It must be wonderful to be seventeen, and to know everything.
Interpretation
The quote humorously reflects the confidence and perceived omniscience of adolescence.
Arthur C. Clarke's quote highlights the often exaggerated self-assurance and belief in one's knowledge that comes with being seventeen. It points out the irony of youth, suggesting that while teenagers may feel invincible and all-knowing, true wisdom often comes with age and experience.
In practice
During a graduation speech to highlight the idealism of youth.
Nowhere in space will we rest our eyes upon the familiar shapes of trees and plants, or any of the animals that share our world. Whatsoever life we meet will be as strange and alien as the nightmare creatures of the ocean abyss, or of the insect empire whose horrors are normally hidden from us by their microscopic scale.
As our own species is in the process of proving, one cannot have superior science and inferior morals. The combination is unstable and self-destroying.
It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value.
The best measure of a man's honesty isn't his income tax return. It's the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.
It was the mark of a barbarian to destroy something one could not understand.
My favorite definition of an intellectual: 'Someone who has been educated beyond his/her intelligence'.
Many of us worry about the situation of the world . . . We need to remain calm, to see clearly. Meditation is a means to be aware, and to try to help.
When the uncarved wood is split, its parts are put to use. When the sage is put to use, he becomes the head.
If you live for peopleβs acceptance you will die from their rejection.
A single lie destroys a whole reputation for integrity.
Man conquers the world by conquering himself.
Instead of dwelling on negative thoughts, cause your mind to dwell on peace and joy.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.