“Anyhow, the criterion of common sense was never applicable to the history of the human race. Averroës, Kant, Socrates, Newton, Voltaire, could any of them have believed it possible that in the twentieth century the scourge of cities, the poisoner… — Stanisław Lem Copy Share Image
“We take off into the cosmos, ready for anything: for solitude, for hardship, for exhaustion, death. Modesty forbids us to say so, but there are times when we think pretty well of ourselves. And yet, if we examine it more closely, our enthusiasm turns out to be all a sham. We don't want to conquer the cosmos, we simply want… — Stanisław Lem Copy Share
“It might hear us. But what's its name? We have named all the stars and all the planets, even though they might already have… — Stanisław Lem Copy Share Image
“We came here as we truly are, and when the other side shows us that truth—the part of it we pass over in silence—we’re… — Stanisław Lem Copy Share Image
“It's true that even though I'm a world unto myself, I've just a speck of dust in the avalanche of events. But nothing will… — Stanisław Lem Copy Share Image
“maybe he fought it off and forgot about it, and he wasn’t afraid, because he knew he’d never carry it out. Right, but now,… — Stanisław Lem Copy Share Image
“The human mind is only capable of absorbing a few things at a time. We see what is taking place in front of us in the here and now, and cannot envisage simultaneously a succession of processes, no matter how integrated and complementary. Our faculties of perception are consequently limited even as regards fairly simple phenomena. The fate of a… — Stanisław Lem Copy Share
“I don't think anything can behave as unintelligently as intelligence.” — Stanisław Lem Copy Share Image
“Not that this deterred him and his friend Klapaucius from further experimentation, which showed that the extent of a dragon's existence depends mainly on its whim, though also on its degree of satiety, and that the only sure method of negating it is to reduce the probability to zero or lower. All this research, naturally enough, took a great deal… — Stanisław Lem Copy Share
“A man craves ultimate truths. Every mortal mind, I think, is that way. But what is ultimate truth? It's the end of the road, where there is no more mystery, no more hope. And no more questions to ask, since all the answers have been given. But there is no such place. The Universe is a labyrinth made of labyrinths.… — Stanisław Lem Copy Share
“Evolution is, as an engineer, an opportunist, not a perfectionist.” — Stanisław Lem Copy Share Image
“I didn’t believe for a minute that this liquid colossus, which had brought about the death of hundreds of humans within itself, with which… — Stanisław Lem Copy Share Image
