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Douglas Adams Quotes - Page 14

All Quotes Alcohol Art Arthur Assumption Atheism Atheist Beach Belief Challenges Children Coffee Difficulty Earth Exercise Experience Feelings Flying Food Fun Funny Giving Gold Heart House Inspiration Inspirational Integrity Intelligence Internet Journey Language Leaving Life Logic Love Lying Money Monk Morning Nature Opportunity Past Philosophy Pleasure Quality Rain Reality Religion Responsibility Running Science Simplicity Strategy Stress Tea Technology Time Understanding Universe Waiting War Water Winning Work Out Writing

Ford looked at him severely. And no sneaky knocking down Mr Dent's house whilst he's away, alright? he said. The mere thought, growled Mr Prosser, hadn't even begun to speculate, he continued, settling himself back,

Ford looked at him severely. And no sneaky knocking down Mr Dent's house whilst he's away, alright?" he said. The mere thought," growled Mr Prosser, "hadn't even begun to speculate," he continued, settling himself back, "about the merest possibility of crossing my mind.

House, Mind, Sneaky

Douglas Adams (2017). “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Omnibus: A Trilogy in Four Parts”, p.20, Pan Macmillan

We talked about how easy it was to make the mistake of anthropomorphizing animals, and projecting our own feelings and perceptions on to them, where they were inappropriate and didn't fit. We simply had no idea what it was like being an extremely large lizard, and neither for that matter did the lizard, because it was not self-conscious about being an extremely large lizard, it just got on with the business of being one. To react with revulsion to its behavior was to make the mistake of applying criteria that are only appropriate to the business of being human.

Mistake, Animal, Self

"Last Chance to See". Book by Douglas Adams, 1990.

The more I think about our species the more I think we just do stuff and make up explanations later when asked. But it's not true that I would rather write than read. I would rather read than write. To be honest I would rather hang upside down in a bucket than write.

Writing, Thinking, Buckets

Life... is like a grapefruit. Well, it's sort of orangey-yellow and dimpled on the outside, wet and squidgy in the middle. It's got pips inside, too. Oh, and some people have half a one for breakfast.

Food, Yellow, People

Douglas Adams (2017). “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Omnibus: A Trilogy in Four Parts”, p.509, Pan Macmillan

Earthmen are not proud of their ancestors and never invite them round to dinner.

Funny, Family, Food

"Fictional character: The Book". "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy/ Episode #1.1", www.imdb.com. January 1981.

But for a moment Dirk had a sense of inifinite loss and sadness that somewhere among the frenzy of information noise that daily rattled the lives of men he thought he might have heard a few notes that denoted the movements of gods.

Sadness, Loss, Men

Douglas Adams (2016). “Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency Box Set: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul”, p.383, Simon and Schuster

Beppu (n.) The triumphant slamming shut of a book after reading the final page.

Book, Reading, Finals

Douglas Adams, John Lloyd (2013). “The Meaning of Liff: The Original Dictionary Of Things There Should Be Words For”, p.15, Pan Macmillan

But nowadays everybody's a comedian, even the weather girls and continuity announcers. We laugh at everything. Not intelligently anymore, not with sudden shock, astonishment, or revelation, just relentlessly and meaninglessly. No more rain showers in the desert, just mud and drizzle everywhere, occasionally illuminated by the flash of paparazzi.

Girl, Rain, Weather

Douglas Adams (2009). “Mostly Harmless”, p.175, Pan Macmillan

Beauty doesn't have to be about anything. What's a vase about? What's a sunset or a flower about? What, for that matter, is Mozart's Twenty-third Piano Concerto about?

Flower, Sunset, Piano

Douglas Adams (2005). “The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time”, p.78, Del Rey

And then, one Thursday, nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change, a girl sitting on her own in a small café in Rickmansworth suddenly realized what it was that had been going wrong all this time, and she finally knew how the world could be made a good and happy place. This time it was right, it would work, and no one would have to get nailed to anything.

Girl, Nice, Men

Douglas Adams (2009). “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy”, p.8, Pan Macmillan

Time, we know, is relative. You can travel light years through the stars and back, and if you do it at the speed of light then, when you return, you may have aged mere seconds while your twin brother or sister will have aged twenty, thirty, forty or however many years it is, depending on how far you traveled. This will come to you as a profound shock, particularly if you didn't know you had a twin brother or sister.

Sister, Time, Brother

Douglas Adams (2012). “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Trilogy of Five”, p.706, Pan Macmillan

Funny, how just when you think life can’t possibly get any worse it suddenly does.

Thinking, Doe, Hitchhiking

Douglas Adams (2009). “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy”, p.69, Pan Macmillan

If somebody thinks they're a hedgehog, presumably you just give 'em a mirror and a few pictures of hedgehogs and tell them to sort it out for themselves.

Thinking, Mirrors, Giving

Douglas Adams (2009). “So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish”, p.28, Pan Macmillan

"Does God know he [exists]?" "Of course he does. Otherwise, you could not have asked the question, and I could not have answered."

Doe, God Knows, Courses

A nerd is someone who uses a telephone to talk to other people about telephones.

People, Nerd, Use

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.

Jumping, Snow, Advice

Douglas Adams (2005). “The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time”, p.40, Del Rey

Six pints of bitter, said Ford Prefect. And quickly please, the world's about to end.

Alcohol, World, Six

Douglas Adams (2010). “The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy”, p.38, Del Rey

Ahenny (adj.) - The way people stand when examining other people's bookshelves.

People, Way, Bookshelves

Douglas Adams, John Lloyd (2013). “The Meaning of Liff: The Original Dictionary Of Things There Should Be Words For”, p.5, Pan Macmillan

The bird that would soar above the plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings.

Courage, Strong, Wings

If on the other hand he went to pay his respects to The Door and it wasn't there . . . what then? The answer, of course, was very simple. He had a whole board of circuits for dealing with exactly this problem, in fact this was the very heart of his function. He would continue to believe in it whatever the facts turned out to be, what else was the meaning of Belief? The Door would still be there, even if the Door was not.

Believe, Heart, Simple

Douglas Adams (2016). “Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency Box Set: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul”, p.32, Simon and Schuster

I don't like the idea of missionaries. In fact, the whole business fills me with fear and alarm. I don't believe in God, or at least not in the one we've invented for ourselves in England to fulfill our peculiarly English needs, and certainly not in the ones they've invented in America who supply their servants with toupees, television stations and, most importantly, toll-free telephone numbers. I wish that people who did believe in such things would keep them to themselves and not export them to the developing world.

Believe, America, Ideas

"Last Chance to See". Book by Douglas Adams, 1990.

[The Head of Radio Three] had been ensnared by the Music Director of the college and a Professor of Philosophy. These two were busy explaining to the harassed man that the phrase "too much Mozart" was, given any reasonable definition of those three words, an inherently self-contradictory expression, and that any sentence which contained such a phrase would be thereby rendered meaningless and could not, consequently, be advanced as part of an argument in favour of any given programme-scheduling strategy.

Philosophy, College, Men

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.

Real, Finals, Seconds

Douglas Adams (2014). “Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency”, p.9, Simon and Schuster

People always make this totally artificial distinction between what is commercial and what is good. They quote that maxim "Nobody ever lost money underestimating the public's taste" and I think that's very wrongheaded. I like to believe the audience is actually intelligent, because it's made up of other people like yourself.

Believe, Intelligent, Thinking

They live in perpetual fear of the time they call "The Coming of the Great White Handkerchief

White, Handkerchiefs, Perpetual

Douglas Adams (2012). “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Trilogy of Five”, p.163, Pan Macmillan

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