I’m going to go with a theme here and quote The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, or The Restaurant at the End o the Universe which are some of my favorite books in the world. Douglas Adams’s real talent for comedy and depth shines bright.
I think Adam’s quotes help us accept the absurdity of the universe and find joy in the whole thing.
“In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
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" “You know," said Arthur, “it’s at times like this, when I’m trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse, and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space that I really wish I’d listened to what my mother told me when I was young.”
“Why, what did she tell you?”
"I don’t know, I didn’t listen.” "
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“If there’s anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.”
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“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.”
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” - Winston Churchill “In the end, life is nothing more than spending time in the most pleasant way possible within your means.” - Rosendo Mercado
From Pulp Fiction: “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of the evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and goodwill, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper, and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers, and you will know my name is the Lord.”…
“It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness; that is life.” - Jean Luc Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation
As someone who struggles with perfectionism, this quote really helps to put things in perspective. Life becomes a lot easier when you accept that sometimes things just don’t work out, regardless of how much effort you put in. It’s not an excuse to give up, but it’s a good way of going easy on yourself when you need to.
“We do have a lot in common. The same earth, the same air, the same sky. Maybe if we started looking at what’s the same instead of looking at what’s different, well, who knows?” - Meowth, Pokemon: The Movie
Some variation of this quote has been said a million times over across media but something about an animated cat with a Brooklyn accent saying it seems to make it all the more true, for some reason.
And on a less serious note…
“Back in my day, we didn’t have fancy tanks! We had sticks. Two sticks and a rock for the entire platoon! And we had to share the rock!” - Sgt. Johnson, Halo 2
This is how I feel when I think about when I first started with Dynatrace about 8 years ago compared to now. My first client had DCRUM/DTNAM and boy did that feel like rocks and sticks compared to the Dynatrace tank of today.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step
This is one of my favorite Japanese quotes. It shows that no matter how big something is, it’s important to take the first step. It means that even a long journey begins with the first step.
“Tell me who you hang out with and I’ll tell you who you are”.
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” and in the same meaning:
“Don’t neglect anything, you should know that mountains are made of stones”.
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world” -- Gandhi
I discovered this quote behind a bathroom mirror in my rented apartment in San Francisco. Whoever had painted the room must have liked the quote and left it untouched.
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” Steve Jops
For the scuba (or apnoe) divers: “From birth, man carries the weight of gravity on his shoulders. He is bolted to earth. But man has only to sink beneath the surface and he is free.” - Jacques-Yves Cousteau
“Everything not saved will be lost.” - Nintendo “Quit Screen” Message
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” - Gandalf in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Ring
Closing with a Japanese quote (translated to English): “Even monkeys fall from trees.”
