Douglas Adams Quotes

There's no such thing as a foolproof system. That idea fails to take into account the creativity of fools.

They believe that nothing will happen because they have closed their doors.

I truly believed that other people in my position didn't make mistakes; I couldn't see that everybody makes them, even people with great experience.

A fool often fails because he thinks what is difficult is easy.

Innocence lost is not easily regained. The designer simply cannot predict the problems people will have, the misinterpretations that will arise, and the errors that will get made.

One never quite allows for the moron in our midst.

We thought we were done with these things but we were wrong. We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom.

Companies selling a product play down its vulnerability and emphasize its robustness. But only after technology leaves the dock is it really tested. For human operators in control of a supposedly infallible system, complacency and overconfidence can take over, and caution may be thrown to the wind.

Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.

You never know what a fool you can be till life gives you the chance.

The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at and repair.

Young people think that nothing bad will ever happen to them.

When you jump for joy, beware that no one moves the ground from beneath your feet.

The kinds of things that we can make mistakes about are essentially unlimited in number.

He that's secure is not safe.

Life is not always like chess. Just because you have the king surrounded, don't think he is not capable of hurting you.

It may be that the very qualities that help people get ahead are the ones that make them ill-suited for managing crises. It's hard to prepare for the worst when you think you're the best.

The man who has everything figured out is probably a fool.

Well, I think we tried very hard not to be overconfident, because when you get overconfident, that's when something snaps up and bites you.

We call the fates of the Titanic and the Concordia - as well as those of the space shuttles Challenger and Columbia - 'accidents.' Foreseeing such undesirable events is what engineers are expected to do. However, design trade-offs leave technological systems open to failings once predicted, but later forgotten.

The actual tragedies of life bear no relation to one's preconceived ideas. In the event, one is always bewildered by their simplicity, their grandeur of design, and by that element of the bizarre which seems inherent in them.

The best laid plans o’ mice an’ men Gang aft a-gley

History is the unfolding of miscalculations

There is always something to upset the most careful of human calculations.

When men are most sure and arrogant, they are commonly the most mistaken.