“It'd be like a bunch of rivers, the Amazon and the Mississippi and the Congo asking how the Atlantic Ocean might affect them… and the answer is, of course, that they won't be rivers anymore, just currents in the ocean.”

— Douglas Adams

His stated response to representatives of the music, publishing and broadcasting industries who had asked Douglas at a conference how he thought technological changes will affect them, apparently hoping his response would be something to the effect of, "not very much"
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Future (2001)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "It'd be like a bunch of rivers, the Amazon and the Mississippi and the Congo asking how the Atlantic Ocean might affect…" by Douglas Adams?

Douglas Adams 317

English writer and humorist 1952–2001

Alison McGhee (1960) American novelist

Source: All Rivers Flow To The Sea

“Silence
is an ocean. Speech is a river.”

Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet

"The Three Fish" Ch. 18 : The Three Fish, p. 196
Variant translations or adaptations:
Silence is the language of God, all else is poor translation.
As quoted in Teachers of Wisdom (2010) by Igor Kononenko, p. 134
Silence is an ocean. Speech is a river. Silence is the language of God, all else is poor translation.
As quoted in "Rumi’s wisdom" (2 October 2015) http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2015/10/02/character-of-the-week-rumi/, by Paulo Coelho
The Essential Rumi (1995)
Context: Silence
is an ocean. Speech is a river.When the ocean is searching for you, don't walk
into the language-river. Listen to the ocean,
and bring your talky business to an end Traditional words are just babbling
in that presence, and babbling is a substitute
for sight.

“Every river is looking for an ocean.”

Ron English (1959) American artist

Ron English's Fauxlosophy (2016)

“See how the Yellow River's waters move out of heaven,
Entering the ocean, never to return.”

Li Bai (701–762) Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty poetry period

"Bringing In The Wine" http://www.sanjeev.net/poetry/po-li/bringing-in-the-wine-109723.html (將進酒)

“She was his life,
The ocean to the river of his thoughts,
Which terminated all.”

George Gordon Byron The Dream

Stanza 2; this can be compared to: "She floats upon the river of his thoughts", Henry W. Longfellow, The Spanish Student, act ii, scene 3.
The Dream (1816)

“People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering.”

Aurelius Augustinus book Confessions

Variant: Men go abroad to admire the heights of mountains, the mighty billows of the sea, the broad tides of rivers, the compass of the ocean, and the circuits of the stars, and pass themselves by.
Source: Confessions (c. 397), X