Karel Čapek > Quotes

“Only years of practice will teach you the mysteries and bold certainty of a real gardener, who treads at random, yet tramples on nothing.”
― Karel Čapek

“Everyone has the best of feelings towards mankind in general, but not towards the individual man. We'll kill men, but we want to save mankind. And that isn't right, your Reverence. The world will be an evil place as long as people don't believe in other people.”
― Karel Čapek, The Absolute at Large

“We´re two, two for everything, for love, life, for a fight and pain, for hours of happiness. Two for wins and losses, for life and for death - TWO!”
― Karel Čapek

“Just imagine the silence in the world, if people talked only what they knew”
― Karel Čapek

“Nobody can hate man more than man.”
― Karel Čapek, R.U.R.

“I find that a real gardener is not a man who cultivates flowers; he is a man who cultivates the soil. He is a creature who digs himself into the earth and leaves the sight of what is on it to us gaping good-for-nothings. He lives buried in the ground. He builds his monument in a heap of compost. If he came into the Garden of Eden, he would sniff excitedly and say: "Good Lord, what humus!”
― Karel Čapek, Gardener's Year

“It's not possible to search for God using the methods of a detective... There is no way. You can only wait till God's axe severs your roots: then you will understand that you are here only through a miracle, and you will remain fixed forever in wonderment and equilibrium.”
― Karel Čapek, Cross Roads

“They all had a thousand good economic and political reasons why they couldn’t stop. I’m not a politician or a businessman; how am I supposed to persuade them about these things. What are we supposed to do; quite likely the world will collapse and disappear under water; but at least that will happen for political and economic reasons we can all understand, at least it will happen with the help of science, technology and public opinion, with human ingenuity of all sorts! Not some cosmic catastrophe but just the same old reasons to do with the struggle for power and money and so on. There’s nothing we can do about that.”
― Karel Čapek, War with the Newts

“It is a well–known fact that the greater a man is the less he has on his door–plate.”
― Karel Čapek, War with the Newts

“It suddenly occurred to me that every move on the chessboard is old and has been played by somebody at some time. Maybe our own history has been played out by somebody at some time, and we just move our pieces about in the same moves to strike in the same way as people have always done.”
― Karel Čapek, War with the Newts

“The most terrible struggle in our recent history is being played out. It is not only a struggle for our land, it is a struggle for our soul.... A thousand years of tradition suffice for a nation to learn once and for always these two things: to defend its existence, and with all its heart and all its strength to stand on the side of peace and liberty.”
― Karel Capek

“Helena: Will they be happier when they can feel pain?
Dr. Gall: On the contrary. But they will be technically more perfect.”
― Karel Čapek, R.U.R.

“Besides, people never regard anything that serves and benefits them as mysterious; only the things which damage or threaten them are mysterious.”
― Karel Čapek, War with the Newts

“History is not made by great dreams, but by the petty wants of all respectable, moderately thievish and selfish people, that is, of everyone. All our ideas, loves, plans, heroic ideals, all these lofty things are worthless.”
― Karel Čapek

“People with ideas should not be allowed to have an influence on affairs of the world.”
― Karel Čapek

“It's astonishing what a number of churches and idiots there are in the world.”
― Karel Čapek, R.U.R.

“Well people are just one species too, aren't they. And it's never stopped them fighting with each other; all the same species and think of all the excuses for war they've used! It hasn't had to be about space to live in, it's been about power, prestige, influence, fame, resources and I don't know what else!”
― Karel Čapek

“It is a foible of our human nature that when we have an extremely unpleasant experience, it gives us a peculiar satisfaction if it is “the biggest” of its disagreeable kind that has happened since the world began. During a heat wave, for instance, we are very pleased if the papers announce that it is “the highest temperature reached since the year 1881,” and we feel a little resentment towards the year 1881 for having gone us one better. Or if our ears are frozen till all the skin peels off, it fills us with a certain happiness to learn that “it was the hardest frost recorded since 1786.” It is just the same with wars. The war in progress is either the most righteous or the bloodiest, or the most successful, or the longest, since such and such a time; any superlative whatever always affords us the proud satisfaction of having been through something extraordinary and record-breaking.”
― Karel Čapek, The Absolute at Large

“„Představte si to ticho, kdyby lidé říkali jen to, co vědí.”
― Karel Čapek

“but within the next ten years Rossum’s Universal Robots will produce so much wheat, so much cloth, so much everything that things will no longer have any value. Everyone will be able to take as much as he needs. There’ll be no more poverty. Yes, people will be out of work, but by then there’ll be no work left to be done. Everything will be done by living machines. People will do only what they enjoy. They will live only to perfect themselves.”
― Karel Čapek, R.U.R.

“nothing is stranger to man than his own image”
― Karel Čapek, R.U.R.

“The earth will probably sink and drown; but at least it will be the result of generally acknowledged political and economic ideas, at least it will be accomplished with the help of the science, industry, and public opinion, with the application of all human ingenuity! No cosmic catastrophy, nothing but state, official, economic, and other causes. Nothing can be done to prevent it.”
― Karel Čapek, War with the Newts

“Do you think that the soul first shows itself by a gnashing of teeth?”
― Karel Čapek, R.U.R.

“I had written the sentence, 'You mustn't think that the evolution that gave rise to us was the only evolutionary possibility on this planet. . . . that cultural developments could be shaped through the mediation of another animal species. If the biological conditions were favorable, some civilization not inferior to our own could arise in the depths of the sea. . . . Would it do the same stupid things mankind has done? Would it invite the same historical calamities? What would we say if some animal other than man declared that its education and its numbers gave it the sole right to occupy the entire world and hold sway over all creation?”
― Karel Capek

“You still stand watch, O human star, burning without a flicker, perfect flame, bright and resourceful spirit. Each of your rays a great idea - O torch which passes from hand to hand, from age to age, world without end.”
― Karel Čapek

“Поблагодарих му сърдечно и когато се скри зад завоя, аз прескочих стобора на градинката и с неговия собствен бел изкопах двете сини хризантеми. Откраднах ги, разбирате ли? Аз съм честен човек, в живота си съм крал само седем пъти: и то винаги цветя.”
― Karel Čapek, Tales from Two Pockets

“„Представете си само каква тишина щеше да настане, ако хората говореха само това, което знаят.”
― Karel Čapek

“Robots of the world, you are ordered to exterminate the human race. Do not spare the men. Do not spare the women. Preserve only the factories, railroads, machines, mines, and raw materials. Destroy everything else. Then return to work. Work must not cease.”
― Karel Čapek

“Too cheap, my dear fellow. Must Nature always be asked to straighten out the mess that man has made? And so, even you don't believe now that they could help themselves? So you see, you see; at the end you would again like to rely on someone or something to save you!”
― Karel Čapek, War with the Newts

“It means that each factory will be making Robots of a different color, a different nationality, a different tongue; they'll all be different---as different from one another as fingerprints; they'll no longer be able to conspire with one another; and we---we people will help to foster their prejudices and cultivate their mutual lack of understanding, you see? So that any given Robot, to the day of its death, right to the grave, will forever hate a Robot bearing the trademark of another factory.”
― Karel Čapek, R.U.R.