Listen, three eyes," he said, "don't you try to outweird me, I get stranger things than you free with my breakfast cereal.
Douglas AdamsRead
Your God person puts an apple tree in the middle of a garden and says, do what you like, guys, oh, but don't eat the apple. Surprise surprise, they eat it and he leaps out from behind a bush shouting "Gotcha". It wouldn't have made any difference if they hadn't eaten it.' 'Why not?' 'Because if you're dealing with somebody who has the sort of mentality which likes leaving hats on the pavement with bricks under them you know perfectly well they won't give up. They'll get you in the end.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote explores the concept of free will and the inevitability of consequence in a seemingly arbitrary universe.
In this quote, Douglas Adams uses a metaphor of a forbidden apple in a garden to illustrate the futility of trying to control or prevent natural behavior. It suggests that certain entities, or even the universe itself, have a predestined way of interacting with sentient beings, implying that whether or not the apple is eaten, the outcome is preordained due to the nature of existence and choice. The mention of traps and tactics indicates a playful yet serious commentary on how the dynamics of power play out in the human experience.
Themes
Free WillConsequenceChoiceHuman NaturePhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
During a philosophy discussion about the nature of choice and consequences.
More from Douglas Adams
All quotes →"What's so unpleasant about being drunk?" "Ask a glass of water."
Douglas AdamsRead
Protect me from knowing what I don't need to know. Protect me from even knowing that there are things to know that I don't know. Protect me from knowing that I decided not to know about the things that I decided not to know about. Amen. [...] Lord, lord, lord. Protect me from the consequences of the above prayer.
Douglas AdamsRead
Computers are still technology because we are still wrestling with it: it's still being invented; we're still trying to work out how it works. There's a world of game interaction to come that you or I wouldn't recognise. It's time for the machines to disappear. The computer's got to disappear into all of the things we use.
Douglas AdamsRead
What the computer in virtual reality enables us to do is to recalibrate ourselves so that we can start seeing those pieces of information that are invisible to us but have become important for us to understand.
Douglas AdamsRead
We are stuck with technology when all we really want is just stuff that works. How do you recognize something that is still technology? A good clue is if it comes with a manual.
Douglas AdamsRead
Similar quotes
Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve.
Karl PopperRead
Do not mistake the rule of force for true power. Men are not shaped by force.
EuripidesRead
What do you think my brain is made for?_x000D_ _x000D_ Is it just a container for the mind?_x000D_ _x000D_ This great grey matter,_x000D_ _x000D_ Sensei replied what is your woman,_x000D_ _x000D_ Is she just a container for the child?_x000D_ _x000D_ That soft pink matter
Frank OceanRead
We are not just bundles of atoms being pushed around. But, there's something spiritual about us whether we give that a religious interpretation or not. And so, it's that sense of there being dignity to life that I associate with the word God. I mean, that's probably a pretty radical and agnostic way of interpreting it. But, that's what I think.
Martha NussbaumRead
The compass of compassion asks not what is good for me? but what is good? Not what is best for me but what is best. Not what is right for me but what is right. Not how much can we take? but How much ought we leave? and how much might we give? Not what is easy but what is worthy. Not what is practical but what is moral.
Carl SafinaRead
I distrust the incommunicable; it is the source of all violence
Jean-Paul SartreRead