Elinor > Elinor's Quotes

“In astrology the rules happen to be about stars and planets, but they could be about ducks and drakes for all the difference it would make. It's just a way of thinking about a problem which lets the shape of that problem begin to emerge. The more rules, the tinier the rules, the more arbitrary they are, the better. It's like throwing a handful of fine graphite dust on a piece of paper to see where the hidden indentations are. It lets you see the words that were written on the piece of paper above it that's now been taken away and hidden. The graphite's not important. It's just the means of revealing the indentations. So you see, astrology's nothing to do with astronomy. It's just to do with people thinking about people.”
― Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless

“It all sounds rather naive and sentimental to be talking about children laughing and dancing and singing together when we all know perfectly well that what children do in real life is snarl and take drugs.”
― Douglas Adams

“Do you find coming to terms with the mindless tedium of it all presents an interesting challenge?”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“I only know as much about myself as my mind can work out under its current conditions. And its current conditions are not good.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“Grown men, he told himself, in flat contradiction of centuries of accumulated evidence about the way grown men behave, do not behave like this.”
― Douglas Adams, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

“We are not an endangered species ourselves yet, but this is not for lack of trying.”
― Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See

“Zaphod felt he was teetering on the edge of madness and wondered if he shouldn't just jump over and have done with it.”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“I am a private detective. I am paid to be inquisitive and presumptuous.”
― Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

“In the great debate that has raged for centuries about what, if anything, happens to you after death, be it heaven, hell, purgatory or extinction, one thing has never been in doubt - that you would at least know the answer when you were dead.”
― Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

“The complexities of cause and effect defy analysis.”
― Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

“The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.”
― Douglas Adams

“Beppu (n.)

The triumphant slamming shut of a book after reading the final page.”
― Douglas Adams, The Deeper Meaning of Liff: A Dictionary of Things There Aren't Any Words for Yet—But There Ought to Be

“The light works," he said, indicating the window, "the gravity works," he said, dropping a pencil on the floor. "Anything else we have to take our chances with.”
― Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

“It [Darwin's theory of evolution] was a concept of such stunning simplicity, but it gave rise, naturally, to all of the infinite and baffling complexity of life. The awe it inspired in me made the awe that people talk about in respect of religious experience seem, frankly, silly beside it. I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day.”
― Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time

“I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that you've never actually known what the question is.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“I really didn't foresee the Internet. But then, neither did the computer industry. Not that that tells us very much of course--the computer industry didn't even foresee that the century was going to end.”
― Douglas Adams

“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.”
― Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See

“It is of course perfectly natural to assume that everyone else is having a far more exciting time than you. Human beings, for instance, have a phrase that describes this phenomenon, ‘The other man’s grass is always greener.’
The Shaltanac race of Broopkidren 13 had a similar phrase, but since their planet is somewhat eccentric, botanically speaking, the best they could manage was, ‘The other Shaltanac's joopleberry shrub is always a more mauvy shade of pinky-russet.’ And so the expression soon fell into disuse, and the Shaltanacs had little option but to become terribly happy and contented with their lot, much to the surprise of everyone else in the Galaxy who had not realized that the best way not to be unhappy is not to have a word for it.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“What do you get if you multiply six by nine?"
"Six by nine. Forty two."
"That's it. That's all there is."
"I always thought something was fundamentally wrong with the universe”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Why should I want to make anything up? Life's bad enough as it is without wanting to invent any more of it.”
― Douglas Adams

“The seat received him in a loose and distant kind of way, like an aunt who disapproves of the last fifteen years of your life and will therefore furnish you with a basic sherry, but refuses to catch your eye.”
― Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

“Gordon Way's astonishment at being suddenly shot dead was nothing compared to his astonishment at what happened next.”
― Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

“He had got himself a life. Now he had to find a purpose in it.”
― Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless

“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.”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“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.”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“A computer chatted to itself in alarm as it noticed an airlock open and close itself for no apparent reason.
This was because Reason was in fact out to lunch.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“The longest and most destructive party ever held is now into its fourth generation and still no one shows any signs of leaving. Somebody did once look at his watch, but that was eleven years ago now, and there has been no follow up.”
― Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything

“Deep in the fundamental heart of mind and Universe there is a reason.”
― Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything

“It's not the fall that kills you; it's the sudden stop at the end.”
― Douglas Adams

“For as long as he could remember, he’d suffered from a vague nagging feeling of being not all there.”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy