“Aberystwyth (n.)A nostalgic yearning which is in itself more pleasant than the thing being yearned for.”

“Alltami (n.)The ancient art of being able to balance the hot and cold shower taps.”

“Please relax," said the voice pleasantly, like a stewardess in an airliner with only one wing and two engines one of which is on fire, "you are perfectly safe.”

“I've never understood all this fuss people make about the dawn. I've seen a few and they're never as good as the photographs, which have the additional advantage of being things you can look at when you're in the right frame of mind, which is usually around lunchtime.”

“The car shot forward straight into the circle of light, and suddenly Arthur had a fairly clear idea of what infinity looked like.It wasn’t infinity in fact. Infinity itself looks flat and uninteresting. Looking up into the night sky is looking into infinity—distance is incomprehensible and therefore meaningless. The chamber into which the aircar emerged was anything but infinite, it was just very very very big, so big that it gave the impression of infinity far better than infinity itself.”

“Beppu (n.)The triumphant slamming shut of a book after reading the final page.”

“It was his subconscious which told him this---that infuriating part of a person's brain which never responds to interrogation, merely gives little meaningful nudges and then sits humming quietly to itself, saying nothing.”