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Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson Quotes

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Famous Bill Bryson Quotes

“There'd never been a more advantageous time to be a criminal in America than during the 13 years of Prohibition. At a stroke, the American government closed down the fifth largest industry in the United States - alcohol production - and just handed it to criminals - a pretty remarkable thing to do.”

YearsStatesGovernmentAmericaUnitedUnited StatesIndustryProductionsAlcoholCriminalsThings To DoRemarkableStrokesFifthProhibitionAmerican Government
Author:Bill Bryson
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“You don't have to know anything about baseball to respond to Babe Ruth because he's just this magnificent human being. And a really good story because he was this kid who grew up essentially as an orphan, you know, had a tough life, and then he became the most successful baseball player ever. But he was also a really good guy.”

KnowsHumansStoriesKidsGuyHuman BeingsSuccessfulPlayerGrewGrew UpToughBaseballMagnificentGood StoryGood GuyOrphanBabeBaseball PlayerRuthTough Life
Author:Bill Bryson
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“We are so used to the notion of our own inevitability as life's dominant species that it is hard to grasp that we are here only because of timely extraterrestrial bangs and other random flukes. The one thing we have in common with all other living things is that for nearly four billions years our ancestors have managed to slip through a series of closing doors every time we needed them to.”

YearsHardUsedCommonFourDoorsOne ThingNeededSeriesSpeciesNotionBillionsSlipsAncestorDominantBangsLiving ThingsClosingInevitabilityTimelyExtraterrestrialFlukesClosing Doors
Book:A Short History of Nearly Everything
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“Because we humans are big and clever enough to produce and utilize antibiotics and disinfectants, it is easy to convince ourselves that we have banished bacteria to the fringes of existence. Don't you believe it. Bacteria may not build cities or have interesting social lives, but they will be here when the Sun explodes. This is their planet, and we are on it only because they allow us to be.”

BelieveHumansMayEnoughBigsSocialEasyInterestingCitiesExistenceSunProducePlanetsCleverConvinceFringeSocial LifeBacteriaAntibiotics
Book:A Short History of Nearly Everything
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“So here I am, my affections torn between a postal service that never feeds me but can tackle a challenge and one that gives me free tape and prompt service but won't help me out when I can't remember a street name. The lesson to draw from this, of course, is that when you move from one country to another you have to accept that there are some things that are better and some things worse, and there is nothing you can do about it. That may not be the profoundest of insights to take away from a morning's outing, but I did get a free doughnut as well, so on balance I guess I'm happy.”

GivingWellsMayI CanCountryHelpingRememberMovingCoursesNamesCan DoChallengesAcceptingMorningStreetsBalanceLessonsDrawsGive MeAffectionInsightHelp MeTapeTornHere I AmPromptsDoughnutPostal Service
Author:Bill Bryson
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“At a conference of sociologists in America in 1977, love was defined as "the cognitive-affective state characterized by intrusive and obsessive fantasizing concerning reciprocity of amorant feelings by the object of the amorance." That is jargon - the practice of never calling a spade a spade when you might instead call it a manual earth-restructuring implement - and it is one of the great curses of modern English.”

StatesFeelingsMightEarthAmericaPracticeModernObjectsCallingDefinedCurseConferencesObsessiveManualsCognitiveReciprocityJargonSpadesSociologistsRestructuringModern English
Author:Bill Bryson
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“But I got a great deal else from the experience. I learned to pitch a tent and sleep beneath the stars. For a brief, proud period I was slender and fit. I gained a profound respect for the wilderness and nature and the benign dark power of woods. I understand now, in a way I never did before, the colossal scale of the world. I found patience and fortitude that I didn't know I had. I discovered an America that millions of people scarcely know exists. I made a friend. I came home.”

PeopleKnowsWorldWayMadeHomeAmericaFoundStarsDarkSleepDealsMillionsProudPeriodsFitProfoundWoodsScalesWildernessFortitudeTentsBenignColossalSlender
Author:Bill Bryson
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“Take a moment from time to time to remember that you are alive. I know this sounds a trifle obvious, but it is amazing how little time we take to remark upon this singular and gratifying fact. By the most astounding stroke of luck an infinitesimal portion of all the matter in the universe came together to create you and for the tiniest moment in the great span of eternity you have the incomparable privilege to exist.”

KnowsLittlesMatterMomentsFactsTogetherRememberUniverseSoundAliveEternityLuckPrivilegeObviousPortionsStrokesRemarksTriflesLittle TimeIncomparable
Author:Bill Bryson
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“And before long there will be no more milk in bottles delivered to the doorstep or sleepy rural pubs, and the countryside will be mostly shopping centers and theme parks. Forgive me. I don't mean to get upset. But you are taking my world away from me, piece by little piece, and sometimes it just pisses me off. Sorry.”

WorldMeanLittlesLongSometimesPiecesForgivingSorryUpsetParksThemeBottlesShoppingMilkCountrysideForgive MePubsSleepyDoorstepTheme ParksShopping Centers
Book:The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-town America
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“And I find chopsticks frankly distressing. Am I alone in thinking it odd that a people ingenious enough to invent paper, gunpowder, kites and any number of other useful objects, and who have a noble history extending back 3,000 years haven't yet worked out that a pair of knitting needles is no way to capture food?”

PeopleThinkingWayYearsEnoughNumbersHavensObjectsFoodPaperNobleOddPairsCaptureNeedlesIngeniousExtendingKnittingKitesDistressingGunpowderChinese FoodChopsticksKnitting Needles
Book:Notes From A Small Island: Journey Through Britain
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“The people are immensely likable— cheerful, extrovert, quick-witted, and unfailingly obliging. Their cities are safe and clean and nearly always built on water. They have a society that is prosperous, well ordered, and instinctively egalitarian. The food is excellent. The beer is cold. The sun nearly always shines. There is coffee on every corner. Life doesn't get much better than this.”

PeopleWellsWaterCitiesSunColdSafeBuiltShiningCleanCornersCoffeeBeerExcellentCheerfulProsperousExtrovertsQuick Witted
Book:In a Sunburned Country
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“If you were designing an organism to look after life in our lonely cosmos, to monitor where it is going and keep a record of where it has been, you wouldn't choose human beings for the job. But here's an extrememly salient point: we have been chosen, by fate or Providence or whatever you wish to call it. As far as we can tell, we are the best there is. We may be all there is. It's an unnerving thought that we may be the living universe's supreme achievement and its worst nightmare simultaneously.”

IfsHumansLooksMayHas BeensJobsUniverseWishHuman BeingsRecordsFateWorstDesignAchievementLonelySupremeChosenCosmosNightmareProvidenceOrganismsWorst Nightmares
Author:Bill Bryson
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“Australians are very unfair in this way. They spend half of any conversation insisting that the country's dangers are vastly overrated and that there's nothing to worry about, and the other half telling you how six months ago their Uncle Bob was driving to Mudgee when a tiger snake slid out from under the dashboard and bit him on the groin, but that it's okay now because he's off the life support machine and they've discovered he can communicate with eye blinks.”

WayCountryEyeBitsHalfWorrySupportDangerMonthsConversationSixOkayMachinesCommunicateDrivingBobUnfairUnclesTigersSnakesSix MonthsOther HalfBlinkOverratedInsistingDashboards
Author:Bill Bryson
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“So, if people didn’t settle down to take up farming, why then did they embark on this entirely new way of living? We have no idea – or actually, we have lots of ideas, but we don’t know if any of them are right. According to Felipe Fernández-Armesto, at least thirty-eight theories have been put forward to explain why people took to living in communities: that they were driven to it by climatic change, or by a wish to stay near their dead, or by a powerful desire to brew and drink beer, which could only be indulged by staying in one place.”

PeopleIfsKnowsWayHas BeensIdeasDesireWishCommunityPowerfulTheoryDrinkEightDrivenBeerNo IdeaSettlingThirtyStayingNew WaysFarmingSettling DownFernsThirty Eight
Author:Bill Bryson
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“I sat on a toilet watching the water run thinking what an odd thing tourism is. You fly off to a strange land, eagerly abandoning all the comforts of home and then expend vast quantities of time and money in a largely futile effort to recapture the comforts you wouldn’t have lost if you hadn’t left home in the first place.”

IfsThinkingFirstsHomeRunningLostLeftWaterEffortLandStrangeComfortTravelOddSatQuantityToiletsTourismTime And MoneyOdd ThingsComfort Of HomeFutile Efforts
Author:Bill Bryson
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“Every atom you possess has almost certainly passed through several stars and been part of millions of organisms on its way to becoming you. We are each so atomically numberous and so vigorously recycled at death that a significant number of our atoms-up to a billion for each of us, it has been suggested-probably once belonged to Shakespeare. A billion more each came from Buddha and Genghis Khan and Beethoven, and any other historical figure you care to name.”

WayHas BeensCareNamesStarsNumbersMillionsFiguresBecomingHistoricalBillionsSignificantAtomsOrganismsRecycledSignificant NumbersHistorical FigureBecoming You
Author:Bill Bryson
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“Woods are not like other spaces. To begin with, they are cubic. Their trees surround you, loom over you, press in from all sides. Woods choke off views & leave you muddled & without bearings. They make you feel small & confused & vulnerable, like a small child lost in a crowd of strange legs. Stand in a desert or prairie & you know you are in a big space. Stand in the woods and you only sense it. They are vast, featureless nowhere. And they are alive.”

KnowsFeelsChildrenBigsLostSidesSpaceViewsAliveTreeStrangePressesCrowdsLegsWoodsVulnerableDesertConfusedOver YouSurroundChokeSmall ChildPrairie
Author:Bill Bryson
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