# Life, the Universe and Everything

- Author: [Douglas Adams](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams.md)
- Quotes: 41
- Book page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything

## Quotes

> "Excuse me," [Arthur] said, "the Ashes. I've got them. They were stolen by those white robots a moment ago ... what should I do with them?"
>
> The policeman told him, but Arthur could only assume that he was speaking metaphorically.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/excuse-me-arthur.md)

> It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/it-is-a-mistake.md)

> "I wasn't very impressed with it when I first knew what it was," he said, "but now I think back to how impressed I was by the Prince's reason, and how soon afterward I couldn't recall it at all, I think it might be a lot more helpful. Would you like to know what it is? Would you?" They nodded dumbly. "I bet you would. If you're that interested I suggest you go and look for it. It is written in thirty-foot-high letters of fire on top of the Quentulus Quazgar Mountains in the land of Sevorbeupstry on the planet Preliumtarn, third out from the sun Zarss in Galactic Sector QQ7 ActiveJ Gamma. it is guarded by the Lajestic Vantrashell of Lob."
>
> There was a long silence following this announcement, which was finally broken by Arthur. "Sorry, it's where?" he said.
>
> "It is written," repeated Prak, "in thirty-foot-high letters of fire on top of the Quentulus Quazgar Mountains in the land of Sevorbeupstry on the planet Preliumtarn, third out from the..."
>
> "Sorry," said Arthur again, "which mountains?"
>
> "The Quentulus Quazgar Mountains in the land of Sevorbeupstry on the planet..."
>
> "Which land was that? I didn't quite catch it."
>
> "Sevorsbeupstry, on the planet..."
>
> "Sevorbe what?"
>
> "Oh, for heaven's sake," said Prak, and died testily.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/i-wasnt-very.md)

> He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/he-hoped-and.md)

> If a sunbeam had ever managed to slink this far into the justice complex of Argabuthon it would have turned around and slunk straight back out again.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/if-a-sunbeam.md)

> "That young girl," Marvin added unexpectedly, "is one of the least benightedly unintelligent organic life forms it has been my profound lack of pleasure not to be able to avoid meeting."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/that-young-girl.md)

> “I'm afraid,” he said at last, “that the Question and the Answer are mutually exclusive. Knowledge of one logically precludes knowledge of the other. It is impossible that both can ever be known about the same Universe.”

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/im-afraid-he-said.md)

> In Relativity, Matter tells Space how to curve, and Space tells Matter how to move.
>
> The Heart of Gold told space to get knotted, and parked itself neatly within the inner steel perimeter of the Argabuthon Chamber of Law.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/in-relativity-matter.md)

> Marvin droned,
>
> Now the world has gone to bed,
>
> Darkness don't engulf my head,
>
> I can see by infrared,
>
> How I hate the night.
>
> He paused to gather artistic and emotional strength to tackle the next verse.
>
> Now I lay me down to sleep,
>
> Try to count electric sheep,
>
> Sweet dream wishes you can keep,
>
> How I hate the night.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/marvin-droned-now.md)

> On the way back they sang a number of tuneful and reflective songs on the subjects of peace, justice, morality, culture, sport, family life and the obliteration of all other life forms.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/on-the-way.md)

> [Lallafa] never got around to writing the poems, of course, which was a problem, but an easily solved one. The manufacturers of correcting fluid simply packed him off for a week somewhere with a copy of a later edition of his book and stacks of dried habra leaves to copy them out onto, making the odd deliberate mistake and correction on the way.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/lallafa-never-got.md)

> The second nonabsolute number is the given time of arrival, which is now known to be one of those most bizarre of mathematical concepts, a recipriversexlusion, a number whose existence can only be defined as being anything other than itself. In other words, the given time of arrival is the one moment of time at which it is impossible that any member of the party will arrive.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/the-second-nonabsolute.md)

> Do not listen to what anybody says to you at this point because they are unlikely to say anything helpful.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/do-not-listen.md)

> The first nonabsolute number is the number of people for whom the table is reserved. This will vary during the course of the first three telephone calls to the restaurant, and then bear no apparent relation to the number of people who actually turn up...

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/the-first-nonabsolute.md)

> "Voon," [the mattress] wurfed at last, "and was it a magnificent occasion?"
>
> "Reasonably magnificent. The entire thousand-mile-long bridge spontaneously folded up its glittering spans and sank weeping into the mire, taking everybody with it."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/voon-the-mattress.md)

> [Zaphod] sat up sharply and started to pull clothes on. He decided that there must be someone in the Universe feeling more wretched, miserable and forsaken than himself, and he determined to set out and find him.
>
> Halfway to the bridge it occurred to him that it might be Marvin, and he returned to bed.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/zaphod-sat-up-sharply.md)

> He gazed keenly into the distance and looked as if he would quite like the wind to blow his hair back dramatically at that point, but the wind was busy fooling around with some leaves a little way off.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/he-gazed-keenly.md)

> There is an art, it says, or rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. ... Clearly, it is this second part, the missing, which presents the difficulties.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/there-is-an-art.md)

> Very few things actually get manufactured these days, because in an infinitely large Universe such as, for instance, the one in which we live, most things one could possibly imagine, and a lot of things one would rather not, grow somewhere.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/very-few-things.md)

> [The Guide] had some advice to offer on drunkenness.
>
> "Go to it," it said, "and good luck."
>
> It was cross-referenced to the entry concerning the size of the Universe and the ways of coping with that.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/the-guide-had.md)

> "Africa was very interesting," said Ford, "I behaved very oddly there." ... "I took up being cruel to animals," he said airily. "But only," he added, "as a hobby."
>
> "Oh yes," said Arthur, warily.
>
> "Yes," Ford assured him. "I won't disturb you with the details because they would—"
>
> "What?"
>
> "Disturb you. But you may be interested to know that I am singlehandedly responsible for the evolved shape of the animal you came to know in later centuries as a giraffe."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/africa-was-very.md)

> "My doctor says that I have a malformed public-duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fibre," Ford muttered to himself, "and that I am therefore excused from saving Universes."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/my-doctor-says.md)

> "I would like to say that it is a very great pleasure, honour and privilege for me to open this bridge, but I can't because my lying circuits are all out of commission."—Marvin

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/i-would-like.md)

> Many people now say that the poems are suddenly worthless. Others argue that they are exactly the same as they always were, so what's changed?

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/many-people-now.md)

> The alien ship was already thundering toward the upper reaches of the atmosphere, on its way out into the appalling void that separates the very few things there are in the Universe from one another.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/the-alien-ship.md)

> Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged was - indeed, is - one of the Universe's very small number of immortal beings. [...]

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/wowbagger-the-infinitely.md)

> "My capacity for happiness," he added, "you could fit into a matchbox without taking out the matches first." —Marvin

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/my-capacity-for.md)

> They obstinately persisted in their absence.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/they-obstinately-persisted.md)

> "I have detected," he said, "disturbances in the wash." ...
>
> "The wash?" said Arthur.
>
> "The space-time wash," said Ford. ...
>
> Arthur nodded, and then cleared his throat. "Are we talking about," he asked cautiously, "some sort of Vogon laundromat, or what are we talking about?"
>
> "Eddies," said Ford, "in the space-time continuum."
>
> "Ah," nodded Arthur, "is he? Is he?" He pushed his hands into the pocket of his dressing gown and looked knowledgeably into the distance.
>
> "What?" said Ford.
>
> "Er, who," said Arthur, "is Eddy, then, exactly, then?"

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/i-have-detected.md)

> The regular early morning yell of horror was the sound of Arthur Dent waking up and suddenly remembering where he was.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/the-regular-early.md)

> the third non-absolute number is the number on the bill, (and how many people actually have the money to pay it)

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/the-third-non-absolute.md)

> There is, or was, a poet. His name was Lallafa, and he wrote what are widely regarded throughout the Galaxy as the finest poems in existence, the Songs of the Long Land.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/there-is-or-was.md)

> There is a moment in every dawn when light floats, there is the possibility of magic. Creation holds its breath.
>
> The moment passed as it regularly did on Sqornshellous Zeta, without incident.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/there-is-a-moment.md)

> "You may not instantly see why I bring the subject up, but that is because my mind works so phenomenally fast, and I am at a rough estimate thirty billion times more intelligent than you. Let me give you an example. Think of a number, any number."
>
> "Er, five," said the mattress.
>
> "Wrong," said Marvin. "You see?"
>
> The mattress was much impressed by this and realized that it was in the presence of a not unremarkable mind.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/you-may-not.md)

> [Lallafa] wrote about a girl who had left him and precisely what he thought about that. Long after his death his poems were found and wondered over. News of them spread like morning sunlight. For centuries they illuminated and watered the lives of many people whose lives might otherwise have been darker and dryer. Then, shortly after the invention of time travel, some major correcting fluid manufacturers wondered whether his poems might have been better still if he had had access to say a few words to that effect. They traveled the time waves; they found him. They explained the situation -- with some difficulty -- to him, and did indeed persuade him. In fact they persuaded him to such effect that he became extremely rich at their hands, and the girl about whom he was otherwise destined to write with such precision never got around to leaving him, and in fact they moved out of the forest to a rather nice pad in town and he frequently commuted to the future to do talk shows, on which he sparkled wittily.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/lallafa-wrote-about.md)

> "There!" said Ford, shooting out his arm. "There, behind that sofa!"
>
> Arthur looked. Much to his surprise, there was a velvet paisley-covered Chesterfield sofa in the field in front of them. He boggled intelligently at it. Shrewd questions sprang into his mind.
>
> "Why," he said, "is there a sofa in that field?"
>
> "I told you!" shouted Ford, leaping to his feet. "Eddies in the space-time continuum!"
>
> "And this is his sofa, is it?" asked Arthur, struggling to his feet and, he hoped, though not very optimistically, to his senses.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/there-said-ford.md)

> For a moment or two the old man didn't reply. He was staring at the instruments with the air of one who is trying to convert Fahrenheit to centigrade in his head while his house is burning down.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/for-a-moment.md)

> Lallafa had lived in the forests of the Long Lands of Effa.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/lallafa-had-lived.md)

> Time travel is increasingly regarded as a menace. History is being polluted.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/time-travel-is-increasingly.md)

> Several billion trillion tons of superhot exploding hydrogen nuclei rose slowly above the horizon and managed to look small, cold and slightly damp.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/several-billion-trillion.md)

> The renewed shock had nearly made him spill his drink. He drained it quickly before anything serious happened to it. He then had another quick one to follow the first one down and check that it was all right.
>
> "Freedom," he said aloud.
>
> Trillian came on to the bridge at that point and said several enthusiastic things on the subject of freedom.
>
> "I can't cope with it," Zaphod said darkly, and sent a third drink down to see why the second hadn't yet reported on the condition of the first. He looked uncertainly at both of her and preferred the one on the right.
>
> He poured a drink down his other throat with the plan that it would head the previous one off at the pass, join forces with it, and together they would get the second to pull itself together. Then all three would go off in search of the first, give it a good talking to and maybe a bit of a sing as well.
>
> He felt uncertain as to whether the fourth drink had understood all that, so he sent down a fifth to explain the plan more fully and a sixth for moral support.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/life-the-universe-and-everything/the-renewed-shock.md)