Life, the Universe and Everything

He experienced one of those “self” moments, one of those moments when you suddenly turn around and look at yourself and think “Who am I? What am I up to? What have I achieved? Am I doing well?”

– They believe in “peace, justice, morality, culture, sport, family life, and the obliteration of all other life forms”.

“I don't like the wine very much,” said Arthur sniffing it.
“Well, send it back. It's all part of the mathematics of it.”
Arthur did so. He didn't like the topography of the waiter's smile, but he'd never liked graphs anyway.

– I’m afraid, - he said at last, - that the Question and the Answer are mutually exclusive. Knowledge of one logically precludes knowledge of the other. It is impossible that both can ever be known about the same universe.

He paused again. Disappointment crept into Arthur’s face and snuggled down into its accustomed place.

– Except, - said Prak, struggling to sort a thought out, - if it happened, it seems that the Question and the Answer would just cancel each other out and take the Universe with them, which would then be replaced by something even more bizarrely inexplicable. It is possible that this has already happened, - he added with a weak smile, - but there is a certain amount of Uncertainty about it.

He said that the Bistromathic Drive had revealed to him that time and distance were one, that mind and Universe were one, that perception and reality were one, and that the more one travelled the more one stayed in one place, and that what with one thing and another he would rather just stay put for a while and sort it all out in his mind, which was now at one with the Universe so it shouldn’t take too long,

encounter with the Holy Lunching Friars of Voondon (who claimed that just as lunch was at the centre of a man’s temporal day, and man’s temporal day could be seen as an analogy for his spiritual life, so Lunch should

(a) be seen as the centre of a man’s spiritual life, and

(b) be held in jolly nice restaurants)

– Zark off, - said Zaphod.

There seemed to be girls sitting on top of them, or maybe they were meant to be angels. Angels are usually represented as wearing more than that, though.

Who am I? What am I up to? What have I achieved? Am I doing well?

They saw the staggering jewels of the night in their infinite dust and their minds sang with fear.