Douglas Adams > Quotes

“Do you want me to sit in a corner and rust, or just fall apart where I’m standing?”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“It deals with that most terrible and harrowing experience in life - trying to remember an address which somebody told you but you didn't write down.”
― Douglas Adams

“Zaphod’s just this guy, you know?”
― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

“It startled him even more when just after he was awarded the Galactic Institute’s Prize for Extreme Cleverness he got lynched by a rampaging mob of respectable physicists who had finally realized that the one thing they really couldn’t stand was a smart-ass.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is, as has been remarked before often and accurately, a pretty startling kind of a thing.”
― Douglas Adams, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

“I’m afraid you cannot leave,' said Zarniwoop, 'you are entwined in the Improbability Field. You cannot escape.' He smiled the smile that Zaphod had wanted to hit and this time Zaphod hit it.”
― Douglas Adams

“I didn’t have a copy of Europe on Five Dollars a Day (as it then was) because I wasn’t in that financial league.”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Funny old thing, life, isn’t it?”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Uma das coisas que Ford Prefect jamais conseguiu entender em relação aos seres humanos era seu hábito de afirmar e repetir continuamente o óbvio mais óbvio.”
― Douglas Adams, Whs Lit Rea Hit GUI to Galaxy

“Good luck to you. There is an awful lot of stuff you don’t know anything about, but you are not alone in this. It’s just that in your case the consequences of not knowing any of this stuff are particularly terrible, but then, hey, that’s just the way the cookie gets completely stomped on and obliterated.”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Birinin verdiği tavsiyenin kalitesini anlamak için o kişinin yaşamına bakmak gerekir.”
― Douglas Adams

“For much of the time we were tramping through wet fields of sago, and a foolish but happy thought suddenly occurred to me. We were walking through the only known anagram of my name -- which is Sago Mud Salad.”
― Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See

“Ah,” said Arthur, “er …” He had an odd feeling of being like a man in the act of adultery who is surprised when the woman’s husband wanders into the room, changes his trousers, passes a few idle remarks about the weather and leaves again.”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Old Thrashbarg said that it was the ineffable will of Bob, and when they asked him what 'ineffable' meant, he said look it up.
This was a problem because Old Thrashbarg had the only dictionary and he wouldn't let them borrow it. They asked him why not and he said that it was not for them to know the will of Almighty Bob, and when they asked him why not again, he said because he said so. Anyway, somebody sneaked into Old Thrashbarg's hut on day while he was out having a swim and looked up 'ineffable'. 'Ineffable' apparently meant 'unknowable, indescribable, unutterable, not be be known or spoken about.' So that cleared that up.”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“He had found a Nutri-Matic machine which had provided him with a plastic cup filled with a liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea. The way it functioned was very interesting. When the Drink button was pressed it made an instant but highly detailed examination of the subject’s taste buds, a spectroscopic analysis of the subject’s metabolism and then sent tiny experimental signals down the neural pathways to the taste centers of the subject’s brain to see what was likely to go down well. However, no one knew quite why it did this because it invariably delivered a cupful of liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Science has achieved some wonderful things, of course, but I'd far rather be happy than right any day.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“a fresh breeze danced lightly through the trees, and the odd sensation that all the buildings were quietly humming”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“We live in strange times. We also live in strange places: each in a universe of our own. The people with whom we populate our universes are the shadows of whole other universes intersecting with our own.”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“…San Francisco, which the Guide describes as a ‘good place to go. It is very easy to believe that everyone you meet there is also a space traveler. Starting a new religion for you is just their way of saying “hi.” Until you’ve settled in and got the hang of the place it’s best to say “no” to three questions out of any given four that anyone may ask you, because there are some very strange things going on there, some of which an unsuspecting alien could die of’.”
― Douglas Adams

“You see what I have done?' he asked the ceiling, which seemed to flinch slightly at being yanked so suddenly into the conversation.”
― Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

“This is, er, this your advice then, is it?" said Arthur, leafing through them uncertainly.
"No," said the old lady. "It's the story of my life. You see, the quality of any advice anybody has to offer has to be judged against the quality of life they actually lead. Now, as you look through this document you'll see that I've underlined all the major decisions I ever made to make them stand out. They're all indexed and cross-referenced. See? All I can suggest is that if you take decisions that are exactly opposite to the sort of decisions that I've taken, then maybe you won't finish up at the end of your life..." she paused, and filled her lungs for a good shout, "... in a smelly old cave like this!”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“It is folly to say you know what is happening to other people. Only they know, if they exist. They have their own Universes of their eyes and ears.”
― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

“And that’s the deciding factor. We can’t win against obsession. They care, we don’t. They win.”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Su cabeza nadaba a estilo libre, pero en su estómago alguien practicaba el mariposa.”
― Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything

“No? How about now? Am I going backwards?'

For once the bird was perfectly still and steady.

'No,' said Random.

'Well I was in fact, I was moving backwards in time. Hmmm. Well I think we've sorted all that out now. If you'd like to know, I can tell you that in your universe you move freely in three dimensions that you call space. You move in a straight line in a fourth, which you call time, and stay rooted to one place in a fifth, which is the first fundamental of probability. After that it gets a bit complicated, and there's all sorts of stuff going on in dimensions 13 to 22 that you really wouldn't want to know about. All you really need to know for the moment is that the universe is a lot more complicated than you might think, even if you start from a position of thinking it's pretty damn complicated in the first place. I can easily not say words like «damn» if it offends you.'

'Say what you damn well like.'

'I will.'

'What the hell are you?' demanded Random.

'I am The Guide. In your universe I am your Guide. In fact I inhabit what is technically known as the Whole Sort of General Mish Mash which means . . . well, let me show you.”
― Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless

“Bu gezegenin şöyle bir sorunu var - eskiden vardı: Üzerinde yaşayan halkın büyük bölümü çoğu zaman mutsuzdu. Bu sorun için pek çok çözüm önerilmişti, ama bunların çoğu genellikle yeşil renkli kağıt parçalarının hareketleriyle ilgiliydi. Bu da tuhaftı, çünkü aslında mutsuz olanlar yeşil renkli küçük kağıt parçaları değildi.”
― Douglas Adams, Otostopçu'nun Galaksi Rehberi

“Many races believe that it was created by some sort of god, though the Jatravartid people of Viltvodle VI believe that the entire Universe was in fact sneezed out of the nose of a being called the Great Green Arkleseizure.”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“I refuse to prove that I exist,” says God “for proof denies faith and without faith I am nothing”.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Radio Scripts: Tertiary, Quandary & Quintessential Phases

“When the girl sitting at the next table looked away for a moment, Dirk leaned over and took her coffee. He knew that he was perfectly safe doing this because she would simply not be able to believe that this had happened.”
― Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul

“For all I know,” said Gargravarr’s ethereal voice, “I’m probably at one. My body that is. It goes to a lot of parties without me. Says I only get in the way. Hey ho.” “What is all this with your body?” said Zaphod, anxious to delay whatever it was that was going to happen to him. “Well, it’s … it’s busy you know,” said Gargravarr hesitantly. “You mean it’s got a mind of its own?” said Zaphod. There was a long and slightly chilly pause before Gargravarr spoke again. “I have to say,” he replied eventually, “that I find that remark in rather poor taste.” Zaphod muttered a bewildered and embarrassed apology. “No matter,” said Gargravarr, “you weren’t to know.” The voice fluttered unhappily. “The truth is,” it continued in tones which suggested he was trying very hard to keep it under control, “the truth is that we are currently undergoing a period of legal trial separation. I suspect it will end in divorce.”
― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe