"Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying."
— Arthur C. Clarke
"There is no reason to assume that the universe has the slightest interest in intelligence, or even in life. Both may be random accidental by-products of its operations like the beautiful patterns on a butterfly's wings. The insect would fly just as well without them."
— Arthur C. Clarke
"After centuries of searching for sapient life, I guess humanity finally gave up and made some."
— Whisper, Crimson Dark
"I have a file with 900 pages of analysis and contingency plans for war with Mars, including fourteen different scenarios about what to do if they develop an unexpected new technology. My file for what to do if an advanced alien species comes calling is three pages long, and it begins with "Step 1: Find God."
— Chrisjen Avasarala, The Expanse
Thus the entire problem of why the Galaxy was empty of advanced life when humanity ventured into it has no resolution....
"There are the stars — doing their old, old crisscross journeys in the sky. Scholars haven't settled the matter yet, but they seem to think there are no living beings up there. Just chalk...or fire. Only this one is straining away, straining away all the time to make something of itself."
"Rimmer, there's nothing out there, you know. There's nobody out there. No alien monsters, no Zargon warships, no beautiful blondes with beehive hairdos who say, 'Show me some more of this Earth thing called kissing.'"
— Lister, Red Dwarf
