“If you try and take a cat apart to see how it works, the first thing you have on your hands is a non-working cat.”

“Hey, this is terrific!" he said. "Someone down there is trying to kill us!""Terrific," said Arthur."But don't you see what this means?""Yes. We are going to die.""Yes, but apart from that.""Apart from that?!""It means we must be on to something!""How soon can we get off it?”

“The light works," he said, indicating the window, "the gravity works," he said, dropping a pencil on the floor. "Anything else we have to take our chances with.”

“There is a particular disdain with which Siamese cats regard you. Anyone who has walked in on the Queen cleaning her teeth will be familiar with the feeling.”

“See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise you will only see what you were expecting. Most scientists forget that.”

“But the reason I call myself by my childhood name is to remind myself that a scientist must also be absolutely like a child. If he sees a thing, he must say that he sees it, whether it was what he thought he was going to see or not. See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise you will only see what you were expecting.”

“I incline to the quantum mechanical view in this matter. My theory is that your cat is not lost, but that his waveform has temporarily collapsed and must be restored. Schrödinger. Planck. And so on." -- Dirk Gently”