The quotations of

Douglas Adams

British science fiction writer and humorist

1952–2001

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

I love deadlines. I especially like the whooshing sound they make as they go flying by.
- Comedy
If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands.
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (1987)
- Comedy
Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979)
- Comedy
It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979)
- Comedy
I am so amazingly cool you could keep a side of meat in me for a month. I am so hip I have difficulty seeing over my pelvis.
- Comedy
Thor was the God of Thunder and, frankly, acted like it.
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (1988), Ch. 7
- Comedy
I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.
The Salmon of Doubt (2002)
- Comedy
- Work
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
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

Most quoted

People A to Z

C. S. Lewis1898–1963151 quotes

Mark Twain1835–1910151 quotes

Benjamin Franklin1706–179098 quotes

Martin Luther King Jr.1929–196884 quotes

Albert Einstein1879–195595 quotes

Dave Barryborn 1947100 quotes