Clive S Lewis - Collected Quotes

"This is called the inductive method. Hypothesis, my dear young friend, establishes itself by a cumulative process: or, to use popular language, if you make the same guess often enough it ceases to be a guess and becomes a Scientific Fact." (Clive S Lewis, "The Pilgrim’s Regress: An Allegorical Apology for Christianity, Reason and Romanticism", 1933)

"If you find my arithmetic correct, then no amount of vapouring about my psychological condition can be anything but a waste of time. If you find my arithmetic wrong, then it may be relevant to explain psychologically how I came to be so bad at my arithmetic, and the doctrine of the concealed wish will become relevant - but only after you have yourself done the sum and discovered me to be wrong on purely arithmetical grounds. It is the same with all thinking and all systems of thought. If you try to find out which are tainted by speculating about the wishes of the thinkers, you are merely making a fool of yourself. You must first find out on purely logical grounds which of them do, in fact, break down as arguments. Afterwards, if you like, go on and discover the psychological causes of the error." (Clive S Lewis, "Bulverism", 1941)

"The Historical Point of View, put briefly, means that when a learned man is presented with any statement in an ancient author, the one question he never asks is whether it is true. He asks who influenced the ancient writer, and how far the statement is consistent with what he said in other books, and what phase in the writer’s development, or in the general history of thought, it illustrates, and how it affected later writers, and how often it has been misunderstood (specially by the learned man’s colleagues) and what the general course of criticism on it has been for the last ten years, and what is the 'present state of the question'. To regard the ancient writer as a possible source of knowledge - to anticipate that what he said could possibly modify your thoughts or your behavior - this would be rejected as unutterably simple-minded. And since we cannot deceive the whole human race all the time, it is most important thus to cut every generation off from all others; for where learning makes a free commerce between the ages there is always the danger that the characteristic errors of one may be corrected by the characteristic truths of another. But thanks be to our Father and the Historical Point of View, great scholars are now as little nourished by the past as the most ignorant mechanic who holds that 'history is bunk." (C. S. Lewis, "The Screwtape Letters", 1942)

"A sum can be put right: but only by going back till you find the error and working it afresh from that point, never by simply going on." (Clive S Lewis, "The Great Divorce", 1945)

"A world of automata – of creatures that worked like machines – would hardly be worth creating." (Clive S Lewis, "Mere Christianity", 1952)

"It is not impossible that our own Model will die a violent death, ruthlessly smashed by an unprovoked assault of new facts […]." (Clive S Lewis, “The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature”, 1964)

"The laws of thought are also the laws of things: of things in the remotest space and the remotest time." (Clive S Lewis, "Christian Reflections", 1967)

“Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.” (Clive S Lewis)

"Of course all children's literature is not fantastic, so all fantastic books need not be children's books. It is still possible, even in an age so ferociously anti-romantic as our own, to write fantastic stories for adults: though you will usually need to have made a name in some more fashionable kind of literature before anyone will publish them." (Clive S Lewis)

On Experiments (1825-1829)

"[Precision] is the very soul of science; and its attainment afford the only criterion, or at least the best, of the truth of theories, and the correctness of experiments." (John F W Herschel, "A Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy", 1830)

"The domain of physics is no proper field for mathematical pastimes. The best security would be in giving a geometrical training to physicists, who need not then have recourse to mathematicians, whose tendency is to despise experimental science. By this method will that union between the abstract and the concrete be effected which will perfect the uses of mathematical, while extending the positive value of physical science. Meantime, the uses of analysis in physics is clear enough. Without it we should have no precision, and no co-ordination; and what account could we give of our study of heat, weight, light, etc.? We should have merely series of unconnected facts, in which we could foresee nothing but by constant recourse to experiment; whereas, they now have a character of rationality which fits them for purposes of prevision." (Auguste Comte, "The Positive Philosophy", 1830)

"The extreme accuracy required in some of our modern inquiries has, in some respects, had an unfortunate influence, by favouring the opinion, that no experiments are valuable, unless the measures are most minute, and the accordance amongst them most perfect." (Charles Babbage, "Reflections on the Decline of Science in England", 1830)

"The loveliest theories are being overthrown by these damned experiments; it's no fun being a chemist anymore." (Justus von Liebig, [letter to Berzelius] 1834)

"Experimental science hardly ever affords us more than approximations to truth; and whenever many agents are concerned we are in great danger of being mistaken." (Sir Humphry Davy, cca. 1836)

"[…] in order that the facts obtained by observation and experiment may be capable of being used in furtherance of our exact and solid knowledge, they must be apprehended and analysed according to some Conception which, applied for this purpose, gives distinct and definite results, such as can be steadily taken hold of and reasoned from […]" (William Whewell, "The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences Founded Upon their History" Vol. 2, 1840)

"Every theorem in geometry is a law of external nature, and might have been ascertained by generalizing from observation and experiment, which in this case resolve themselves into comparisons and measurements. But it was found practicable, and being practicable was desirable, to deduce these truths by ratiocination from a small number of general laws of nature, the certainty and universality of which was obvious to the most careless observer, and which compose the first principles and ultimate premises of the science." (John S Mill, "System of Logic", 1843)

"The hypothesis, by suggesting observations and experiments, puts us upon the road to that independent evidence if it be really attainable; and till it be attained, the hypothesis ought not to count for more than a suspicion." (John S Mill, "A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive", 1843)

"The framing of hypotheses is, for the enquirer after truth, not the end, but the beginning of his work. Each of his systems is invented, not that he may admire it and follow it into all its consistent consequences, but that he may make it the occasion of a course of active experiment and observation. And if the results of this process contradict his fundamental assumptions, however ingenious, however symmetrical, however elegant his system may be, he rejects it without hesitation. He allows no natural yearning for the offspring of his own mind to draw him aside from the higher duty of loyalty to his sovereign, Truth, to her he not only gives his affections and his wishes, but strenuous labour and scrupulous minuteness of attention." (William Whewell, "Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences" Vol. 2, 1847)

On Literature: On Errors (From Fiction to Science-Fiction)

"Science, my boy, is composed of errors, but errors that it is right to make, for they lead step by step to the truth." (Jules Verne, "A Journey to the Centre of the Earth", 1864)

"A modern branch of mathematics, having achieved the art of dealing with the infinitely small, can now yield solutions in other more complex problems of motion, which used to appear insoluble. This modern branch of mathematics, unknown to the ancients, when dealing with problems of motion, admits the conception of the infinitely small, and so conforms to the chief condition of motion (absolute continuity) and thereby corrects the inevitable error which the human mind cannot avoid when dealing with separate elements of motion instead of examining continuous motion. In seeking the laws of historical movement just the same thing happens. The movement of humanity, arising as it does from innumerable human wills, is continuous. To understand the laws of this continuous movement is the aim of history." (Lev N Tolstoy, "War and Peace", 1867)

"What is called science today consists of a haphazard heap of information, united by nothing, often utterly unnecessary, and not only failing to present one unquestionable truth, but as often as not containing the grossest errors, today put forward as truths, and tomorrow overthrown." (Leo Tolstoy, "What Is Art?", 1897)

"All truths are erroneous. This is the very essence of the dialectical process: today’s truths become errors tomorrow." (Yevgeny Zamiatin, "On Literature, Revolution, Entropy, and Other Matters", 1923)

"The Historical Point of View, put briefly, means that when a learned man is presented with any statement in an ancient author, the one question he never asks is whether it is true. He asks who influenced the ancient writer, and how far the statement is consistent with what he said in other books, and what phase in the writer’s development, or in the general history of thought, it illustrates, and how it affected later writers, and how often it has been misunderstood (specially by the learned man’s colleagues) and what the general course of criticism on it has been for the last ten years, and what is the 'present state of the question'. To regard the ancient writer as a possible source of knowledge - to anticipate that what he said could possibly modify your thoughts or your behavior - this would be rejected as unutterably simple-minded. And since we cannot deceive the whole human race all the time, it is most important thus to cut every generation off from all others; for where learning makes a free commerce between the ages there is always the danger that the characteristic errors of one may be corrected by the characteristic truths of another. But thanks be to our Father and the Historical Point of View, great scholars are now as little nourished by the past as the most ignorant mechanic who holds that 'history is bunk." (C. S. Lewis, "The Screwtape Letters", 1942)

"Men must fumble awhile with error to separate it from truth, I think - as long as they don’t seize the error hungrily because it has a pleasanter taste." (Walter M Miller Jr, "A Canticle for Leibowitz", 1959)

"The mathematicians and physics men have their mythology; they work alongside the truth, never touching it; their equations are false But the things work. Or, when gross error appears, they invent new ones; they drop the theory of waves In universal ether and imagine curved space." (Robinson Jeffers, "The Beginning and the End and Other Poems, The Great Wound", 1963)

"A scientist can not be measured quantitatively by the number of degrees or the accumulation of information. A true scientist should have a measure of courage to correct error and seek truth - no matter how painful. The alternative is more painful. To build error upon error is to drift into dogmas, metaphysics, science fiction, and mythology." (Alexander Wilf, "Origin and Destiny of the Moral Species", 1969)

"Man, as such, is a biological error, possibly a too-large brain joined with a full set of primitive instincts that are no longer appropriate, but an error anyway, and [...] he will eventually destroy himself, or be destroyed by his environment, just as all non-appropriate forms of life seem to thrive for a while then die off." (John T. Phillifent, "That Moon Plaque: Comments by Science Fiction Writers’", 1969)

"The machines didn’t tire and the medi-techs never made computational errors but both lacked an essential something. Something only one human being, no matter how inadequate, could give to another." (Leo P. Kelley, "The Handyman", 1965)

"There were times, he said, when human effort appeared to generate nothing but suffering, error, confusion - but maybe even these times add a little to the sum of human understanding." (Edgar Pangborn, "The World Is a Sphere", 1973)

"You have come to the place where all times are one, where all errors can be unmade, where past and future are fluid and subject to redefinition." (Robert Silverberg, "Breckenridge and the Continuum", 1973)

"Every judgment teeters on the brink of error. To claim absolute knowledge is to become monstrous. Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty." (Frank Herbert, "Children of Dune", 1976)

"A subtle thought that is in error may yet give rise to fruitful inquiry that can establish truths of great value." (Isaac Asimov, "Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations", 1988)

"Humans may crave absolute certainty; they may aspire to it; they may pretend, as partisans of certain religions do, to have attained it. But the history of science - by far the most successful claim to knowledge accessible to humans - teaches that the most we can hope for is successive improvement in our understanding, learning from our mistakes, an asymptotic approach to the Universe, but with the proviso that absolute certainty will always elude us. We will always be mired in error. The most each generation can hope for is to reduce the error bars a little, and to add to the body of data to which error bars apply." (Carl Sagan, "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark", 1995)

John W Campbell Jr. - Collected Quotes

"Can you appreciate the crushing hopelessness it brought to me? I, who love science, who see in it, or have seen in it, the salvation, the raising of mankind - to see those wondrous machines, of man’s triumphant maturity, forgotten and misunderstood. The wondrous, perfect machines that tended, protected, and cared for those gentle, kindly people who had - forgotten." (John W Campbell Jr, "Twilight", 1934)

"No average mind can either understand or enjoy science-fiction; it takes an amount of imagination beyond the average man." (John W. Campbell Jr, "Science-Fiction", 1938)

"Too darned good a machine can be a menace, not a help." (John W. Campbell Jr, [introduction] "Cloak of Aesir", 1951)

"Science fiction is the literature of the Technological Era. It, unlike other literatures, assumes that change is the natural order of things, that there are goals ahead larger than those we know." (John W Campbell Jr, [introduction to "The Astounding Science Fiction Anthology"] 1952)

"Science is not a sacred cow - but there are a large number of would-be sacred cowherds busily devoting quantities of time, energy and effort to the task of making it one, so they can be sacred cowherds." (John W Campbell Jr, "Prologue to Analog", [introduction] 1962)

"Science fiction is, very strictly and literally, analogous to science facts. It is a convenient analog system for thinking about new scientific, social, and economic ideas - and for re-examining old ideas." (John W Campbell Jr., "Prologue to Analog", 1962)

"That group of writings which is usually referred to as 'mainstream literature' is, actually, a special subgroup of the field of science fiction - for science fiction deals with all places in the Universe, and all times in Eternity, so theliterature of here-and-now is, truly, a subset of science fiction." (John W Campbell Jr, [introduction] Analog I, 1963)

Howard P Lovecraft - Collected Quotes

 "I have often wondered if the majority of mankind ever pause to reflect upon the occasionally titanic significance of dreams, and of the obscure world to which they belong. [...] We may guess that in dreams life, matter, and vitality, as the earth knows such things, are not necessarily constant; and that time and space do not exist as our waking selves comprehend them. Sometimes I believe that this less material life is our truer life, and that our vain presence on the terraqueous globe is itself the secondary or merely virtual phenomenon." (Howard P Lovecraft, "Beyond the Wall of Sleep", 1919)

"Ocean is more ancient than the mountains, and freighted with the memories and the dreams of Time." (Howard P Lovecraft, "The White Ship", 1919)

"Hasheesh helped a great deal, and once sent him to a part of space where form does not exist, but where glowing gases study the secrets of existence. And a violet-coloured gas told him that this part of space was outside what he had called infinity. The gas had not heard of planets and organisms before, but identified Kuranes merely as one from the infinity where matter, energy, and gravitation exist." (Howard P Lovecraft, "Celephais", 1922)

"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." (Howard P Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu", 1926)

"Non- Euclidean calculus and quantum physics are enough to stretch any brain; and when one mixes them with folklore, and tries to trace a strange background of multi-dimensional reality behind the ghoulish hints of Gothic tales and the wild whispers of the chimney-corner, one can hardly expect to be wholly free from mental tension." (Howard P Lovecraft, "The Dreams in the Witch House and Other Weird Stories", 1933)

"Scientific study and reflection had taught us that the known universe of three dimensions embraces the merest fraction of the whole cosmos of substance and energy. In this case an overwhelming preponderance of evidence from numerous authentic sources pointed to the tenacious existence of certain forces of great power and, so far as the human point of view is concerned, exceptional malignancy." (Howard P Lovecraft, "The Shunned House", 1937)

"Men of broader intellect know that there is no clear distinction between the real and the unreal, that things appear as they seem only by virtue of the delicate physical and mental instruments through which we perceive them." (Howard P Lovecraft)

On Literature: On Phenomena (From Fiction to Science-Fiction)

"Phenomena may well be suspected of anything, are capable of anything. Hypothesis proclaims the infinite; that is what gives hypothesis its greatness. Beneath the surface fact it seeks the real fact. It asks creation for her thoughts, and then for her second thoughts. The great scientific discoverers are those who hold nature suspect." (Victor Hugo, "The Toilers of the Sea", 1866)

"I have often wondered if the majority of mankind ever pause to reflect upon the occasionally titanic significance of dreams, and of the obscure world to which they belong. [...] We may guess that in dreams life, matter, and vitality, as the earth knows such things, are not necessarily constant; and that time and space do not exist as our waking selves comprehend them. Sometimes I believe that this less material life is our truer life, and that our vain presence on the terraqueous globe is itself the secondary or merely virtual phenomenon." (Howard P Lovecraft, "Beyond the Wall of Sleep", 1919)

"The mind of man is not adjusted for a close observation of phenomena that belong to the cosmos." (Edwin Balmer & Philip Wylie, "When Worlds Collide", 1932)

"Natural phenomena are less often produced by nature and most often produced by man." (Alfred Bester, "The Devil’s Invention", 1950)

"There are no enemies in science, professor, only phenomena to study." (Charles Lederer, "The Thing (from Another World)", 1951)

"Once you can reproduce a phenomenon, you are well on the way to understanding it." (Arthur C Clarke, Voices from the Sky", 1965)

"The idea of making machines that think has an unfailing fascination, not only for science fiction readers, but for all who can see it is a possible way of gaining some understanding of the working of our own minds. Thinking, however, is not an easily defined phenomenon, although it is often considered to be the process of solving problems." (Edward Ihnatowicz, "The Relevance of Manipulation to the Process of Perception", 1977)

"Time itself, as a phenomenon, is utterly linear and unidirectional." (Orson Scott Card, "PASTWATCH", 1996) 

"Any theory which causes solipsism to seem just as likely an explanation for the phenomena it seeks to describe ought to be held in the utmost suspicion." (Iain Banks, "The Algebraist", 2004

"One of the elementary rules of nature is that, in the absence of a law prohibiting an event or phenomenon, it is bound to occur with some degree of probability. To put it simply and crudely: Anything that can happen does happen." (Kenneth W Ford)

"What strange phenomena we find in a great city, all we need do is stroll about with our eyes open. Life swarms with innocent monsters." (Charles Baudelaire) 

On Literature: On Logic (From Fiction to Science-Fiction)

"A civilization is a heritage of beliefs, customs, and knowledge slowly accumulated in the course of centuries, elements difficult at times to justify by logic, but justifying themselves as paths when they lead somewhere, since they open up for man his inner distance." (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, "Flight to Arras", 1942)

"It is the normal lot of people who must live this life [in space] to be - by terrestrial standards - insane. Insanity under such conditions is a useful and logical defense mechanism, an invaluable and salutary retreat from reality." (Charles L Harness, "The Paradox Men", 1949)

"Insanity, gentlemen, is not a catchall for every human action that involves motives we don’t understand. Insanity has its own structure, its own internal logic." (Stanislaw Lem, "The Investigation", 1959)

"The paranoid seemed rational. The formal pattern of logical reasoning appeared undisturbed. Underneath, however, the paranoid suffered from the greatest mental disfigurement possible for a human being. He was incapable of empathy, unable to imagine himself in another person’s role. Hence for him others did not actually exist - except as objects in motion that did or did not affect his well-being." (Philip K Dick, "Clans of the Alphane Moon", 1964)

"Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic." (Frank Herbert, "Dune: The Prophet", 1965)

"That’s the trouble with computers [...]. Too logical." (Frank Herbert, "Escape Felicity", 1966)

"A science fiction writer is - or should be - constrained by what is, or logically might be. That can mean simple fidelity to facts (which, in science, are always more important than theories - though Lord knows the two help shape each other, undermining the convenient, complacent separation of observer and observed). To me it also means heeding the authentic, the actual and concrete. Bad fiction uses the glossy generality; good writing needs the smattering of detail, the unrelenting busy mystery of the real." (Gregory Benford, "Afterword to Exposures", [in Alien Flesh] 1986)

"Clinging to any form of conservatism can be dangerous. Become too conservative and you are unprepared for surprises. You cannot depend on luck. Logic is blind and often knows only its own past. Logic is good for playing chess but is often too slow for the needs of survival." (Frank Herbert, "Chapterhouse: Dune", 1985)

"Where is the world whose people don't prefer a comfortable, warm, and well-worn belief, however illogical, to the chilly winds of uncertainty?" (Isaac Asimov, "Foundation and Earth", 1986)

"Logic is a wonderful thing but doesn’t always beat actual thought." (Terry Pratchett, "The Last Continent", 1998)

"All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others." (Douglas N Adams, "The Salmon of Doubt", 2002)

Alfred E van Vogt - Collected Quotes

"There is nothing more futile than arguing with someone who has no basis for his opinions but a vague backlash of emotions." (Alfred E van Vogt, "The Gryb", 1940)

"What system do men follow if not that of logic?" (Algfred E van Vogt, "Vault of the Beast", 1940)

"He knew where the seesaw would stop. It would end in the very remote past, with the release of the stupendous temporal energy he had been accumulating with each of those monstrous swings. He would not witness, but he would cause the formation of the planets." (Alfred E van Vogt, "The Seesaw", 1941)

"Of all the energies in the universe, time is the most potent." (Alfred E van Vogt, "The Seesaw", 1941)

"Amnesia is the best method of escaping from reality." (Alfred E van Vogt, "The Players of Null-A", 1948)

"And the more technically developed a nation or race is, the more cruel, ruthless, predatory, and commercialized its systems tend to become [...]" (Alfred E van Vogt, "The World of Null-A", 1948)

"Words were subtle, and frequently had little connection with the facts they were supposed to represent." (Alfred E van Vogt, "The Players of Null-A", 1948)

"Space was vast, the journeys through it long and lonely, landing always a stimulating experience, with its prospect of new life forms to be seen and studied." (Alfred E van Vogt, "The Monster", 1948)

"It must be that robots predated all other life. It’s the only logical conclusion." (Alfred E van Vogt, "Final Command", 1949)

"When a people lose the courage to resist encroachment on their rights, then they can't be saved by an outside force. Our belief is that people always have the kind of government they want and that individuals must bear the risks of freedom, even to the extent of giving their lives." (Alfred E van Vogt," The Weapon Shops of Isher", 1951)

"Science fiction is a field of writing where, month after month, every printed word implies to hundreds of thousands of people: 'There is change. Look, today's fantastic story is tomorrow's fact.'" (Alfred E van Vogt)

George Orwell - Collected Quotes

"The energy that actually shapes the world springs from emotions - racial pride, leader-worship, religious belief, love of war - which liberal intellectuals mechanically write off as anachronisms, and which they have usually destroyed so completely in themselves as to have lost all power of action." (George Orwell, 1941)

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." (George Orwell, "Animal Farm: A Fairy Story", 1945)

"The point is that we are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield." (George Orwell, "In Front of Your Nose", Tribune, 1946)

"Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them." (George Orwell, "1984", 1949)

"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows" (George Orwell, "1984", 1949)

"How could you communicate with the future? It was of its nature impossible. Either the future would resemble the present, in which case it would not listen to him: or it would be different from it, and his predicament would be meaningless." (George Orwell, "1984", 1949)

"If you want to keep a secret you must also hide it from yourself." (George Orwell, "1984", 1949)

"In general, the greater the understanding, the greater the delusion; the more intelligent, the less sane." (George Orwell, "1984", 1949)

"In the long run, a hierarchal society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance." (George Orwell, "1984", 1949)

"It is impossible to found a civilization on fear and hatred and cruelty. It would never endure." (George Orwell, "1984", 1949)

"The best books [...] are those that tell you what you know already." (George Orwell, "1984", 1949)

"Throughout recorded time, and probably since the end of the Neolithic Age, there have been three kinds of people in the world, the High, the Middle, and the Low. They have been subdivided in many ways, they have borne countless different names, and their relative numbers, as well as their attitude toward one another, have varied from age to age; but the essential structure of society has never altered. Even after enormous upheavals and seemingly irrevocable changes, the same pattern has always reasserted itself, just as a gyroscope will always return to equilibrium, however far it is pushed one way or the other." (George Orwell, "1984", 1949)

"We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness." (George Orwell, "1984", 1949)

"Who controls the past [...] controls the future: who controls the present controls the past." (George Orwell, "1984", 1949)

On Literature: On Calculations (From Fiction to Science-Fiction)

"Consequently, these laws of nature need only be discovered, and then man will no longer be answerable for his actions, and his life will become extremely easy. Needless to say, all human actions will then be calculated according to these laws, mathematically, like a table of logarithms, up to 108,000, and entered into a calendar; or, better still, some well-meaning publications will appear, like the present-day encyclopedic dictionaries, in which everything will be so precisely calculated and designated that there will no longer be any actions or adventures in the world." (Fyodor Dostoevsky, "Notes from Underground", 1864)

"Either my calculation is correct, or there is no truth in figures." (Jules Verne, "A Journey to the Center of the Earth", 1864)

"Thanks to the courage and devotion of three men, this project of sending a bullet to the moon, once seen as a futile enterprise, had already produced concrete results, with incalculable consequences. The voyagers, imprisoned in their new satellite, had not reached their destination, but at least they had become part of the lunar world; they were in orbit around the celebrity of the night, and, for the first time, the human eye could penetrate all her mysteries." (Jules Verne, "From the Earth to the Moon", 1865)

"The machine is only a tool after all, which can help humanity progress faster by taking some of the burdens of calculations and interpretations off its back. The task of the human brain remains what it has always been; that of discovering new data to be analyzed, and of devising new concepts to be tested." (Isaac Asimov, "I, Robot", 1950)

"Nature eludes calculation. Number is a grim pullulation. Nature is the thing that cannot be numbered." (Victor Hugo, "The Toilers of the Sea", 1874)

"Magicians have calculated that million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten." (Terry Pratchett, "Mort", 1987)

"Adam and Eve are like imaginary number, like the square root of minus one… If you include it in your equation, you can calculate all manners of things, which cannot be imagined without it." (Philip Pullman, "The Golden Compass", 1995)