Douglas Adams > Quotes

“Aveva pensato che se gli esseri umani non si esercitavano in continuazione ad aprire e chiudere la bocca, correvano il rischio di cominciare a far lavorare il cervello.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“Then who is it?” said Arthur. “Well,” said Ford, “if we’re lucky it’s just the Vogons come to throw us in to space.” “And if we’re unlucky?” “If we’re unlucky,” said Ford grimly, “the captain might be serious in his threat that he’s going to read us some of his poetry first….”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Fe is, I could bang on about the desert and the altitude and the light and the silver and turquoise jewelry, but the best thing is just to mention a traffic sign on the freeway from Albuquerque. It says, in large letters, GUSTY WINDS, and in smaller letters MAY EXIST.”
― Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt

“Religion doesn’t seem to work like that; it has certain ideas at the heart of it which we call sacred or holy or whatever. That’s an idea we’re so familiar with, whether we subscribe to it or not, that it’s kind of odd to think what it actually means, because really what it means is “Here is an idea or a notion that you’re not allowed to say anything bad about; you’re just not. Why not? Because you’re not!”
― Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time

“La scienza ha raggiunto traguardi meravigliosi, certo, ma io preferirei essere felice piuttosto che avere sempre ragione.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“Zaphod's attention however was elsewhere. His attention was riveted on the ship standing next to Hotblack Desiato's limo. His mouths hung open.
"That," he said, "that ... is really bad for the eyes ..."
Ford looked. He too stood astonished.
It was a ship of classic, simple design, like a flattened salmon, twenty yards long, very clean, very sleek. There was just one remarkable thing about it.
"It's so ... black!" said Ford Prefect, "you can hardly make out its shape ... light just seems to fall into it!"
Zaphod said nothing. He had simply fallen in love.
The blackness of it was so extreme that it was almost impossible to tell how close you were standing to it.
"Your eyes just slide off it ..." said Ford in wonder. It was an emotional moment. He bit his lip.
Zaphod moved forward to it, slowly, like a man possessed - or more accurately like a man who wanted to possess. His hand reached out to stroke it. His hand stopped. His hand reached out to stroke it again. His hand stopped again.
"Come and feel the surface," he said in a hushed voice.
Ford put his hand out to feel it. His hand stopped.
"You ... you can't ..." he said.
"See?" said Zaphod, "it's just totally frictionless. This must be one mother of a mover ..."
He turned to look at Ford seriously. At least, one of his heads did - the other stayed gazing in awe at the ship.
"What do you reckon, Ford?" he said.
"You mean ... er ..." Ford looked over his shoulder. "You mean stroll off with it? You think we should?"
"No."
"Nor do I."
"But we're going to, aren't we?"
"How can we not?”
― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

“A scientist must be absolutely like a child. If he sees a thing, he must say that he sees it, whether it was what he thought he was going to see or not. See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise you will only see what you were expecting.”
― Douglas Adams, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

“On the way back they sang a number of tuneful and reflective songs on the subjects of peace, justice, morality, culture, sport, family life and the obliteration of all other life forms.”
― Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything

“And that’s why the American habit of bringing a teacup, a tea bag, and a pot of hot water to the table is merely the perfect way of making a thin, pale, watery cup of tea that nobody in their right mind would want to drink.”
― Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt

“Ten million years, Earthman . . . can you conceive of that kind of time span? A galactic civilization could grow from a single worm five times over in that time. Gone.’ He paused.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“I was a row of dots flowing randomly through the Universe. Have you met Thor? He makes thunder.”
― Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything

“A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“But can we trust him?’ he said. ‘Myself, I’d trust him to the end of the Earth,’ said Ford. ‘Oh yes,’ said Arthur, ‘and how far’s that?’ ‘About twelve minutes away,’ said Ford. ‘Come on, I need a drink.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Bir şeyi görmeniz onun orada olduğu anlamına gelmediği gibi, bir şeyi görmemeniz onun orada olmadığı anlamına gelmez.

Just like seeing something doesn't mean it's there, not seeing something doesn't mean it isn't there.

Wie bedeutet nicht etwas zu schauen, dass es da ist; etwas zu nicht schauen bedeutet nicht, dass es nicht da ist.”
― Douglas Adams

“The ground had caved in where the whale had hit it, revealing a network of galleries and passages, now largely obstructed by collapsed rubble and entrails.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“They were not the same eyes with which he had last looked at this particular scene, and the brain which interpreted the images the eyes resolved was not the same brain. There had been no surgery involved, just he continual wrenching of experience.”
― Douglas Adams

“At some distance down the corridor it seemed suddenly as if somebody started to beat on a bass drum.

He listened to it for a few seconds and realized that it was just his heart beating.

He listened for a few seconds more and realized that it wasn’t his heart beating, it was somebody down the corridor beating on a bass drum.”
― Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything

“Even supposing this was the home of some ancient civilization now gone to dust, even supposing a number of exceedingly unlikely things, there was no way that vast treasures of wealth were going to be stored there in any form that would still have meaning now. He shrugged. “I think it’s just a dead planet,” he said.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“La storia di tutte le maggiori civiltà galattiche tende ad attraversare tre fasi distinte ben riconoscibili, ovvero le fasi della Sopravvivenza, della Riflessione e della Decadenza, altrimenti dette fasi del Come, del Perché e del Dove. La prima fase, per esempio, è caratterizzata dalla domanda 'Come facciamo a procurarci da mangiare?', la seconda dalla domanda 'Perché mangiamo?' e la terza dalla domanda 'In quale ristorante pranziamo oggi?”
― Douglas Adams, Guida galattica per gli autostoppisti

“Arthur didn’t notice that the men were running from the bulldozers; he didn’t notice that Mr. Prosser was staring hectically into the sky. What Mr. Prosser had noticed was that huge yellow somethings were screaming through the clouds. Impossibly huge yellow somethings. “And I will carry on jumping on them,” yelled Arthur, still running, “until I get blisters, or I can think of anything even more unpleasant to do, and then …”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Charitable, ah!" said Dirk. "I pay my taxes, what more do you want?”
― Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

“The Nutri-Matic Drinks Synthesizer claimed to produce the widest possible range of drinks personally matched to the tastes and metabolism of whoever cared to use it. When put to test, however, it invariably produced a plastic cup filled with a liquid which was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.”
― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

“In fact there was only one species on the planet more intelligent than dolphins, and they spent a lot of their time in behavioral research laboratories running round inside wheels and conducting frighteningly elegant and subtle experiments on man.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“I’d far rather be happy than right any day.’ ‘And are you?’ ‘No. That’s where it all falls down, of course.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Arthur’s mind was beginning to reassemble itself from the shell-shocked fragments the previous day had left him with.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Tutto quel che, in qualsiasi forma, vedi, senti o provi è specifico di te. Tu crei un universo percependolo, sicché tutto quanto percepisci dell'universo è specifico di te”
― Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless

“it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem.”
― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

“Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was, Oh no, not again. Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the universe than we do now.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“He was not conspicuously tall, his features were striking but not conspicuously handsome.”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Time is an illusion.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy