanislaw Lem More Quotes by Stanislaw Lem More Quotes From Stanislaw Lem ...it is easy not to believe in monsters, considerably more difficult to escape their dread and loathsome clutches. Stanislaw Lem easymonstersbelieve There are friends with whom we share neither interests nor any particular experiences, friends with whom we never correspond, whom we seldom meet and then only by chance, but whose existence nonetheless has for us a special if uncanny meaning. For me the Eiffel Tower is just such a friend, and not merely because it happens to be the symbol of a city, for Paris leaves me neither hot nor cold. I first became aware of this attachment of mine when reading in the paper about plans for its demolition, the mere thought of which filled me with alarm. Stanislaw Lem attachmentreadingcities 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. Stanislaw Lem killing-someonewifechildren The first 90% of the job takes 90% of the time. The remaining 10% of the job requires another 90% of the time. The first condition of immortality is death. Stanislaw Lem immortalityjobsfirsts Not far from here, by a white sun, behind a green star, lived the Steelypips, illustrious, industrious, and they hadn't a care: no spats in their vats, no rules, no schools, no gloom, no evil influence of the moon, no trouble from matter or antimatter - for they had a machine, a dream of a machine, with springs and gears and perfect in every respect. And they lived with it, and on it, and under it, and inside it, for it was all they had - first they saved up all their atoms, then they put them all together, and if one didn't fit, why they chipped at it a bit, and everything was just fine. Stanislaw Lem starsdreamspring I see a poem as a multi-coloured strip behind peeling plaster, in separate, shining fragments. Stanislaw Lem peelingfragmentsshining Even a fool could see that one didn't need a war, nuclear or otherwise, to destroy oneself; the rising cost of weaponry could do that quite nicely. Stanislaw Lem nuclearwarneeds Come, every frustum longs to be a cone, And every vector dreams of matrices. Hark to the gentle gradient of the breeze: It whispers of a more ergodic zone. Stanislaw Lem vectorshumorousdream Cancel me not - for what then shall remain? Abscissas, some mantissas, modules, modes, A root or two, a torus and a node: The inverse of my verse, a null domain. Stanislaw Lem humorousrootstwo The war of good and evil present in all religions does not always end, in every faith, with the victory of good, but in every one it establishes a clear order of existence. The sacred as well as the profane rests on that universal order. Stanislaw Lem evilwarorder We are like snails, each stuck to his own leaf. Stanislaw Lem leafsstuckphilosophical We don't want to conquer the cosmos, we simply want to extend the boundaries of Earth to the frontiers of the cosmos. Stanislaw Lem cosmosearthwant Skepticism is like a microscope whose magnification is constantly increased: the sharp image that one begins with finally dissolves, because it is not possible to see ultimate things: their existence is only to be inferred. Stanislaw Lem skepticismmicroscopesexistence I never loved totalitarianism and all the ideas of making mankind happy always seemed crazy to me. Stanislaw Lem mankindcrazyideas Mathematics never reveals man to the degree, never expresses him in the way, that any other field of human endeavour does: the extent of the negation of man's corporeal self that mathematics achieves cannot be compared with anything. Whoever is interested in this subject I refer to my articles. Here I will say only that the world injected its patterns into human language at the very inception of that language; mathematics sleeps in every utterance, and can only be discovered, never invented. Stanislaw Lem selfsleepmen This is another lie. We are only seeking Man. We have no need of other worlds. A single world, our own, suffices us; but we can't accept it for what it is. We are searching for an ideal image of our own world: we go in quest of a planet, a civilization superior to our own but developed on the basis of a prototype of our primeval past. Stanislaw Lem menlyingpast No one reads; if someone does read, he doesn't understand; if he understands, he immediately forgets. Stanislaw Lem ifsdoeforget For moral reasons I am an atheist - for moral reasons. I am of the opinion that you would recognize a creator by his creation, and the world appears to me to be put together in such a painful way that I prefer to believe that it was not created by anyone than to think that somebody created this intentionally. Stanislaw Lem togetherbelieveworld How do you expect to communicate with the ocean, when you can’t even understand one another? Stanislaw Lem communicateocean Behind every glorious facade there is always hidden something ugly. Stanislaw Lem facadeuglyglorious
