Absolutely no religious rites of any kind, relating to any religious faith, should be associated with my funeral.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a desire for a secular farewell, free from religious customs.
In this quote, Arthur C. Clarke conveys his preference for a non-religious funeral, suggesting that he values a personal and introspective approach to death over traditional religious rites. This perspective highlights a broader philosophical stance on the significance of individual choices in matters of life and death, emphasizing rationalism and personal belief systems rather than communal religious practices.
In practice
During a discussion about personal beliefs regarding funerals, someone might reference this quote to advocate for non-religious ceremonies.
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'.
Let no act be done without purpose.
The idea of what the public will think prevents the public from ever thinking at all, and acts as a spell on the exercise of private judgment.
It isn't like the rest of the country - it is like a nation itself - more tolerant than the rest in a curious way. Littleness gets swallowed up here. All the viciousness that makes other cities vicious is sucked up and absorbed in New York.
All day long he was docile, intelligent, good, Though sometimes changing to a darker mood. He seemed hypocritical, could tell better lies, in the dark he saw dots of colors behind closed eyes, clenched fists, put his tongue out at his elder brother.
Because abortions are illegal, women who need and want them have no choice in the matter, and you-because you know how to perform them-have no choice, either
God has wisely kept us in the dark concerning future events and reserved for himself the knowledge of them, that he may train us up in a dependence upon himself and a continued readiness for every event.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.