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Stanisław Lem Quotes

1921–2006 Poland

Stanisław Lem (12 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a Polish satirical, philosophical, and science fiction writer.

Poland
Essayists
Philosophers
Satirists

Also known as: Lem, Stanislaw, Lem, Stanisław, Stanislaw Lem, Solaris (novel)

Random Stanisław Lem quote

43 quotes

If man had more of a sense of humor, things might have turned out differently.

Solaris (1961)

Good books tell the truth, even when they're about things that never have been and never will be. They're truthful in a different way.

Any attempt to understand the motivation of these occurrences is blocked by our own anthropomorphism. Where there are no men, there cannot be motives accessible to men.

Solaris (1961)

Genius is not so much a light as it is a constant awareness of the surrounding gloom.

His Master's Voice (1968)

Everything is explicable in the terms of the behavior of a small child.

Solaris (1961)

Faith is, at one and the same time, absolutely necessary and altogether impossible.

The Star Diaries (1976)

Not only does God play dice with the world—He does not let us see what He has rolled.

Imaginary Magnitude (1981)

The whole plan hinged upon the natural curiosity of potatoes.

The Star Diaries (1976)

The age-old faith of lovers and poets in the power of love, stronger than death, that Finis vitae sed non amoris [Life ends but not love], is a lie, useless and not even funny.

Solaris (1961)

A man who for an entire week does nothing but hit himself over the head has little reason to be proud.

"And do you believe in God?"
"I do."
"But you didn't think a robot would, right?"
"Right."

We don't want to conquer the cosmos, we simply want to extend the boundaries of Earth to the frontiers of the cosmos.

Solaris (1961)

Plenitude, when too plenitudinous, was worse than destitution, for — obviously — what could one do, if there was nothing one could not?

The Cyberiad (1967)

You are only a puppet. But you don't realize that you are.

Solaris (1961)

The book does not contain "everything about the human being," because that is impossible. The largest libraries in the world do not contain "everything."

One Human Minute (1986)

The number of one's possible fantasies is inversely proportional to the amount of one's liquid assets. For him who has everything dreams are no longer possible.

Peace on Earth (1987)

One day Trurl the constructor put together a machine that could build anything beginning with the letter 'n'.

The Cyberiad (1967)

To replay human existence — fine, but to replay it in the way a drunk replays a corny tune, pushing coins over and over into the jukebox?

Solaris (1961)

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.

The Futurological Congress (1971)

Man does not create gods, in spite of appearances. The times, the age, impose them on him. Man can serve his age or rebel against it, but the target of his cooperation or rebellion comes to him from outside.

Solaris (1961)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Stanisław Lem (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.