Douglas Adams Quotes

• A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

  Douglas Adams

  Topics in Mistake

  Tags in Stupidity, Creativity

• He was a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher… or, as his wife would have it, an idiot.

  Douglas Adams

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Dreams, Philosophy, Marriage

• Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.

  Douglas Adams

  Topics in Education, Experience

  Tags in Learning

• You live and learn. At any rate, you live.

  Douglas Adams

• Time is bunk.

  Douglas Adams

• The mere thought hadn’t even begun to speculate about the merest possibility of crossing my mind.

  Douglas Adams

• 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 and repair.

  Douglas Adams

• The knack of flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.

  Douglas Adams

• The impossible often has a kind of integrity which the merely improbable lacks.

  Douglas Adams

• The Guide is definitive. Reality is frequently inaccurate.

  Douglas Adams

• The difficulty with this conversation is that it’s very different from most of the ones I’ve had of late. Which, as I explained, have mostly been with trees.

  Douglas Adams

• It is a rare mind indeed that can render the hitherto non-existent blindingly obvious. The cry ‘I could have thought of that’ is a very popular and misleading one, for the fact is that they didn’t, and a very significant and revealing fact it is too.

  Douglas Adams

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

  Douglas Adams

• In order to fly, all one must do is simply miss the ground.

  Douglas Adams

• If somebody thinks they’re a hedgehog, presumably you just give ’em a mirror and a few pictures of hedgehogs and tell them to sort it out for themselves.

  Douglas Adams

• 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.

  Douglas Adams

• I’m spending a year dead for tax reasons.

  Douglas Adams

• I seldom end up where I wanted to go, but almost always end up where I need to be.

  Douglas Adams

• I don’t believe it. Prove it to me and I still won’t believe it.

  Douglas Adams

• For a moment, nothing happened. Then, after a second or so, nothing continued to happen.

  Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams (63)

Birth:	11th March, 1952
Death:	11th May, 2001
Nationality:	British
Profession:	Humorist, Novelist, Playwright, Screenwriter

About

Douglas Noel Adams was born in Cambridge, England. He was an English novelist, screenwriter, humorist, and playwright. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He also wrote Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, and co-wrote The Meaning of Liff, The Deeper Meaning of Liff, and Last Chance to See.

Related Authors

• Jacki Kane
• Frank Tyger
• Macedonio Fernández
• Dave Barry
• Arthur Baer
• Bert Leston Taylor
• Adrienne E Gusoff
• Alan Patrick Herbert
• Arnold Glasow
• Brian P Cleary

Advertisement

Today's Anniversary - 7th November

Births

• 1970 - Morgan Spurlock
• 1943 - Joni Mitchell
• 1988 - Alexandr Dolgopolov
• 1928 - Richard G. Scott
• 1942 - Tom Peters

Deaths

• 1981 - Will Durant
• 1980 - Steve McQueen
• 1990 - Lawrence Durrell
• 1992 - Alexander Dubcek
• 1913 - Alfred Russel Wallace