Stanislaw Lem Quotes

“Omnipotence is most omnipotent when one does nothing!”
― Stanislaw Lem

“I was still a prisoner in my nightmares, and every morning the play began again.”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“What did that word mean to me? Earth? I thought of the great bustling cities, where I would wander and lose myself, and I thought of them as I had thought of the ocean on the second or third night, when I had wanted to throw myself upon the dark waves. I shall immerse myself among men. I shall be silent and attentive, an appreciative companion. There will be many acquaintances, friends, women--and perhaps even a wife. For a while, I shall have to make a conscious effort to smile, nod, stand and perform the thousands of little gestures which constitute life on Earth, and then those gestures will become reflexes again. I shall find new interests and occupations; and I shall not give myself completely to them, as I shall never again give myself completely to anything or anybody.”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“Uçsuz bucaksızlığın tam ortasında, yerden de gökten de uzaklarda, ne ayaklarımın altında toprak ne başımın üstünde gökten bir kemer, yalnızca hiçliğin olduğu bulanık bir boşluk. Yabancı bir maddenin tutsağıyım, ölü, biçimden yoksun bir tozle kaplı bedenim - daha doğrusu hiç bedenim yok, o yabanıl madde ben’im. Donuk pembe bulutsu kürecikler sarıyor her yanımı, havadan daha yoğun, daha geçirimsiz bir ortamda asılı duruyor. Nesnecikler ancak çok yakına gelince belirginleşiyor, daha da yaklaştı mı olağandışı biçimde seçikleşiyor, varlıkları doğaötesi bir canlılık, bir dirilik etkisi bırakıyor. Elle tutulur, sapasağlam bir gerçeklikleri olduğu inancı öylesine karşı konulmaz ki sonra, uyandığımda da, az önce gerçek bir algı durumundaymışım da gözlerimi açtıktan sonra gördüğüm her şey gerçekdışıy-mış, su götürürmüş izlenimi uyanıyor”
― Stanisław Lem

“Ci consideriamo i cavalieri del Santo Contatto, e questa è la menzogna numero due: la verità è che cerchiamo soltanto la gente. Non abbiamo bisogno di altri mondi, ma di specchi. Degli altri mondi non sappiamo che farcene, quello che abbiamo ci basta e ci avanza. In alcuni pianeti speriamo di trovare il modello ideale e civiltà migliori della nostra, in altri speriamo di scoprire l'immagine del nostro passato primigenio. Tuttavia, di quel mondo, c'è anche qualcosa che rifiutiamo, da cui ci difendiamo... Il fatto è che non arriviamo dalla Terra come campioni di virtù o come monumenti dell'eroismo umano: ci portiamo dietro esattamente quello che siamo e quando l'altra parte ci svela la nostra verità - il lato che ne teniamo nascosto - non riusciamo ad accettarla!

- E cioè, che cosa? - chiesi dopo averlo pazientemente ascoltato.

- Quello che volevamo: il contatto con un'altra civiltà. E adesso che ce l'abbiamo, vediamo che si tratta solo della nostra mostruosa bruttezza, della nostra follia e della nostra vergogna ingrandite al microscopio!”
― Stanislaw Lem

“Salimos al cosmos preparados para todo, es decir: para la soledad, la lucha, el martirio y la muerte. La modestia nos impide decirlo en vos alta, pero a veces pensamos, de nosotros mismos, que somos maravillosos"

- Solaris”
― Stanislaw Lem

“Hemos llegado aquí tal como somos en realidad y cuando la otra parte, la parte que silenciamos, nos muestra esa verdad ¡no somos capaces de aceptarlo!”
― Stanislaw Lem

“Lo que anhelábamos: el Contacto con otra civilización. ¡Lo tenemos, hemos establecido ese Contacto! ¡Nuestra propia fealdad, aumentada como bajo un microscopio, nuestra necedad y nuestra vergüenza!”
― Stanislaw Lem

“Excuse me, what does 'no appreciable relation' mean'? In what proportion is reality appreciable or not?”
― Stanislaw Lem

“The night transfixed me; the night took possession of me, enveloped and penetrated me, impalpable, insubstantial. Turned to stone.”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“You are doing all you can to stay human in an inhuman situation. Noble it may be, but it isn't going to get you anywhere. And I'm not so sure about it being noble-not if it's idiotic at the same time.”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“For the very reason that here nothing served a purpose--not ever, not to anyone--and that here no guillotine of evolution was in play, amputating from every genotype whatever did not contribute to survival, nature, constrained neither by the life she bore nor by the death she inflicted, could achieve, liberation, displaying a prodigality characteristic of herself, a limitless wastefulness, a brute magnificence that was useless, an eternal power of creation without a goal, without a need, without a meaning.”
― Stanislaw Lem, Fiasco (El libro de bolsillo - Bibliotecas de autor - Biblioteca Lem)

“For the very reason that here nothing served a purpose--not ever, not to anyone--and that here no guillotine of evolution was in play, amputating from every genotype whatever did not contribute to survival, nature, constrained neither by the life she bore nor by the death she inflicted, could achieve liberation, displaying a prodigality characteristic of herself, a limitless wastefulness, a brute magnificence that was useless, an eternal power of creation without a goal, without a need, without a meaning.”
― Stanislaw Lem, Fiasco (El libro de bolsillo - Bibliotecas de autor - Biblioteca Lem)

“The urge to destruction is deducible from thermodynamics. Life is a fraud, an attempt at embezzlement, seeking to circumvent laws otherwise inevitable and implacable; insulated from the rest of the world, it immediately enters the path of decay, and that inclined plane leads to the normal state of matter, to the permanent equilibrium that is death. In order to continue living, life must feed on order, but because there is no order--none highly organized--other than life, it is condemned to consume itself. It must destroy to live, must take its nourishment from systems that are nourishment only to the extent that they can be ruined. Not ethics but physics determines this law.”
― Stanisław Lem, His Master's Voice