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

— Stanisław Lem Solaris (1961)

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Space

More quotes by Stanisław Lem

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)

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Since, in the long run, every planetary society will be endangered by impacts from space, every surviving civilization is obliged to become spacefaring — not because of exploratory or romantic zeal, but for the most practical reason imaginable: staying alive.

Carl Sagan Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994)

The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible; but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence. Nature never wears a mean appearance.

Ralph Waldo Emerson Nature (1836)

Her blue eyes sought the west afar,
For lovers love the western star.

Walter Scott The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)

Einstein's space is no closer to reality than Van Gogh's sky.

Arthur Koestler The Act of Creation (1964)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Stanisław Lem (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.