Not unnaturally, many elevators imbued with intelligence and precognition became terribly frustrated with the mindless business of going up and down, up and down, experimented briefly with the notion of going sideways, as a sort of existential protest, demanded participation in the decision-making process and finally took to squatting in basements sulking. An impoverished hitch-hiker visiting any planets in the Sirius star system these days can pick up easy money working as a counsellor for neurotic elevators.

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

I didn't notice I was being set upon by a pickpocket, which I am glad of, because I like to work only with professionals.

How do I know the past is not a fiction conceived to reconcile the difference between my state of mind and the present.

Six pints of bitter, said Ford Prefect. And quickly please, the world's about to end.

Space is really big-REALLY big.

I like the cover," he said. "Don't Panic. It's the first helpful or intelligible thing anybody's said to me all day.