Somewhere back at the beginning I was chosen to be Jester, and there is only one Jester at a time in Diaspar… — Arthur C. Clarke

If the artist did not know his goal, even the most miraculous of tools could not find it for him.

It is not my duty as an historian to predict the future, only to observe and interpret the past. But its lesson is clear enough; we have lived too long out of contact with reality, and now the time has come to rebuild our lives.

He had discharged his destiny; now, perhaps, he could begin to live.