Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

A leader leads by example not by force.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. Letter to Harry S. Truman.

If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done.

Change before you have to.

For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much - the wheel, New York, wars and so on - whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man - for precisely the same reasons.

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.

What we learn from history is that no one learns from history.

"I'd far rather be happy than right any day." Slartibartfast

What's money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.

You can't be wise and in love at the same time.

Marvin: "I am at a rough estimate thirty billion times more intelligent than you. Let me give you an example. Think of a number, any number."
Zem: "Er, five."
Marvin: "Wrong. You see?"

Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country. (June, 1944)

DON'T PANIC.

The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.

The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.

Words that do not match deeds are unimportant.

I don't measure a man's success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom.

Live your life not celebrating victories, but overcoming defeats.

"Space," it says, "is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mindboggingly big it is. I mean you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space.

May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I sure as hell won't.

If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.