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Well, he acts like he has genuine emotions. Uhm, of course, he's programmed that way to make it easier for us to talk to him. But as to whether or not he has real feelings is something I don't think anyone can truthfully answer.
Dr. Frank Poole: How do you account for the discrepancy between you and the twin 9000? HAL: Well, I don 't think there is any question about it. It can only be attributable to human error.This sort of thing has cropped up before and it has…
ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS — EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE.
Now the long wait was ending. On yet another world, intelligence had been born and was escaping from its planetary cradle. An ancient experiment was about to reach its climax. Those who had begun that experiment, so long ago, had not been…
The black rectangular slab that suddenly appeared before him was like an old friend. He had seen it on the Moon; he had encountered it in orbit around Jupiter; and he knew, somehow, that his ancestors had met it long ago. Though it held…
He was no longer radiating wastefully, but had almost mastered his control of energy, as once he had mastered lost though not forgotten limbs. He sank like a mist into the earthquake-proof vaults, until he found himself among billions of…
If he wished, he could focus his attention upon any one of its hundred billion stars. *Here* he was, adrift in this great river of suns, halfway between the banked fires of the galactic core and the lonely, scattered sentinel stars of the…
But that would never happen. If the heat shield failed, the ship would crumple instantly, hammered flat by a solid wall of gas. There would be no pain; his nervous system would not have time to react before it ceased to exist. He had…
"One minute to ignition." His mind flashed back to the here and now. This was the minute that counted; for almost a hundred years, on launch pads and in control centers, this was the longest sixty seconds that had ever existed. Countless…
He had almost reached the center of the planet, but Jupiter had one more surprise in store. The thick shell of metallic yet still fluid hydrogen ended abruptly. At last, there was a solid surface, sixty thousand kilometers down. For ages…
A whole new chapter of evolution, as alien as that which he had glimpsed on Europa, was opening before him. There were jet-propelled torpedoes like the squids of the terrestrial oceans, hunting and devouring the huge gasbags. But the…
But to Vasili, for a moment that would be imprinted on his memory forever, that sharp-edged outline held a completely different, and wholly impossible, scene. It was as if a window had suddenly been opened onto another universe. The vision…
From a distance, one's adversaries seemed fiends, but with a closer view, one saw the sincerity and it was as great as one's own.
Speak up, destiny, speak up! Destiny always seems decades away, but suddenly it's not decades away; it's right now. But maybe destiny is always right now, right here, right this very instant, maybe.
"How can such a great and wise civilization have destroyed itself so completely?"
"Perhaps," said Apollo, "by being materially great and materially wise, and nothing else."
"...That contraption — listen, Brother, they claim it thinks. I didn't believe it at first. Thought, implying rational principle, implying soul. Can the principle of a ?thinking machine' — man-made — be a rational soul? Blah! It seemed a…
Adversity does teach who your real friends are
You don't pay back your parents. You can't. The debt you owe them gets collected by your children, who hand it down in turn. It's a sort of entailment. Or if you don't have children of the body, it's left as a debt to your common humanity.
As for happiness... I don't think you can give that to anyone, if they don't have it in them. However, it's certainly possible to give un-happiness.
Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.
A tactical retreat is not a bad response to a surprise assault, you know. First you survive. Then you choose your own ground. Then you counterattack.
If power was an illusion, wasn't weakness necessarily one also?
There's no such thing as an ex-marine. You may be out, but you never lose the attitude. I told myself I could pass any test a man could pass.
I was a warrior who dreamed he could bring peace. Sooner or later though, we always have to wake up.
You're not in Kansas anymore. You are on Pandora ladies and gentlemen. Respect that fact every second of every day. If there is a hell, you might want to go there for some R and R after a tour on Pandora. Out there, beyond that fence…
Since you're new here, I-I'm gonna cut you a break... today. So, why don't you make like a tree and get outta here?
Last night, Darth Vader came down from planet Vulcan and told me that if I didn't take Lorraine out that he'd melt my brain.
Marty McFly: Doc, we better back up. We don't have enough road to get up to 88.
Dr. Emmett Brown: Roads?... Where we're going we don't need roads.
I'm sure that in 1985 plutonium is available in every corner drug store, but in 1955 it's a little hard to come by.
Dr. Emmett Brown: Tell me, Future Boy, who's President of the United States in 1985? Marty McFly: Ronald Reagan. Dr. Emmett Brown: Ronald Reagan? The actor? Then who's vice-president, Jerry Lewis? I suppose Jane Wyman is the First Lady?…