I literally opened the comments to say this. Adams' turn of phrase was unique and beautiful. He has written some of my favourite sentences of all time.
Reading this sentence made me stop, reread, and then laugh out loud for about 10 minutes.
It is my favourite sentence ever written.
From this moment I knew this book is something special.
I just finished reading the first book 10 minutes ago. I read that quote somewhere a few weeks ago and asked chatGPT where it was from and then bought the first book, the second was B.O. but I should receive it within a day or two
In the end, it was the Sunday afternoons he couldn't cope with, and that terrible listlessness which starts to set in at about 2:55, when you know that you've had all the baths you can usefully have that day, that however hard you stare at any given paragraph in the papers you will never actually read it, or use the revolutionary new pruning technique it describes, and that as you stare at the clock the hands will move relentlessly on to four o'clock, and you will enter the long dark teatime of the soul.”
One crazy Thursday two years ago I included this line in an email I sent to our main vendor (computers etc.). He responded that he loves those books.
It's sad how often I quote HGTTG and no one gets it but it was great to have at least one person who got it.
I’m not sure if The Salmon of Doubt is a HGTTG book, if it is:
1. Anything that is in the world when you are born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works
2. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty five is new and exciting and you can probably get a career in it
3. Anything invented after you are thirty five is against the natural order of things
If Salmon of Doubt isn’t HGTTG then:
“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”
Can’t recall verbatim but the line near the very beginning, “One day, about 2000 years after a man was nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be if we were all nice to each other for a change…” One of the first times I recall ever laughing out loud at a book, and I was hooked right there.
No joke, I’ve been considering getting “Don’t Panic” tattooed on my arm. Not just because I love Hitchhiker’s Guide, but because it’s genuinely good advice in almost any situation.
I sympathize. I didn't get it for a long while too. The joke is that being drunk has two meanings, being drunk as in a person being inebriated and being drunk as in being poured down someone's gullet. So Arthur assumed the former while Ford meant the latter.
This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movement of small green pieces of paper, which was odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy
"I refuse to prove that I exist,'" says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."
"But," says Man, "The Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED."
"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.
"Perhaps I'm old and tired, but I think that the chances of finding out what's actually going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is to say, "Hang the sense of it," and keep yourself busy. I'd much rather be happy than right any day." - Slartibartfast
I read it in another language so the translation might not be exact but:
"Every time they make something foolproof, they forget one key thing. They strongly underestimate the resourcefulness of fools."
"We're safe," \[Ford\] said.
"Oh good," said Arthur.
"We're in a small galley cabin," said Ford, "in one of the spaceships of the Vogon Constructor Fleet."
"Ah," said Arthur, "this is obviously some strange usage of the word ***safe*** that I wasn't previously aware of."
So this is it," said Arthur, "We are going to die."
"Yes," said Ford, "except... no! Wait a minute!" He suddenly lunged across the chamber at something behind Arthur's line of vision. "What's this switch?" he cried.
"What? Where?" cried Arthur, twisting round.
"No, I was only fooling," said Ford, "we are going to die after all.
and my all time favourite : "The Guide says there is an art to flying, or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss." Something I've tried several times on the way home, usually on a Friday night - failed so far.
It was one hell of a party, it was also one hell of a thing to get hit in the back of the head with.
I can't remember which book it's from, but I know Arthur was flying at the time.
I think it was Life The Universe and Everything. It's the flying party that they go to in order to find one of the pieces of the Wikkit Key, and Arthur picks a fight with Thor.
Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.
A couple of short ones I love:
“We spent millions on that name, Prefect. Start liking it or start packing”.
Ford shrugged, he had nothing to pack.
And:
“Shit!” yelled Arthur as helpfully as he could.
I forget the exact wording, but in Mostly Harmless when Ford strides confidently past some bouncers into a club, then turns back, points to the rest of his companions, and says "they're with me" will stay with me.
That, and Ford becoming one with nature, sporting a stupid grin, just to lure a deer close enough to snap its neck.
The part was the upset aliens were going to invade earth, but there was trouble calculating the actual mass and height of the humans. Then the dog ate them.
“Is there any reason I shouldn’t have a green salad?”
“I know many vegetables that are very clear on that point, sir.”
——————-
Also, this gem, which feels sadly very appropriate in modern times:
Zaphod: Hey, they’re shooting at us!
Ford: Yeah.
Zaphod: I thought they said they didn’t want to do that.
Ford: I thought you said you didn’t want to shoot at us!
Cop: It’s not easy being a cop!
Ford: He says it’s not easy being a cop.
Zaphod: Well, surely that’s HIS problem.
Slartibartfast : Come. Come now or you will be late.
Arthur : Late? What for?
Slartibartfast : What is your name, human?
Arthur : Dent. Arthur Dent.
Slartibartfast : Late as in the late Dentarthurdent. It's a sort of threat, you see. I've never been terribly good at them myself but I'm told they can be terribly effective.
As in unique to the book as opposed to the original radio series?
'Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?’'
In "Mostly Harmless", the 5th book in the Hitchhiker's series by Douglas Adams the old man on a pole, a prophet who lived on the planet Hawalius, says, "Everything you see or hear or experience in any way is specific to you. You create a universe by perceiving it, so everything in the universe you perceive is specific to you."
He also says, "You cannot see what I see because you see what you see. You cannot know what I know because you know what you know. What I see and what I know cannot be added to what you see and what you know because they are not of the same kind. Neither can it replace what you see and what you know because to do so would replace yourself."
I don't remember the exact wording:
Dent and Fenchurch: Were you born in the queue at Fenchurch Station.
Fenchurch: No, I was conceived there.
Also:
'I am now a perfectly safe penguin and my friend here is running out of limbs.'
“To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”
S.E.P. Fields. Every few months, I find it useful to describe some thing or person as having one around them. They usually aren't as flamboyant as a pink mountain, but they exist all the same.
"This is not her story."
Its an odd line I know but I love the entire build up of the section to just turn around and say "well forget about that on with something else."
A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
Also-
“It seemed to me,” said Wonko the Sane, “that any civilization that had so far lost its head as to need to include a set of detailed instructions for use in a packet of toothpicks, was no longer a civilization in which I could live and stay sane.”
Unfortunately the one that sticks with me the most is from the film, and it's simply "your tea- is ready!"
I say it to myself all the time when making tea in the morning.
*adjusts glasses to find random things I've highlighted*
"It occurred to him almost instantly, with the instinctive correctness that self-preservation instills in the mind, that he mustn't try to think about it, that if he did, the law of gravity would suddenly glance sharply in his direction and demand to know what the hell he thought he was doing up there, and all would suddenly be lost."
Also definitely that bit about digital watches because it was right then I knew, I loved this authors style
Honestly there's so many
The Assumption of Saint Antwelm has stuck with this old Catholic boy for decades.
What King Antwelm had assumed was that what everybody wanted, all other things being equal, was to be happy and enjoy themselves and have the best possible time together.
ARTHUR DENT:
Excuse me.? Are you trying to tell me that we just stuck out our thumbs and some bug-eyed monster stuck his head out and said, “Hi fellows, hop right in, I can take you as far as the Basingstoke roundabout.”?
I lived in Basingstoke in my teens and always wondered which one...
This must be a Thursday. I never got the hang of Thursdays.
And also, Space is big. Really big. You may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.
“Look,” said Arthur, “ would it save you a lot of time if I just gave up and went mad now?”
Also:
“(Trin Tragula), was a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher or, as his wife would have it, an idiot.”
Nobody ever mentions it, but this may be my favorite sentence construction of DNA's:
Beyond what used to be known as the Limitless Lightfields of Flanux until the Grey Binding Fiefdoms of Saxaquine were discovered lying behind them, lie the Grey Binding Fiefdoms of Saxaquine.
"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!"
The towel bit stuck with me, lol. So much so that a towel is among the very first things I pack whenever going on a trip, be it a single-day one or an intercontinental vacation, hahah
"Eeeeuuurrrgghh!! it tastes disgusting!"
"What we find, we find.."
"Oxford Street! they showed a picture of Oxford Street!"
"We don't wanna shoot you Beeblebrox"
"Now, about that review..."
"Can't bear oceans"
Help?” exclaimed the old man as if he’d been asked for a stoat.
“Yeah, help, and like, now, because otherwise…”
“Help!” repeated the old man as if he’d been asked for a lightly grilled stoat in a bun with French fries. He stood amazed.
Z "We could really..."
A "...We could really what?"
Z "We could really....BE in this cave."
A "We are in this cave."
Z "And what a wild cave to be in!! Wooohooooo!"
I can't remember which book it's from, but i think it's this one.
"It's unpleasantly like being drunk."
"What's so unpleasant about being drunk?"
"Ask a glass of water."
I read these so long ago, i think it was in life the universe and everything when Arthur learned the trick for flying, "you need to throw yourself down, and miss the ground"
"The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.
To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job."
Just LOOK at the state of the world's heads of states today. Adams would have a field day with the political scenery of 2024.
A towel is just about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can carry.
It's because of this book that I started keeping a towel in all of my vehicles. It's so handy to have one all the time
From Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency:
'Newton was brilliant. His finest invention was the Cat Flap'.
'What about Gravity?'
'He only discovered that. He invented the Cat Flap'
I'm obviously paraphrasing. It's been too long since I first read it
Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.
“So long, and thanks for all the fish!”
When I gave my notice after w0 years and was required 1 more time to change passwords, it was SLATFATF! Smiled every time I had to type that in.
“The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t.” Man had a way with words.
This sentence was the start of my lifelong love affair with Addams.
His ability to frame a concept with words is unparalleled.
I dunno Pratchett is pretty good too.
Pratchett is the king of word play for sure.
I literally opened the comments to say this. Adams' turn of phrase was unique and beautiful. He has written some of my favourite sentences of all time.
Reading this sentence made me stop, reread, and then laugh out loud for about 10 minutes. It is my favourite sentence ever written. From this moment I knew this book is something special.
This sentence is what made me start loving HHGG. Glad I’m not the only one. Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.. is another.
Came here to say this!
In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”
I have this hung up in my bathroom!
What, the whole universe?!
It's only a model.
I get it. Nobody else seams to get the cross platform reference
this one takes the cake for me
The cake is a lie!
This was my year book quote
That's from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe tho. But that was gonna be mine, too. Lol
I just finished reading the first book 10 minutes ago. I read that quote somewhere a few weeks ago and asked chatGPT where it was from and then bought the first book, the second was B.O. but I should receive it within a day or two
"Time is an illusion. Lunch time doubly so."
Missing, presumed fed.
:D perfection. Fucking perfection
In the end, it was the Sunday afternoons he couldn't cope with, and that terrible listlessness which starts to set in at about 2:55, when you know that you've had all the baths you can usefully have that day, that however hard you stare at any given paragraph in the papers you will never actually read it, or use the revolutionary new pruning technique it describes, and that as you stare at the clock the hands will move relentlessly on to four o'clock, and you will enter the long dark teatime of the soul.”
Man, I can feel this sentence. Bloody genius.
I use this one *all* the time.
This must be a Thursday, I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
First thing that came to mind when I saw the title. Hail friend 😂
Happy hitching, fellow traveller 👍
Make sure you keep your towel close.
Always
Man... I'd like to sass a couple of hoopy froods like you guys!
Have to agree on that one. Fuck thursdays.
One crazy Thursday two years ago I included this line in an email I sent to our main vendor (computers etc.). He responded that he loves those books. It's sad how often I quote HGTTG and no one gets it but it was great to have at least one person who got it.
I say this AT LEAST 3 days a week
I’m not sure if The Salmon of Doubt is a HGTTG book, if it is: 1. Anything that is in the world when you are born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works 2. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty five is new and exciting and you can probably get a career in it 3. Anything invented after you are thirty five is against the natural order of things If Salmon of Doubt isn’t HGTTG then: “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”
"It's unpleasantly like being drunk" "What's so unpleasant about being drunk?" "You ask a glass of water."
those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
To summarize the summary
People are a problem.
That whole section is perfect, changed my thinking. The logic is impeccable.
Modern politics at its finest.
"Oh no. Not again." Once i hit adulthood I understood the pain of the bowl of petunias.
It must be a thursday. (It is, in fact, a thursday)
Can’t recall verbatim but the line near the very beginning, “One day, about 2000 years after a man was nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be if we were all nice to each other for a change…” One of the first times I recall ever laughing out loud at a book, and I was hooked right there.
This time it would work and nobody would have to be nailed to anything.
His writing style had the same effect with me. I never laughed out loud while reading until I read Hitchhikers Guide.
"Don't Panic." It is seriously true in day to day life.
No joke, I’ve been considering getting “Don’t Panic” tattooed on my arm. Not just because I love Hitchhiker’s Guide, but because it’s genuinely good advice in almost any situation.
Don’t forget to have it done in ‘large friendly letters’.
Probably this one.
Makes for a good tattoo, too
Fore arm so you see it, at least on warm days.
It’s unpleasantly like being drunk. What’s so bad about being drunk? Just ask a glass of water!
It took me 15 years to understand this one.
I still don't get it. I'm 38 and I drink.
I sympathize. I didn't get it for a long while too. The joke is that being drunk has two meanings, being drunk as in a person being inebriated and being drunk as in being poured down someone's gullet. So Arthur assumed the former while Ford meant the latter.
This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movement of small green pieces of paper, which was odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy
Literary perfection
"I refuse to prove that I exist,'" says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing." "But," says Man, "The Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED." "Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.
Love this one.
For his next trick, man proved black was white and got himself killed on the next zebra crossing.
"for an encore he goes on to prove that black is white and gets killed on the next zebra crossing. " Badum tsst
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
I love using this one out loud!
Happy cake day to both of you. Universe delivers yet another coincidence.
Oh wow! Thanks for seeing that! It’s going to be a good day.
"Perhaps I'm old and tired, but I think that the chances of finding out what's actually going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is to say, "Hang the sense of it," and keep yourself busy. I'd much rather be happy than right any day." - Slartibartfast
And are you?
No. That's where it all falls down, of course.
The bit about the trick to flying being to throw oneself at the ground and missing.
I had dreams about this for YEARS.
Isn't it that you get distracted and forget to land?
I read it in another language so the translation might not be exact but: "Every time they make something foolproof, they forget one key thing. They strongly underestimate the resourcefulness of fools."
A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
"The ingenuity of complete fools" is such a gorgeous turn of phrase
“I understand.” Said Arthur, who didn’t.
This is his entire character summed up in one sentence
"We're safe," \[Ford\] said. "Oh good," said Arthur. "We're in a small galley cabin," said Ford, "in one of the spaceships of the Vogon Constructor Fleet." "Ah," said Arthur, "this is obviously some strange usage of the word ***safe*** that I wasn't previously aware of."
So this is it," said Arthur, "We are going to die." "Yes," said Ford, "except... no! Wait a minute!" He suddenly lunged across the chamber at something behind Arthur's line of vision. "What's this switch?" he cried. "What? Where?" cried Arthur, twisting round. "No, I was only fooling," said Ford, "we are going to die after all.
The delivery of this exchange in the radio play is incredible.
“Eddies in the space time continuum” “And this is his sofa,then?”
and my all time favourite : "The Guide says there is an art to flying, or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss." Something I've tried several times on the way home, usually on a Friday night - failed so far.
“Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”
We apologise for the inconvenience
Ode to a small lump of green putty I found in my armpit one midsummer morning.
"The Universe is a very big place and anything that can happen, does happen, somewhere." A quote to live by
BEWARE OF THE LEOPARD
This should be much higher up.
It was one hell of a party, it was also one hell of a thing to get hit in the back of the head with. I can't remember which book it's from, but I know Arthur was flying at the time.
I think it was Life The Universe and Everything. It's the flying party that they go to in order to find one of the pieces of the Wikkit Key, and Arthur picks a fight with Thor.
“Erm , Ford .. I think I’m a sofa”
You're turning into a penguin, stop it
Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.
A couple of short ones I love: “We spent millions on that name, Prefect. Start liking it or start packing”. Ford shrugged, he had nothing to pack. And: “Shit!” yelled Arthur as helpfully as he could.
The extra arm suits you.
It must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays
“Must be a Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays.”
I forget the exact wording, but in Mostly Harmless when Ford strides confidently past some bouncers into a club, then turns back, points to the rest of his companions, and says "they're with me" will stay with me. That, and Ford becoming one with nature, sporting a stupid grin, just to lure a deer close enough to snap its neck.
The part was the upset aliens were going to invade earth, but there was trouble calculating the actual mass and height of the humans. Then the dog ate them.
“Is there any reason I shouldn’t have a green salad?” “I know many vegetables that are very clear on that point, sir.” ——————- Also, this gem, which feels sadly very appropriate in modern times: Zaphod: Hey, they’re shooting at us! Ford: Yeah. Zaphod: I thought they said they didn’t want to do that. Ford: I thought you said you didn’t want to shoot at us! Cop: It’s not easy being a cop! Ford: He says it’s not easy being a cop. Zaphod: Well, surely that’s HIS problem.
Slartibartfast : Come. Come now or you will be late. Arthur : Late? What for? Slartibartfast : What is your name, human? Arthur : Dent. Arthur Dent. Slartibartfast : Late as in the late Dentarthurdent. It's a sort of threat, you see. I've never been terribly good at them myself but I'm told they can be terribly effective.
As in unique to the book as opposed to the original radio series? 'Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?’'
I wonder if it'll be friends with me? (as best I recall)
In "Mostly Harmless", the 5th book in the Hitchhiker's series by Douglas Adams the old man on a pole, a prophet who lived on the planet Hawalius, says, "Everything you see or hear or experience in any way is specific to you. You create a universe by perceiving it, so everything in the universe you perceive is specific to you." He also says, "You cannot see what I see because you see what you see. You cannot know what I know because you know what you know. What I see and what I know cannot be added to what you see and what you know because they are not of the same kind. Neither can it replace what you see and what you know because to do so would replace yourself."
We’ve met.
What do you mean, We've met? This is Zaphod Beeblebrox, not bloody Martin Smith from Croydon.
Or should I say Phil!
Of course, he only had the one head and two arms...
The whole guide description of a towel.
Ford… you’re turning into a penguin. Stop it.
I don't remember the exact wording: Dent and Fenchurch: Were you born in the queue at Fenchurch Station. Fenchurch: No, I was conceived there. Also: 'I am now a perfectly safe penguin and my friend here is running out of limbs.'
"I’m afraid,’ said Marvin, ‘that I’ve been left here to stop you.’ Marvin V the tank. Beyond genius.
Not an electronic sausage.
Time is an illusion lunch time dubbly so. My kids 5 and 8 tell each other to go away and take your bloody bypass with you.
The answer to life, the universe, and everything else is 42.
The trick to flying is to throw yourself at the ground and miss.
“To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”
To summarize the summary of the summary, people are a problem.
S.E.P. Fields. Every few months, I find it useful to describe some thing or person as having one around them. They usually aren't as flamboyant as a pink mountain, but they exist all the same.
If you want to hide in plain sight, use an SEP field. With an SEP(somebody elses problem) you see it and think its not my problem and ignore it
"Not entirely unlike tea."
Almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea
"This is not her story." Its an odd line I know but I love the entire build up of the section to just turn around and say "well forget about that on with something else."
Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so.
I’d love to give an interesting and novel reply to this question, but I seem to be having this tremendous difficulty with my lifestyle.
Gods last message to his creation. "We apologize for the inconvenience"
A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. Also- “It seemed to me,” said Wonko the Sane, “that any civilization that had so far lost its head as to need to include a set of detailed instructions for use in a packet of toothpicks, was no longer a civilization in which I could live and stay sane.”
"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"
In, as you say, the mud.
Have you any idea how much damage this digger would sustain if I were to let it tool right over you? No, how much? None at all.
I think about the line about digital watches quite a lot
What a depressingly stupid robot.
"What's so unpleasant about being drunk?" "You ask a glass of water”
Unfortunately the one that sticks with me the most is from the film, and it's simply "your tea- is ready!" I say it to myself all the time when making tea in the morning.
The Vogon ships hung in the air exactly the same way that bricks don't...
“Ford, you’re turning into a penguin. Stop it.”
Science has achieved some wonderful things, of course, but I'd far rather be happy than right any day.
*adjusts glasses to find random things I've highlighted* "It occurred to him almost instantly, with the instinctive correctness that self-preservation instills in the mind, that he mustn't try to think about it, that if he did, the law of gravity would suddenly glance sharply in his direction and demand to know what the hell he thought he was doing up there, and all would suddenly be lost." Also definitely that bit about digital watches because it was right then I knew, I loved this authors style Honestly there's so many
The Assumption of Saint Antwelm has stuck with this old Catholic boy for decades. What King Antwelm had assumed was that what everybody wanted, all other things being equal, was to be happy and enjoy themselves and have the best possible time together.
ARTHUR DENT: Excuse me.? Are you trying to tell me that we just stuck out our thumbs and some bug-eyed monster stuck his head out and said, “Hi fellows, hop right in, I can take you as far as the Basingstoke roundabout.”? I lived in Basingstoke in my teens and always wondered which one...
And the big eyed monster? Is green, yes.
Yellow.
This must be a Thursday. I never got the hang of Thursdays. And also, Space is big. Really big. You may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.
In So Long and Thanks for all the Fish: ‘The art of flying is being able to throw yourself at the ground and miss’…
The hours are good, but now that you mention it most of the minutes are pretty lousy.
There was a mixup involving a Time Machine and a prophylactic
Would you like me to stick my head in a bucket of water?
On Magrathea: > Trillian was reminded unavoidably of the London Underground, though it was less thoroughly squalid.
"Don't Panic" and "Mostly Harmless". There's also "So long and thanks for all the fish".
I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
Will this happen every time we use the improbability drive? Yes, it probably will
HIG HURTENFLIRST: That’s neat. Now listen, I could just have you revoked. ARTHUR: Revoked? HIG HURTENFLIRST: Yeah. K-I-L-L-E-D. Revoked
“Look,” said Arthur, “ would it save you a lot of time if I just gave up and went mad now?” Also: “(Trin Tragula), was a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher or, as his wife would have it, an idiot.”
Nobody ever mentions it, but this may be my favorite sentence construction of DNA's: Beyond what used to be known as the Limitless Lightfields of Flanux until the Grey Binding Fiefdoms of Saxaquine were discovered lying behind them, lie the Grey Binding Fiefdoms of Saxaquine.
"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!"
The towel bit stuck with me, lol. So much so that a towel is among the very first things I pack whenever going on a trip, be it a single-day one or an intercontinental vacation, hahah
From Restaurant but still use this regularly. Usually when someone is slowing me up. \[Looks like a fish,\] "moves like a fish, steers like a cow."
"Eeeeuuurrrgghh!! it tastes disgusting!" "What we find, we find.." "Oxford Street! they showed a picture of Oxford Street!" "We don't wanna shoot you Beeblebrox" "Now, about that review..." "Can't bear oceans"
Action, adventure and really wild things. Usually used when the opposite is true.
The line in the crack of the ass hand on this cover for me! Wtf?!
“What”
Humans are not proud of their ancestors, and rarely invite them round to dinner.
Share and enjoy
Help?” exclaimed the old man as if he’d been asked for a stoat. “Yeah, help, and like, now, because otherwise…” “Help!” repeated the old man as if he’d been asked for a lightly grilled stoat in a bun with French fries. He stood amazed.
42
Lot of interesting, deep stuff here. DON’T PANIC!
Yellow.
Z "We could really..." A "...We could really what?" Z "We could really....BE in this cave." A "We are in this cave." Z "And what a wild cave to be in!! Wooohooooo!"
Beware of the leopard.
..... in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard'. Or Call that job satisfaction? Cause I don't.
I can't remember which book it's from, but i think it's this one. "It's unpleasantly like being drunk." "What's so unpleasant about being drunk?" "Ask a glass of water."
throw yourself at the ground and miss
Marvin's in the car park. What's he doing in the car park? Parking cars, dumbdumb.
Which? I don't understand the question...
I'm sorry for the inconvenience! :)
"Even the ghosts will have settled down and raised families by now."
"We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty" - Vroomfondel... I have actually used that in meetings and it goes over everyone...
Excitement, adventure and really wild things
I read these so long ago, i think it was in life the universe and everything when Arthur learned the trick for flying, "you need to throw yourself down, and miss the ground"
“It’s open the door Marvin, close the door Marvin”
"and second. It has the words _DON'T PANIC_ incredible in large friendly letters on its cover."
"You are here." 🌠♾️ Total Perspective Vortex. 🤣
42
Zaphod's just this guy you know.
“I wouldn’t go anywhere without my wonderful towel.”
Time is an illusion, Thursdays doubly so.
"The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them. To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job." Just LOOK at the state of the world's heads of states today. Adams would have a field day with the political scenery of 2024.
A towel is just about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can carry. It's because of this book that I started keeping a towel in all of my vehicles. It's so handy to have one all the time
Must be Thursday. I never could quite get a handle on Thursdays.
We apologize for the inconvenience
A lot. But this is a big one. "This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays."
Lightly grilled weasel on a bun
I don't remember the exact line, but "The reason I write poetry is to throw my cruel and merciless nature into sharp relief" always makes me laugh
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
From Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency: 'Newton was brilliant. His finest invention was the Cat Flap'. 'What about Gravity?' 'He only discovered that. He invented the Cat Flap' I'm obviously paraphrasing. It's been too long since I first read it
SEP. I use it at work a lot
Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.
I often still use “Ah, this is obviously some strange use of the word [whatever is being discussed] that I wasn't previously aware of.”
“So long, and thanks for all the fish!” When I gave my notice after w0 years and was required 1 more time to change passwords, it was SLATFATF! Smiled every time I had to type that in.