2001: A Space Odyssey

by

Arthur C. Clarke

Heywood Floyd Character Analysis

Heywood Floyd serves as the Chairman of the National Council of Astronauts, entrusted by the U.S. President to investigate the recently discovered TMA-1. During his journey from Earth to the moon, Floyd marvels at modern technology, describing in detail modern inventions like Velcro shoes, space-food, and the Newspad. Despite his enthusiasm for technology, Floyd also harbors concerns about the planet's fate. While tools saved the man-apes from extinction, allowing them to dominate the Earth, this propensity for toolmaking has brought humanity back to the brink of extinction: nuclear war looms, threatening to destroy humanity from within. Still, Floyd proves hopeful, a testament both to his personal optimism as well as humanity’s forward-looking attitude. Upon meeting the space-child, Diana, Floyd realizes that humanity’s future lies in the stars; Earth may not be habitable forever, but Floyd believes in the resilience and endless adaptability of humanity.

Heywood Floyd Quotes in 2001: A Space Odyssey

The 2001: A Space Odyssey quotes below are all either spoken by Heywood Floyd or refer to Heywood Floyd . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Collaboration vs. Individualism Theme Icon
).
Chapter 7 Quotes

With the need for international cooperation more urgent than ever, there were still as many frontiers as in any earlier age. In a million years, the human race had lost few of its aggressive instincts; along symbolic lines visible only to politicians, the thirty-eight nuclear powers watched one another with belligerent anxiety. Among them, they possessed sufficient megatonnage to remove the entire surface crust of the planet. Although there had been—miraculously—no use of atomic weapons, this situation could hardly last forever.

Related Characters: David Bowman (The Star-Child) , Moon-Watcher , Heywood Floyd
Page Number: 44
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

He had made, utterly without incident and in little more than one day, the incredible journey of which men had dreamed for two thousand years. After a normal, routine flight, he had landed on the moon.

Related Characters: Moon-Watcher , Heywood Floyd
Page Number: 69
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

Any man who had ever worked in a hardened missile site would have felt at home in Clavius. Here on the Moon were the same arts and hardware of underground living, and of protection against a hostile environment; but here they had been turned to the purposes of peace. After the thousand years, Man had at last found something as exciting as war.

Related Characters: Heywood Floyd
Page Number: 73
Explanation and Analysis:

So here, Floyd told himself, is the first generation of the Spaceborn; there would be more of them to come. Though there was sadness in this thought, there was also great hope. When Earth was tamed and tranquil, and perhaps a little tired, there would still be scope for those who loved freedom, for the tough pioneers, the restless adventurers…The time was fast approaching when Earth, like all mothers, must say farewell to her children.

Related Characters: Heywood Floyd , Diana Halvorsen
Page Number: 77
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

Three million years! The infinitely crowded panorama of written history, with its empires, and its kings, its triumphs and its tragedies, covered barely one thousandth of this appalling span of time. Not only Man himself, but most of the animals now alive on Earth, did not even exist when this black enigma was so carefully buried here, in the most brilliant and most spectacular of all the craters on the moon.

Related Characters: Heywood Floyd
Related Symbols: The Monolith
Page Number: 87-88
Explanation and Analysis:

Pandora’s box, thought Floyd, with a sudden sense of foreboding—waiting to be opened by inquisitive Man. And what will he find inside?

Related Characters: Heywood Floyd
Related Symbols: The Monolith
Page Number: 94
Explanation and Analysis:
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Heywood Floyd Quotes in 2001: A Space Odyssey

The 2001: A Space Odyssey quotes below are all either spoken by Heywood Floyd or refer to Heywood Floyd . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Collaboration vs. Individualism Theme Icon
).
Chapter 7 Quotes

With the need for international cooperation more urgent than ever, there were still as many frontiers as in any earlier age. In a million years, the human race had lost few of its aggressive instincts; along symbolic lines visible only to politicians, the thirty-eight nuclear powers watched one another with belligerent anxiety. Among them, they possessed sufficient megatonnage to remove the entire surface crust of the planet. Although there had been—miraculously—no use of atomic weapons, this situation could hardly last forever.

Related Characters: David Bowman (The Star-Child) , Moon-Watcher , Heywood Floyd
Page Number: 44
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

He had made, utterly without incident and in little more than one day, the incredible journey of which men had dreamed for two thousand years. After a normal, routine flight, he had landed on the moon.

Related Characters: Moon-Watcher , Heywood Floyd
Page Number: 69
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

Any man who had ever worked in a hardened missile site would have felt at home in Clavius. Here on the Moon were the same arts and hardware of underground living, and of protection against a hostile environment; but here they had been turned to the purposes of peace. After the thousand years, Man had at last found something as exciting as war.

Related Characters: Heywood Floyd
Page Number: 73
Explanation and Analysis:

So here, Floyd told himself, is the first generation of the Spaceborn; there would be more of them to come. Though there was sadness in this thought, there was also great hope. When Earth was tamed and tranquil, and perhaps a little tired, there would still be scope for those who loved freedom, for the tough pioneers, the restless adventurers…The time was fast approaching when Earth, like all mothers, must say farewell to her children.

Related Characters: Heywood Floyd , Diana Halvorsen
Page Number: 77
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

Three million years! The infinitely crowded panorama of written history, with its empires, and its kings, its triumphs and its tragedies, covered barely one thousandth of this appalling span of time. Not only Man himself, but most of the animals now alive on Earth, did not even exist when this black enigma was so carefully buried here, in the most brilliant and most spectacular of all the craters on the moon.

Related Characters: Heywood Floyd
Related Symbols: The Monolith
Page Number: 87-88
Explanation and Analysis:

Pandora’s box, thought Floyd, with a sudden sense of foreboding—waiting to be opened by inquisitive Man. And what will he find inside?

Related Characters: Heywood Floyd
Related Symbols: The Monolith
Page Number: 94
Explanation and Analysis: