33 quotes
My dear Miss Glory, Robots are not people. They are mechanically more perfect than we are, they have an astounding intellectual capacity, but they have no soul.
R.U.R (1920)
Relativism is not indifference; on the contrary, passionate indifference is necessary in order for you not to hear the voices that oppose your absolute decrees.
On Relativism (1925)
Great god of the Ants, thou hast granted victory to thy servants. I appoint thee honorary Colonel.
I don’t know if you could prove that every theft is wrong; but I can prove to you that every theft is against the law, because I can arrest you every time.
Oh man, at that end not much has been left of your excellence, nothing of all that you have been boasting about through life - only sex, fear, self-admiration and a few other things you are usually ashamed of.
One of the worst muddles of this age is its confusing of the ideas behind combative and cognitive activity. Cognition is not fighting, but once someone knows a lot, he will have much to fight for, so much that he will be called a relativist because of it.
On Relativism (1925)
One never knows whether people have principles on principle or whether for their own personal satisfaction.
Letters from England (1925)
Nothing is stranger to man than his own image.
R.U.R (1920)
The only perfection which modern civilisation achieves is mechanical; machines are magnificent and immaculate but the life which serves them or is served by them isn't magnificent or shiny or more perfect or more comely.
Letters from England (1925)
Robots do not hold on to life. They can't. They have nothing to hold on with — no soul, no instinct. Grass has more will to live than they do.
R.U.R (1920)
Robots of the world! Many people have fallen. By seizing the factory we have become the masters of everything. The age of mankind is over. A new world has begun! The rule of Robots!
R.U.R (1920)
People should be a little loony, Helena. That's the best thing about them.
R.U.R (1920)
I've tried all isolating materials that might possibly prevent the Absolute from getting out of the cellar: ashes, sand, metal walls, but nothing can stop it.
The Absolute at Large (1921)
Be these people either Conservatives or Socialists, Yellows or Reds, the most important thing is — and that is the point I want to stress — that all of them are right in the plain and moral sense of the word. . .
R.U.R. supplement in The Saturday Review (1923)
They stopped being machines. You see, they realize their superiority and they hate us. They hate everything human.
R.U.R (1920)
Robots of the world, you are ordered to exterminate the human race... Preserve only the factories, railroads, machines, mines, and raw materials. Destroy everything else. Then return to work. Work must not cease.
A guilty party is being sought. Such action is a favorite means of consolation in the face of calamity.
R.U.R (1920)
Thunder, there are so many beautiful things! The world was beautiful and we — we — Boys, boys, tell me, what did we ever take the time to enjoy?
R.U.R (1920)
There came into the world an unlimited abundance of everything people need. But people need everything except unlimited abundance.
The Absolute at Large (1921)
Much melancholy has devolved upon mankind, and it is detestable to me that might will triumph in the end ... Art must not serve might.