The quotations of

Douglas Adams

British science fiction writer and humorist

1952–2001

27 quotes, most often on Comedy, Science and Animals.

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.
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (1987)
- Comedy
You will need to know the difference between Friday and a fried egg. It’s quite a simple difference, but an important one.
The Salmon of Doubt (2002)
- Comedy
It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the expression “As pretty as an airport.”
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (1988), Ch. 1
- Clever Jabs
- Comedy
Sir Isaac Newton, renowned inventor of the milled-edge coin and the catflap!
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (1987)
- Comedy
- Science
Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.
The Salmon of Doubt (2002)
- Age
- Technology
The kid was deliberately and maliciously watching television at him.
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (1988), Ch. 6
- Comedy
- Television
The hotel shop only had two decent books, and I’d written both of them.
The Salmon of Doubt (2002)
- Comedy
- Writing
A learning experience is one of those things that say, “You know that thing you just did? Don’t do that.”
Interview in The Daily Nexus (5 April 2000), reprinted in The Salmon of Doubt
- Comedy
- Experience
If you try and take a cat apart to see how it works, the first thing you have on your hands is a nonworking cat.
Douglas Adams. The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time. New York: Random House, 2002, 135–136.
- Comedy
- Science
If the Universe came to an end every time there was some uncertainty about what had happened in it, it would never have got beyond the first picosecond. And many of course don’t.
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (1987)
- Comedy
- Science
My absolute favourite piece of information is the fact that young sloths are so inept that they frequently grab their own arms and legs instead of tree limbs, and fall out of trees.
The Salmon of Doubt (2002)
- Animals
- Comedy
We don’t have to save the world. The world is big enough to look after itself. What we have to be concerned about is whether or not the world we live in will be capable of sustaining us in it.
Speech at The University of California, videoed by UCTV (May 2001).
- Nature

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