Quotes from Douglas Adams

The sweat stood out cold on Ford Prefect's brow, and slid round the electrodes strapped to his temples. These were attached to a battery of electronic equipment—imagery intensifiers, rhythmic modulators, alliterative residulators and simile dumpers—all designed to heighten the experience of the poem and make sure that not a single nuance of the poet's thought was lost.

This is terrific," Arthur thought to himself, "Nelson's Column has gone, McDonald's has gone, all that's left is me and the words Mostly harmless. Any second now all that will be left is Mostly harmless. And yesterday the planet seemed to be going so well." A

A slow stupefied silence crept over the men as they stared at the computer and then at each other.

He woke up blearily, got up, wandered blearily round his room, opened a window, saw a bulldozer, found his slippers, and stomped off to the bathroom to wash. Toothpaste on the brush—so. Scrub. Shaving mirror—pointing at the ceiling. He adjusted it. For a moment it reflected a second bulldozer through the bathroom window.

Space," it says, "is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is.

Wandering around the Web is like living in a world in which every doorway is actually one of those science-fiction devices that deposit you in a completely different part of the world when you walk through them. In fact it isn't like it, it is it.

With an amazingly balletic movement Zaphod was standing and scanning the horizon, because that was how far the gold ground stretched in every direction, perfectly smooth and solid. It gleamed like … it's impossible to say what it gleamed like because nothing in the Universe gleams in quite the same way that a planet made of solid gold does.

Come off it, Mr. Dent," he said, "you can't win, you know. You can't lie in front of the bulldozer indefinitely." He tried to make his eyes blaze fiercely but

Arthur ekranlara bak?p gözlerini k?rp??t?rd? ve önemli bir ÅŸeyi kaç?r?yormuÅŸ hissine kap?ld?. Birden bunun ne olduÄŸunu fark etti. bu uzay gemisinde çay var m?? diye sordu.

The car shot forward straight into the circle of light, and suddenly Arthur had a fairly clear idea of what infinity looked like.

Ah, shit," he said, "you wake me up from my own perfectly good dream to show me somebody else's." He

I'm afraid you're going to have to accept it

I present you with a simple choice! Either die in the vacuum of space, or …" he paused for melodramatic effect, "tell me how good you thought my poem was!

This fact may safely be made the subject of suspense since it is of no significance whatsoever.

Excuse me, said the owner of the metal hand in a voice that would have made an insect of a more sentimental disposition collapse in tears. This was not such an insect, and it couldn't stand robots. Yes, sir, it snapped, can I help you? I doubt it, said Marvin.

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.

Are you trying to tell me," said Arthur, slowly and with control, "that you originally . . . made the Earth?

I figure this," said Zaphod. "Whatever happened to my mind, I did it. And I did it in such a way that it wouldn't be detected by the Government screening tests.

His wife of course wanted climbing roses, but he wanted axes. He didn't know why—he just liked axes. He flushed hotly under the derisive grins of the bulldozer drivers. He shifted his weight from foot to foot, but it was equally uncomfortable on each. Obviously somebody had been appallingly incompetent and he hoped to God it wasn't him.

Yes. Five minutes later and it wouldn't have mattered so much. It was a quite shocking cock-up." "Huh?" said Arthur. "The mice were furious." "The mice were furious?" "Oh yes," said the old man mildly. "Yes, well, so I expect were the dogs and cats and duck-billed platypuses, but . . ." "Ah, but they hadn't paid for it, you see, had they?

So I reckon, what's so secret that I can't let anybody know I know it, not the Galactic Government, not even myself? And the answer is I don't know. Obviously. But I put a few things together and I can begin to guess. When did I decide to run for President? Shortly after the death of President Yooden Vranx.

I have been listening," said Arthur, "but I'm not sure it's helped.

just as discretion was the better part of valor, so was cowardice the better part of discretion, he valiantly hid himself in the closet.

The last time anybody made a list of the top hundred character attributes of New Yorkers, common sense snuck in at number 79. In