2001: A Space Odyssey Events Quotes

…he had only to put the corpse where he had left the new baby at the last quarter of the moon, and the hyenas would do the rest. (1.9)

They could never guess that their minds were being probed, their bodies mapped, their reactions studied, their potentials evaluated. (2.18)

He was looking at a peaceful family group, differing in only one respect from the scenes he knew. The male, female, and two infants that had mysteriously appeared before him were gorged and replete...

Then, not for the first or last time, he proved himself a genius. (4.16)

For a few seconds, Moon-Watcher stood uncertainly above his new victim, trying to grasp the strange and wonderful fact that the dead leopard could kill again. Now he was master of the world, and he...

They had learned to speak, and so had won their first great victory over Time. Now the knowledge of one generation could be handed on to the next, so that each age could profit from those that had...

"Dr. Floyd," demanded a very short and determined lady of the press, "what possible justification can there be for this total blackout of news from the Moon?" (7.14)

Someone had once said you could be terrified in space, but you could not be worried there. It was perfectly true. (8.31)

…she came from Bali, and had carried beyond the atmosphere some of the grace and mystery of that still largely unspoiled island. (9.43)

Floyd found himself back in the familiar environment of typewriters, office computer, girl assistants, wall charts, and ringing telephones. (10.21)

It was barely audible, yet it stopped them dead, so that they stood paralyzed on the trail with their jaws hanging slackly. (2.12)

Some immaterial pattern of energy throwing off a spark of radiation like the wake of a racing speedboat, had leaped from the face of the Moon, and was heading out toward the stars. (14.8)

Though he had come back safely from the furthest borders of sleep, and the nearest borders of death, he had been gone only a week. (15.37)

Yet he had no regrets for those lost beauties. He had enjoyed them all, in his thirty-five years of life; and he was determined to enjoy them again, when he returned rich and famous. (16.6)

Like all his colleagues, Bowman was unmarried; it was not fair to send family men on a mission of such duration. (17.26)

Though they were perfectly well aware that 7794 was only a lifeless, airless chunk of rock, this knowledge scarcely affected their feelings. It was the only solid matter they would meet this side o...

It was an eerie sound, for it had nothing to do with Man; it was as lonely and as meaningless as the murmur of waves on a beach, or the distant crash of thunder beyond the horizon. (19.8)

Their goal was a still stranger world, almost twice as far from the Sun—across another half billion miles of comet-haunted emptiness. (20.15)

"Frank Poole, who is specially qualified for this type of work, will go outside the ship and replace the faulty unit with the backup." (21.27)

Space pods were not the most elegant means of transport devised by man, but they were absolutely essential for construction and maintenance work in vacuum. (22.2)

They both knew, of course, that Hal was hearing every word, but they could not help these polite circumlocutions. Hal was their colleague, and they did not wish to embarrass him. (23.27)

"You know that I have the greatest possible enthusiasm for this mission." (24.43)

And then, almost as if in response to his plea, Poole waved back.For an instant, Bowman felt the skin prickling at the base of his scalp. The words he was about to call died on his suddenly parched...

"Unless you obey my instructions, I shall be forced to disconnect you." (26.35)

… he would continue the mission, unhindered and alone. (27.11)

There was not another human being within half a billion miles.And yet, in one very real sense, he was not alone. Before he could be safe, he must be lonelier still. (28.25)

Bowman could bear no more. He jerked out the last unit, and Hal was silent forever. (29.59)

"We do not know if, out on the moons of Saturn, you will meet with good or with evil—or only with ruins a thousand times older than Troy." (30.23)

It was even possible —though he had not yet looked into the supply position carefully —that by rigorous rationing he might remain alive, without resort to hibernation, until rescue came. (31.7)

They would replace their natural bodies as they wore out—or perhaps even before that—by constructions of metal and plastic and would thus achieve immortality. (32.15)

During the last three months, David Bowman had adapted himself so completely to his solitary way of life that he found it hard to remember any other existence. He had passed beyond despair and beyo...

Perhaps indeed he was [suffering from delusions]; for he had half convinced himself that the bright ellipse set against the dark background of the satellite was a huge empty eye, staring at him as...

"It's just like the thing you found on the Moon! This is TMA-1's big brother!" (36.6)

They tinkered with the destiny of many species, on land and in the ocean. But which of their experiments would succeed they could not know for at least a million years. (37.8)

It if had been alive, it would have felt excitement, but such an emotion was wholly beyond its powers…It had waited three million years; it was prepared to wait for eternity. (38.7)

"The thing's hollow—it goes on forever—and—oh my God!—it's full of stars!" (39.20)

The seconds themselves were passing with incredible slowness, as if time itself were coming to a stop. At last, the tenth-of-a-second counter froze between 5 and 6. (41.7)

Bowman wondered if this was indeed his own galaxy, seen from a point much closer to its brilliant, crowded center.He hoped that it was; then he would not be so far from home. But this, he realized...

He did not even attempt to grasp the scale of the inferno toward which he was descending. (43.2)

If he was indeed mad, his delusions were beautifully organized. Everything was perfectly real; nothing vanished when he turned his back. (44.7-8)

David Bowman moved into a realm of consciousness that no man had experienced before. (45.4)

Then he remembered that he would never be alone, and his panic slowly ebbed. (46.13)

He had missed its builders by ages, and with that realization Bowman felt a sudden sinking of his heart...Well, it was unreasonable to expect more. Already he had seen wonders for which many men wo...