# Quote — Arthur C. Clarke, The Fountains Of Paradise

> The fates could not possibly be so malevolent, now that he had only a few hundred meters to go.
>
> He was whistling in the dark, of course. How many aircraft had crashed at the very edge of the runway, after safely crossing an ocean? How many times had machines or muscles failed when there were only millimeters to go? Every possible piece of luck, bad as well as good, happened to somebody, somewhere. He had no right to expect any special treatment.

- Author: [Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke.md)
- Book: [The Fountains Of Paradise](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-fountains-of-paradise.md)
- Page: 272
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke#The_Fountains_of_Paradise_(1979)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Topics: [fate](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate.md)
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-fountains-of-paradise/the-fates-could

## More from this book

> Since women are better at producing babies, presumably Nature has given men some talent to compensate. But for the moment I can't think of it.

p. 52 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-fountains-of-paradise/since-women-are.md)

Topics: [women](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women.md)

> There was no substitute for reality; one should be aware of imitations.

p. 129 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-fountains-of-paradise/there-was-no-substitute.md)

Topics: [truth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth.md)

> The hypothesis you refer to as God, though not disprovable by logic alone, is unnecessary for the following reason.
>
> If you assume that the universe can be quote explained unquote as the creation of an entity known as God, he must obviously be of a higher degree of organization than his product. Thus you have more than doubled the size of the original problem, and have taken the first step on a diverging infinite regress. William of Ockham pointed out as recently as your fourteenth century that entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily. I cannot therefore understand why this debate continues.

p. 95 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-fountains-of-paradise/the-hypothesis-you.md)

Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md)