“It is some­times argued, by peo­ple who can know very lit­tle about either sci­ence or sci­ence fic­tion, that the actual achieve­ment of space travel will mean the end of romances about the sub­ject. The reverse is more likely to be the case… The more we really know, the greater is the scope for fic­tion; only fee­ble minds are par­a­lyzed by facts.

[…]

It is surely only a mat­ter of time before artists, writ­ers, and musi­cians express their reac­tions to man’s newest con­quest of his envi­ron­ment. From the explo­ration of space has already come such a flood of knowl­edge as the world has never before seen. But that is not enough, for with­out feel­ing and emo­tion, knowl­edge alone is no more than a weari­ness of the soul.”

- Arthur C. Clark from The Promise of Space

Via Jimmy Mar­ble