Hitchhiker 5 - Mostly Harmless

We live in strange times.
We also live in strange places: each in a universe of our own. The people with whom we populate our universes are the shadows of whole other universes intersecting with our own

He needed a sense of purpose in life, which was why he had turned to astrology to fill the yawning gulf that existed in the middle of his mind and soul. That would tell him something, surely.

'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 or repair

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

The trouble with trying to make the right accident happen is that it won't. That is not what 'accident' means. The acci– dent that eventually occurred was not what he had planned at all.

The first thing Arthur Dent had to do, he realised resignedly, was to get himself a life.

So we'll have to tell you something you already know but make it sound like news, eh? Well, business as usual I suppose

We all like to congregate,' he went on, 'at boundary conditions.'

'Really?' said Arthur.

'Where land meets water. Where earth meets air. Where body meets mind. Where space meets time. We like to be on one side, and look at the other.'

You see, the quality of any advice anybody has to offer has to be judged against the quality of life they actually lead.

You cannot see what I see because you see what you see. You cannot know what I know because you know what you know. What I see and what I know cannot be added to what you see and what you know because they are not of the same kind. Neither can it replace what you see and what you know, because that would be to replace you yourself