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.
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"Simple. I got very bored and depressed, so I went and plugged myself in to its external computer feed. I talked to the computer at great length and explained my view of the Universe to it," said Marvin.
"And what happened?" pressed Ford.
"It committed suicide," said Marvin and stalked off back to the Heart of Gold.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ... says of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation products that "it is very easy to be blinded to the essential uselessness of them by the sense of achievement you get from getting them to work at all."
"So much time," it groaned, "oh so much time. And pain as well, so much of that, and so much time to suffer it in too. One or the other on its own I could probably manage. It's the two together that really get me down."
"Delay?" Zaphod cried. "Have you seen the world outside this ship? It's a wasteland, a desert. Civilization's been and gone, man. There are no lemon-soaked paper napkins on the way from anywhere."
"The statistical likelihood," continued the autopilot primly, "is that other civilizations will arise. There will one day be lemon-soaked paper napkins. Till then there will be a short delay. Please return to your seat."
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.
Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?
"Forty-two," said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm. "The Answer to the Great Question, of Life, the Universe and Everything"
That quite definitely is the answer. I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that you've never actually known what the question is.
The fabulously beautiful planet Bethselamin is now so worried about the cumulative erosion by ten billion visiting tourists a year that any net imbalance between the amount you eat and the amount you excrete while on the planet is surgically removed from your body weight when you leave: so every time you go to the lavatory there it is vitally important to get a receipt.
"Have another drink," said Trillian. "Enjoy yourself."
"Which?" said Arthur. "The two are mutually exclusive."
"Poor Arthur, you're really not cut out for this life are you?"
"You call this life?"
"You're starting to sound like Marvin."
"Marvin is the clearest thinker I know."
Random: Lemons?
It: If I have three lemons and three oranges and I lose two oranges and a lemon, what do I have left?
Random: Huh?
It: Okay, so you think time flows that way, do you? Interesting.
"How can I tell," said the man, "that the past isn't a fiction designed to account for the discrepancy between my immediate physical sensations and my state of mind?"
He paused and maneuvered his thoughts. It was like watching oil tankers doing three-point turns in the English Channel.
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.
There was a point to this story, but it has temporarily escaped the chronicler's mind.