First Contact Quotes

The first question we would ask if aliens landed on this planet is not, 'What does this mean for the economy or jobs?' It would be, 'Are they friendly or unfriendly?'

If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans.

I am a stranger. I come in peace. Take me to your leader and there will be a massive reward for you in eternity.

We did not know there were other people besides the Indian until about one hundred winters ago, when some men with white faces came to our country.

Would you let the aliens land, please? They might be here to pick me up.

The worst mistake of first contact, made throughout history by individuals on both sides of every new encounter, has been the unfortunate habit of making assumptions. It often proved fatal.

I come in peace...Take me to your lizard.

Eight and twenty canoes, full of men, women and children seemingly very glad of our coming …. The people of the country came aboard of us and making show of love, and gave us tobacco and Indian wheat, and departed for that night; but we durst not trust them.

And no answer when we sent our message. Something like, "Hello, welcome to Earth. Hope you enjoy your stay. Please don't kill us.

Peter Watts has taken the core myths of the First Contact story and shaken them to pieces. The result is a shocking and mesmerizing performance, a tour-de-force of provocative and often alarming ideas. It is a rare novel that has the potential to set science fiction on an entirely new course. Blindsight is such a book.

[Describing the Croatan Indians the English explorers met in Sir Walter Raleigh's first expedition to Virginia: ... very handsome and goodly people, and in their behavior as mannerly and civil as any in Europe.

On the day that we do discover that we are not alone, our society may begin to evolve and transform in some incredible and wondrous new ways.

On the night of the 1st of September we observed for the first time signs of the natives being in the neighbourhood. Fires were seen on the low land near Cape Frederick Henry, and at daylight we saw the natives with our glasses.

The feeling is constantly growing on me that I had been the first to hear the greeting of one planet to another.

The first white men of your people who came to our country were named Lewis and Clark. They brought many things that our people had never seen. They talked straight. These men were very kind.

First and foremost, The Quiet Invasion is a first contact story. What would we do if we actually found evidence of alien life out there? It's also about politics.

I have making a new film called Story of Your Life, directed by Denis Villeneuve, with Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker. Which is about aliens coming to the earth and observing us and us trying to find a way to communicate with them.

My belief is you have one chance to make a first impression.

You only get one chance to make a good first impression, and yours may be in the hands of the receptionist.

The first person a customer speaks with has the greatest impact on that customer's impression of Safeway.

I'm not encouraged by the silence. I can think of no benign reason for it. I'm afraid we may expect something closer to Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas than a scene from Close Encounters, and we all know how that turned out for the Native Americans.

Perhaps the safest thing to do at the outset, if technology permits, is to send music. This language may be the best we have for explaining what we are like to others in space, with least ambiguity. I would vote for Bach, all of Bach, streamed out into space, over and over again. We would be bragging of course, but it is surely excusable to put the best possible face on at the beginning of such an acquaintance. We can tell the harder truths later.

I do suspect we are going to get signs of life elsewhere, but how well prepared are we for this? Have we thought how we will approach them? We need to start thinking about that.

When I watch alien movies, I want to be the alien. I don't want to be the people that make first contact or anything; I just want to be that creature.

So in the sense that we were all dealing with that freer approach, yes, it was certainly one of the first contacts, perhaps the first contact, when Peter came that summer. So it's a very pivotal moment that is documented there.