Dimensions - Quotes from Science Fiction

A lot of quotations carefully collected from a very big amount of books and divided by categories.

Have fun reading it, this is really interesting and breathtaking!

Hasheesh helped a great deal, and once sent him to a part of space where form does not exist, but where glowing gases study the secrets of existence. And a violet-coloured gas told him that this part of space was outside what he had called infinity. The gas had not heard of planets and organisms before, but identified Kuranes merely as one from the infinity where matter, energy, and gravitation exist.

- H. P. Lovecraft, ''Celephais'' (1922)

There were boundless, unforeseeable realms, planet on planet, universe on universe, to which we might attain, and among whose prodigies and marvels we could dwell or wander indefinitely. In these worlds, our brains would be attuned to the comprehension of vaster and higher scientific laws, and states of entity beyond those of our present dimensional milieu.

- Clark Ashton Smith, ''Beyond the Singing Flame'' (1931)

I had often pondered the possibility of other worlds or material planes which may co-exist in the same space with ours, invisible and impalpable to human senses. Of course, I realized at once that I had fallen into some such dimension.

- Clark Ashton Smith, ''The City of the Singing Flame'' (1931)

Scientific study and reflection had taught us that the known universe of three dimensions embraces the merest fraction of the whole cosmos of substance and energy. In this case an overwhelming preponderance of evidence from numerous authentic sources pointed to the tenacious existence of certain forces of great power and, so far as the human point of view is concerned, exceptional malignancy.

- H. P. Lovecraft, ''The Shunned House'' (1937)

Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.

- Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, and Edgar AllanWoolf, TheWizard of Oz (film, 1939)

He built up impossible situations, devised great travels and adventures, accepted shaky premises and theories, dallied with metaphysical speculation. He wandered to improbable dimensions, conversed with strange beings that lived on unknown worlds, battled with vicious entities that spawned outside the pale of time and space, rescued civilizations tottering on the brink of horrible destruction.

- Clifford D. Simak, ''Earth for Inspiration'' (1941)

''What number are you calling, please?'' ''Charlemont 7-890,'' I whispered. ''Sorry. You must have the wrong dimension.''

- Ross Rocklynne, ''Sorry: Wrong Dimension'' (1954)

We live in another dimension, in the suburbs of time, you might say.

- Gore Vidal, Visit to a Small Planet, revised (play, 1957)

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to Man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call . . . The Twilight Zone.

- Rod Serling, opening narration, The Twilight Zone (TV series, 1959)

You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind; a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's the signpost up ahead - your next stop, The Twilight Zone.

- Rod Serling, opening narration, The Twilight Zone (TV series, 1961)

You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension. A dimension of sound. A dimension of sight. A dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into The Twilight Zone.

- Rod Serling, opening narration, The Twilight Zone (TV series, 1963)

It was beyond him how someone could voluntarily let himself get involved in this game of dimension-shifting and mutant-battling. But it takes all sorts to make a continuum.

- Robert Silverberg, ''MUgwump 4'' (1959)

Even if all life on our planet is destroyed, there must be other life somewhere which we know nothing of. It is impossible that ours is the only world; there must be world after world unseen by us, in some region or dimension that we simply do not perceive.

- Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle (1962)

These parallel worlds are a knotty problem, he realized. I wonder how many exist. Dozens? With a different human sub-species dominant on each? Weird idea. He shivered. God, how unpleasant . . . like concentric rings of hell, each with its own particular brand of torment.

- Philip K. Dick, The Crack in Space (1965)

Why had the God willed that time branch and rebranch, enormous, shadowy, bearing universes like the Yggdrasil of Danskar legend? Was it so that man could realize every potentiality there was in him? Surely not. So many of them were utter horror.

- Poul Anderson ''Eutopia'' (1967)

Mr. Asenion had been working on a Dimensional Redistributor. He had been seeking to open gateways to the many strange dimensions that exist around us. He had never been successful.

- Alexei Panshin, ''When the Vertical World Becomes Horizontal'' (1974)

You might like the desert, Dagny. There's a peculiar fascination about it. Almost like living in another dimension.

- Philip Latham, ''A Drop of Dragon's Blood'' (1975)

There were worlds in the jewel. There was ancient Barsoom of my childhood fairy tales; there was Middle Earth with brooding castles and sentient forests. The jewel was a window into something unimaginable, a place where there were no questions and no emotions but a vast awareness. [. . .] There was no corner of the universe that it did not reach.

- John Varley, ''In the Bowl'' (1975)

He believed that the so-called hallucinations caused by some of these drugs (with emphasis, he continually reminded himself, on the word ''some'') were not hallucinations at all, but perceptions of other zones of reality. Some of them were frightening; some appeared lovely.

- Philip K. Dick and Roger Zelazny, Deus Irae (1976)

We are not in the Eighth Dimension, we are over New Jersey. All is not lost.

- Earl Mac Rauch, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai across the 8th Dimension (film, 1984)

There are documented cases. Things I could tell you you wouldn't believe. Look it up. Planes of existence we can't see or not a lot. People lost and floating about in interdimensional yogurt.

- Neal Barrett, Jr., ''Perpetuity Blues'' (1987)

It is now known to science that there are many more dimensions than the classical four. Scientists say that these don't normally impinge on the world because the extra dimensions are very small and curve in on themselves, and that since reality is fractal most of it is tucked inside itself. This means either that the universe is more full of wonders than we can hope to understand or, more probably, that scientists make things up as they go along.

- Terry Pratchett, Pyramids (1989)

''Since when did you start wearing glasses?'' ''Since I met a Buddhist street vendor who sent me on a trip to another dimension.''

- Paul Di Filippo, ''Lennon Spex'' (1992)

''Openers don't much care about temporal immortality,'' Ry Arnis said. ''When we open a gate - we glimpse eternity. A hundred gates, a hundred different eternities. Coming back is just an interlude between forevers.''

- Greg Bear, ''TheWay of All Ghosts'' (1999)

''Every meter, every second, every dimension, has its own mind here,'' Karn said. ''Space and time are arguing, fighting.''

- Greg Bear, ''TheWay of All Ghosts'' (1999)