Hitchhiker's Guide To the Galaxy favorite quotes..

[lo_res_man]

I think it is more of a sway. Sometimes it is genius, other times it is such utter random for randomness, and sometimes you don't know which.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Ford, you're turning into an infinite number of penguins. Please stop.

An altered version of this occurs in the tv series, except Ford only turns into one penguin.  Probably the most hilarious part of the whole thing!

[yukonhorror]

"Oh no, not again"

I loooove this quote.  It is so vague, but yet so hilarious.

[SSH]

And yet so explained when he later meets Agrajag

[OneDollar]

You had to wait a couple of books though . What about...
"A tremendous feeling of peace came over him. He knew that at last, for once and forever, it was now all, finally, over"
That made me sad :'(

[monkey0506]

And yet so explained when he later meets Agrajag

According to Adams' personal testimony this happened by complete coincidence. He said, and note that I am paraphrasing here, that "writing episodically meant that at the end of one episode [he] had no idea what the next was about; and when some event shed light on a prior happening, [he] was as surprised as everyone else." I can provide the exact quote if you'd like.

Of course he did say that the particular introduction (to the Guide series) he was writing was designed to set things "definitively straight, or at the very least, definitively crooked." And then later went on to speak of how much of the later rewritings of the Guide series flatly contradicted previous versions, and that he was, following that writing, going to write another introduction which would effectively contradict this one.

[Stupot]

I know I rubbished HG2G in a previous post, but something has happened which reminded me of a quote from the book.

The parking in our street is crap and the council has finally decided to do something about it.  They've redesigned the layout, but it's a really crap design, almost as bad as the current layout.  So instead of proudly displaying the Planing notice on the telegraph pole outside our homes for us all to see, they hid it in the parish notice board on the side of the village shop where nobody looks.

They might as well have posted it in the darkened cellar of the planning department, in a locked filing cabinet behind a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'beware of the leopard'.

[OzzieMum]

Would it be to cliche if I mentioned that grand number, overshadowed by all the other great quotes and anecdotes ( i dont really know what that means but it sounded good)

42

Sad thing is I was really excited when i got my mobile phone number and it ended with 42!

Jen

[yukonhorror]

Another good one:

A hoopy frood always knows where his towel is

And 42 is brilliant. 

[Huw Dawson]

There are too many to say, although I like the entirety of the falling whale part.

Out of interest, is there a audio version of the books? Not the radio series but an actual audio version?
- Huw

[Misj']

Out of interest, is there a audio version of the books? Not the radio series but an actual audio version?

You mean something like this?

[Emerald]

Ooh, I just remembered the bit about flying. That was brilliant.

Edit: And found the quote:
“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has this to say on the subject of flying.  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.  Pick a nice day, it suggests, and try it.

            “The first part is easy.  All it requires is simply the ability to throw yourself forward with all your weight, and the willingness not to mind that it’s going to hurt.  That is, it’s going to hurt if you fail to miss the ground.

            “Most people fail to miss the ground and if they are really trying properly, the likelihood is that they will fail to miss it fairly hard.  Clearly, it is this second part, the missing, which presents the difficulties.

            “One problem is that you have to miss the ground accidentally.  It’s no good deliberately intending to miss the ground because you won’t.  You have to have your attention suddenly distracted by something else when you’re halfway there, so that you are no longer thinking about falling, or about the ground or about how much it’s going to hurt if you fail to miss it.

            “It is notoriously difficult to pry your attention away from these three things during the split second you have at your disposal.  Hence most people’s failure, and their eventual disillusionment with this exhilarating and spectacular sport.

            “If, however, you are lucky enough to have your attention momen-tarily distracted at the crucial moment by, say, a gorgeous pair of legs (tentacles, pseudopodia, according to phyllum and/or personal inclination) or a bomb going off in your vicinity, or by suddenly spotting an extremely rare species of beetle crawling along a nearby twig, then in your astonishment you will miss the ground completely and remain bobbing just a few inches above it in what might seem to be a slightly foolish manner.

            “This is a moment for superb and delicate concentration.”