Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting. But it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously.
See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise you will only see what you were expecting. Most scientists forget that.
This planet has — or rather had — a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much all of the time.
Don't blame you," said Marvin and counted five hundred and ninety-seven thousand million sheep before falling asleep again a second later.
Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow pizza.
See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise, you will only see what you were expecting. Most scientists forget that.
A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
The only person for whom the house was in any way special was Arthur Dent, and that was only because it happened to be the one he lived in.
The argument goes something like this: "I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.
God is no longer an explanation of anything, but has instead become something that would itself need an insurmountable amount of explaining.
It's good to leave your room super-messy when you're away. Whoever tries to break into your room will thought it has already been ransacked.
I have terrible periods of lack of confidence. I just don't believe I can do it and no evidence to the contrary will sway me from that view.
He attacked everything in life with a mix of extraordinary genius and naive incompetence, and it was often difficult to tell which was which.
It was one of those pictures that children are supposed to like but don't. Full of endearing little animals doing endearing things, you know?
I think media are at their most interesting before anybody's thought of calling them art, when people still think they're just a load of junk.
The Universe, as has been observed before, is an unsettlingly big place, a fact which for the sake of a quiet life most people tend to ignore.
The light was only just visible - except of course that there was no one to see, no witnesses, not this time, but it was nevertheless a light.
If there's any real truth, it's that the entire multidimensional infinity of the Universe is almost certainly being run by a bunch of maniacs.
Imagine" he said, "never even thinking, 'We are alone,' simply because it has never occurred to you to think that there's any other way to be.
Grown men, he told himself, in flat contradiction of centuries of accumulated evidence about the way grown men behave, do not behave like this.
I don’t know what I’m looking for.” “What not?” “Because … because … I think it might be because if I knew I wouldn’t be able to look for them.
There's nothing worse than sitting down to write a novel and saying, "Well, okay, I'm going to do something of high artistic worth." It's funny.
Everybody has their moment of great opportunity in life. If you happen to miss the one you care about, then everything else becomes eerily easy.
The Answer to the Great Question... Of Life, the Universe and Everything... Is... Forty-two,' said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.
Stotting is jumping upward with all four legs simultaneously. My advice: do not die until you've seen a large black poodle stotting in the snow.
The bowler approached the wicket at a lope, a trot, and then a run. He suddenly exploded in a flurry of arms and legs, out of which flew a ball.
Bypasses are devices that allow some people to dash from point A to point B very fast while other people dash from point B to point A very fast.
ABOYNE (vb.) To beat an expert at a game of skill by playing so appallingly that none of his clever tactics or strategies are of any use to him.
Being virtually killed by a virtual laser in a virtual space is just as effective as the real thing, because you are as dead as you think you are.
If you ever find you need help again, you know, if you're in trouble, need a hand out of a corner..." "Yeah?" "Please don't hesitate to get lost.
Ford Prefect suppressed a little giggle of evil satisfaction, realized that he had no reason to suppress it, and laughed out loud, a wicked laugh.
The Guide says there is an art to flying", said Ford, "or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.
Most of the time spent wrestling with technologies that don't quite work yet is just not worth it for end users, however much fun it is for nerds.
Let us think the unthinkable, let us do the undoable, let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.
The only thing nicer than a phone that didn't ring all the time (or indeed at all) was six phones that didn't ring all the time (or indeed at all).
So what do we do if we get bitten by something deadly?' I asked. He looked at me as if I were stupid. 'You die, of course. That's what deadly means.
Goosnargh," said Ford Prefect, which was a special Betelgeusian word he used when he knew he should say something but didn't know what it should be.
I love to keep poking and prodding at it. I’ve thought about it so much over the years that that fascination is bound to spill over into my writing.
Nobody got murdered before lunch. But nobody. People weren't up to it. You needed a good lunch to get both the blood-sugar and blood-lust levels up.
Even light, which travels so fast it takes most races thousands of years to realize that it travels at all, takes time to journey between the stars.
Beethoven tells you what it's like to be Beethoven and Mozart tells you what it's like to be human. Bach tells you what it's like to be the universe.
Being literate as a writer is good craft, is knowing your job, is knowing how to use your tools properly and not to damage the tools as you use them.
And all dared to brave unknown terrors, to do mighty deeds, to boldly split infinitives that no man had split before--and thus was the Empire forged.
There are two things you should remember when dealing with parallel universes. One, they're not really parallel, and two, they're not really universes
That was it. That was really it. She knew that she had told herself that that was it only seconds earlier, but this was now the final real ulimate it.
I don't want to die now!" he yelled. "I've still got a headache! I don't want to go to heaven with a headache, I'd be all cross and wouldn't enjoy it!
My doctor says that I have a malformed public-duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fibre and that I am therefore excused from saving universes.
It's guff. It doesn't advance the action. It makes for nice fat books such as the American market thrives on, but it doesn't actually get you anywhere.
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 own eyes and ears.
I find the difference, for me, between having no money and having quite a bit is that the bills get bigger. And that's it. The lifestyle doesn't change.