Douglas Adams > Quotes

“if there was one thing life had taught her it was that there are times when you do not go back for your bag and other times when you do. It had yet to teach her to distinguish between the two types of occasion.”
― Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless

“The answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything is 42.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“When you’ve been in marketing as long as I have you’ll know that before any new product can be developed it has to be properly researched. We’ve got to find out what people want from fire, how they relate to it, what sort of image it has for them.”
― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

“But the reason I call myself by my childhood name is to remind myself that a scientist must also 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. Most scientists forget that”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Arthur tried to hold her hand to steady her and reassure her, but she wouldn't let him. He held on to his airline hold-all with its tin of Greek olive oil, its towel, its crumpled postcards of Santorini and its other odds and ends. He steadied and reassured that instead.”
― Douglas Adams, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

“stared fixedly into the sky like a rabbit trying to get run over by a car.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“One of the greatest benefactors of all lifekind was a man who couldn’t keep his mind on the job at hand. Brilliant? Certainly.”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Táto okolnosť sa môže bez problémov stať predmetom napätia, pretože nie je absolútne ničím dôležitá.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“He turned it and turned it. They could see quite clearly in the fine tracery of its etchwork the words “So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish.”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Life is wasted on the living.’ ”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Ghastly gray light congealed on the land”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“Here is what to do if you want to get a lift from a Vogon: forget it. They are one of the most unpleasant races in the Galaxy—not actually evil, but bad-tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous.”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“At first Ford had formed a theory to account for this strange behavior. If human beings don’t keep exercising their lips, he thought, their mouths probably seize up. After a few months’ consideration and observation he abandoned this theory in favor of a new one. If they don’t keep on exercising their lips, he thought, their brains start working.”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“People who talk to themselves on the phone,” said Ford, “never learn anything to their advantage.”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.’ ”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Coisas terríveis, incompreensíveis – gritou –, coisas que deixariam qualquer homem louco! Olhou para eles assustado. – Ou, no meu caso – acrescentou –, meio louco. Sou um jornalista.”
― Douglas Adams, A vida, o universo e tudo mais

“The impossible did not bother him unduly. If it could not possibly be done, then obviously it had been done impossibly.”
― Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently: The Long Dark Tea-Time Of The Soul: A BBC Radio Full-Cast Dramatization

“I really wish I'd listened to what my mother told me when I was young."
"Why, what did she tell you?"
"I don't know, I didn't listen.”
― Douglas Adams, Douglas Adams' the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Authorized Collection

“What do you mean, why’s it got to be built?’ he said. ‘It’s a bypass. You’ve got to build bypasses.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Once something actually happens somewhere in something as wildly complicated as the Universe, Kevin knows where it will all end up—where “Kevin” is any random entity that doesn’t know nothin’ about nothin’.”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“In the beginning the Universe was created.”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Hey, er, hand me the raprod, Plate Captain.” The”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“I know that astrology isn’t a science,” said Gail. “Of course it isn’t. It’s just an arbitrary set of rules like chess or tennis or—what’s that strange thing you British play?” “Er, cricket? Self-loathing?” “Parliamentary democracy.”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Infinite Universe: Bigger than the biggest thing ever and then some. Much bigger
than that in fact, really amazingly immense, a totally stunning size, real "wow,
that's big" time. Infinity is just so big that by comparison, bigness itself looks
really titchy. Gigantic multiplied by colossal multiplied by staggeringly huge is
the sort of concept we're trying to get across here.”
― Douglas Adams

“Zaphod! Wake up!’ ‘Mmmmmwwwwwerrrrr?’ ‘Hey, come on, wake up.’ ‘Just let me stick to what I’m good at, yeah?’ muttered Zaphod and rolled away from the voice back to sleep.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Zaphod! Wake up!” “Mmmmmwwwwwerrrr?” “Hey, come on, wake up.” “Just let me stick to what I’m good at, yeah?” muttered Zaphod, and rolled away from the voice back to sleep. “Do you want me to kick you?” said Ford. “Would it give you a lot of pleasure?” said Zaphod, blearily. “No.” “Nor me. So what’s the point? Stop bugging me.” Zaphod curled himself up.”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“This,” he said, “really is the absolute end, the final chilling desolation, in which the whole majestic sweep of creation becomes extinct. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the proverbial ‘it.’ ” He dropped his voice still lower. In the stillness, a fly would not have dared clear its throat. “After this,” he said, “there is nothing. Void. Emptiness. Oblivion. Absolute nothing….”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Maybe. Who cares?” said Slartibartfast before Arthur got too excited. “Perhaps I’m old and tired,” he continued, “but I always think that the chances of finding out what really is going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is to say hang the sense of it and just keep yourself occupied. Look at me: I design coastlines. I got an award for Norway”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Olayların her zaman göründüğü gibi olmadığı önemli ve yaygın bir gerçektir.”
― Douglas Adams, Guide to the Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“What . . . do . . . you . . . want?’ ‘I’m looking for someone.’ ‘Who?’ hissed the insect. ‘Zaphod Beeblebrox,’ said Marvin, ‘he’s over there.’ The insect shook with rage. It could hardly speak. ‘Then why did you ask me?’ it screamed. ‘I just wanted something to talk to,’ said Marvin. ‘What!’ ‘Pathetic, isn’t it?”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Omnibus: A Trilogy of Five