The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
CRITIQUE | QUOTES| AT THE MOVIES
First edition• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 1979
• The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, 1980
• Life, the Universe and Everything, 1982
• So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, 1984
• Mostly Harmless, 1992
First publication of novels
1979—1992
Literature forms
Novels
Genres
Literary, science fiction, humour
Writing language
English
Author's country
England
Length of first novel
Approx. 46,500 words
Notable lines
Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.
— First line, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.
— First line, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
The regular early morning yell of horror was the sound of Arthur Dent waking up and suddenly remembering where he was.
— First line, Life, the Universe and Everything
Anything that happens, happens.
— First line, Mostly Harmless
In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
Arthur felt happy. He was terribly pleased that the day was for once working out so much according to plan. Only twenty minutes ago he had decided he would go mad, and now here he was already chasing a Chesterfield sofa across the fields of prehistoric Earth.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy defines the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation as "a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes".... Curiously enough, an edition of the Encyclopedia Galactica that had the good fortune to fall through a time warp from a thousand years in the future defined the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation as "a bunch of mindless jerks who were the first against the wall when the revolution came."
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.
Now it is such a bizarrely impossible coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the nonexistence of God. The argument goes something like this:
"I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."
"But," says Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you
don't. QED."
"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that" and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.
"I think we have different value systems."
"Well, mine's better."
"Okay, baby, hold tight," said Zaphod. "We'll take in a quick bite at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe."
— Last lines, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
"Ive done you before, haven't I?" it said.
— Last line, Life, the Universe and Everything
In spite of having taken what he regarded as an extremely positive piece of action, the Grebulon leader ended up having a very bad month after all. It was pretty much the same as all the previous months except that there was now nothing on the television anymore. He put on a little light music instead.
— Last lines, Mostly Harmless.
CRITIQUE | QUOTES| AT THE MOVIES
See also:
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
Buy the book:
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (illustrated)
The Complete Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (boxed set)
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