189 Quotes by Stanisław Lem

Too much beauty undermines the marriage vows, too much knowledge leads to isolation, and too much wealth produces madness.

In the past an artist produced things that were necessary socially; they were instruments, albeit of a special kind, that helped the dead reach eternity, spells to be cast, prayers to be liturgically fleshed. . . . The aesthetic component of those instruments enhanced their function but was never central, never an independent, nonutilitarian thing.

No one reads; if someone does read, he doesn't understand; if he understands, he immediately forgets.

Is a mountain only a huge stone? Is a planet an enormous mountain?

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. Each leads to another. And wherever we cannot go ourselves, we reach with mathematics. Out of mathematics we build wagons to carry us into the nonhuman realms of the world.

Faith is, at one and the same time, absolutely necessary and altogether impossible.

A bosszúnál is barbárabb lépés lett volna: elpusztítani valamit, mert nem tudjuk megérteni.

What gave you this idea of an imperfect god?''I don't know. It seems quite feasible to me. That is the only god I could imagine believing in, a god whose passion is not a redemption, who saves nothing, fulfills no purpose--a god who simply is.

The night stared me in the face, amorphous, blind, infinite, without frontiers. Not a single start relieved the darkness behind the glass.