Douglas Adams > Quotes

“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
--Douglas Adams”
― Douglas Adams

“Douglas Adams did not enjoy writing, and he enjoyed it less as time went on. He was a bestselling, acclaimed, and much-loved novelist who had not set out to be a novelist, and who took little joy in the process of crafting novels. He loved talking to audiences. He liked writing screenplays. He liked being at the cutting edge of technology and inventing and explaining with an enthusiasm that was uniquely his own. Douglas’s ability to miss deadlines became legendary. (“I love deadlines,” he said once. “I love the whooshing sound they make as they go by.”) He died in May 2001—too young. His death surprised us all, and left a huge, Douglas Adams–sized hole in the world. We had lost both the man (tall, affable, smiling gently at a world that baffled and delighted him) and the mind.”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people.”
“Odd,” said Arthur, “I thought you said it was a democracy.”
“I did,” said Ford. “It is.”
“So,” said Arthur, hoping he wasn’t sounding ridiculously obtuse, “why don’t the people get rid of the lizards?”
“It honestly doesn’t occur to them,” said Ford. “They’ve all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they’ve voted in more or less approximates to the government they want.”
“You mean they actually vote for the lizards?”
“Oh yes,” said Ford with a shrug, “of course.”
“But,” said Arthur, going for the big one again, “why?”
“Because if they didn’t vote for a lizard,” said Ford, “the wrong lizard might get in.”
― Douglas Adams, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

“just wading into Africa and telling the local people that they mustn’t do to their wildlife what we’ve done to ours, and that we are there to make sure they don’t, is an attitude that, to say the least, needs a little refining.”
― Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt

“Ford', he said, 'how many escape capsules are there?'
'None,' said Ford.
Zaphod gibbered.
'Did you count them?' he yelled.
'Twice,' said Ford”
― Douglas Adams, Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Book 1 of 3

“Ben yalnızca kendi Evrenimle ilgili karar veririm,' diye sakince devam etti adam. 'Benim Evrenim gözlerim ve kulaklarımdır. Bunun dışında her şey söylentidir.”
― Douglas Adams, Otostopçu'nun Galaksi Rehberi

“The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t. And”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“It is an important and popular fact that things are not always what they seem. For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much – the wheel, New York, wars and so on – whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man – for precisely the same reasons.”
― Douglas Adams, The Complete Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Trilogy of Five

“Now?’ ‘Now,’ said Deep Thought. They both licked their dry lips. ‘Though I don’t think,’ added Deep Thought, ‘that you’re going to like it.’ ‘Doesn’t matter,’ said Phouchg. ‘We must know it! Now!’ ‘Now?’ enquired Deep Thought. ‘Yes! Now . . .’ ‘All right,’ said the computer and settled into silence again. The two men fidgeted. The tension was unbearable. ‘You’re really not going to like it,’ observed Deep Thought. ‘Tell us!’ ‘All right,’ said Deep Thought. ‘The Answer to the Great Question . . .’ ‘Yes . . . !’ ‘Of Life, the Universe and Everything . . .’ said Deep Thought. ‘Yes . . . !’ ‘Is . . .’ said Deep Thought, and paused. ‘Yes . . . !’ ‘Is . . .’ ‘Yes . . . !!! . . . ?’ ‘Forty-two,’ said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.”
― Douglas Adams, The Complete Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Trilogy of Five

“I prigionieri erano legati alle sedie di Degustazione Poetica. I vogon non si facevano illusioni riguardo all'accoglienza che le loro opere ricevevano generalmente. All'inizio i loro tentativi di composizione poetica avevano fatto parte del generale tentativo minaccioso e violento di farsi accettare come razza normalmente evoluta e civile, ma adesso l'unica cosa che li induceva a insistere nelle loro creazioni era esclusivamente la loro crudeltà.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“One of the extraordinary things about life is the sort of places its prepared to put up with living.”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“Time is the worst place, so to speak, to get lost in, as Arthur Dent could testify, having been lost in both time and space a good deal. At least being lost in space kept you busy.”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy also mentions alcohol. It says that the best drink in existence is the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster. It says that the effect of a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster is like having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick. The Guide also tells you on which planets the best Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters are mixed, how much you can expect to pay for one and what voluntary organizations exist to help you rehabilitate afterwards.”
― Douglas Adams

“is an important and popular fact that things are not always what they seem. For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much – the wheel, New York, wars and so on – whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man – for precisely the same reasons.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Fakt super ohromné. Je to také super brutálne úžasné, že by som to najradšej hneď ukradol.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“So a lot of history is now gone for ever. The Campaign for Real Timers claim that just as easy travel eroded the differences between one country and another, and between one world and another, so time travel is now eroding the differences between one age and another. ‘The past,’ they say, ‘is now truly like a foreign country. They do things exactly the same there.”
― Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe, and Everything

“Ah. Now there you’re asking. The complexities of cause and effect defy analysis. Not only is the continuum like a human body, it is also very like a piece of badly put up wallpaper. Push down a bubble somewhere, another one pops up somewhere else. There are no more dodos because of my interference. In the end I imposed the rule on myself because I simply couldn’t bear it any more. The only thing that really gets hurt when you try and change time is yourself.” He smiled bleakly and looked away.”
― Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

“Bir İsviçre Peyniri Bitkisiyle bile yeterince uzun süre yalnız kaldığında kendini rahatsız hissedip utanmayı başarabilen Arthur için bu an, kesintisiz bir aydınlanma anıydı.”
― Douglas Adams

“Bu sav şuna benzer bir şeydir: 'Ben var olduğumu kanıtlamayı reddediyorum,' der Tanrı, 'çünkü kanıt inancı yadsır ve inanç olmadan ben bir hiçim.”
― Douglas Adams, Otostopçu'nun Galaksi Rehberi

“Why?’ is the only question that bothers people enough to have an entire letter of the alphabet named after it.”
― Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt

“The computers were index-linked to the Galactic stock-market prices, you see, so that we’d all be revived when everybody else had rebuilt the economy enough to afford our rather expensive services.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“A monstrous, grisly light poured in on them. —a hideous light —a boiling, pestilential light —a light that would have disfigured hell. The”
― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

“Be', c'è questo Dio, il vostro Dio, che piazza un melo in mezzo al giardino e dice: "Ragazzi, fate quello che volete, ma non mangiate le mele". Caso straordinario, loro addentano una mela, ed ecco che lui ti salta fuori da dietro un cespuglio gridando: "Vi ho beccati, vi ho beccati!". Non avrebbe fatto molta differenza se non avessero mangiato la mela. [...] quando hai a che fare con quel tipo di dei, in trappola ci cadi sempre.”
― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

“to”
― Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

“Quem olha para o céu à noite está olhando para o infinito; a distância é incompreensível, e portanto sem significado.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“McDonald's, he thought. There is no longer any such thing as a McDonald's hamburger. He passed out.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“One of the officials of the party had irritably decided that the President was clearly not in a mood to read the deliciously turned speech that had been written for him, and had flipped the switch on the remote-control device in his pocket.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Özetlersek: İyi bilinen bir gerçektir ki, halkı yönetmeyi en çok isteyenler, ipso facto, bu işi yapmaya en az uygun olanlardır. Özeti özetleyecek olursak: kendisinin Başkan yapılmasını sağlayabilecek kişilerin bu işi yapmasına hiçbir surette izin verilmemesi gerekir. Özetin özetinin özeti: Halk bir problemdir.”
― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

“MR. L. PROSSER was, as they say, only human. In other words he was a carbon-based bipedal life form descended from an ape. More specifically he was forty, fat and shabby and worked for the local council.”
― Douglas Adams, Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Book 1 of 3

“Life is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so”
― Douglas Adams, 6 Titles : Hitchiker's Guide, Restaurant, Life, the Universe, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, Dick Gently's Holistic & Long Dark Tea-Time