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." - Meaning and context.">
QuotesCosmos
Ch. 53 “Fade-Out”, p. 272
“

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.

— Arthur C. Clarke

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "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." in the context of "Ch. 53 “Fade-Out”, p. 272" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Arthur C. Clarke" (Quotes, 1970s, The Fountains of Paradise (1979): All page numbers from the mass market paperback edition published by Del Rey (First Ballantine Books edition, February 1980) ) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app

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#Arthur C. Clarke#many#millimeters#malevolent#whistling#somewhere#treatment#possibly#aircraft#crossing#machines#possible
Arthur C. Clarke

About Arthur C. Clarke

Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 1917 – 19 March 2008) was a British author, inventor and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Clarke were known as the "Big Three" of science fiction.