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Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson Quotes

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Famous Bill Bryson Quotes

“To my surprise, I felt a certain springy keenness. I was ready to hike. I had waited months for this day, after all, even if it had been mostly with foreboding. I wanted to see what was out there. All over America today people would be dragging themselves to work, stuck in traffic jams, wreathed in exhaust smoke. I was going for a walk in the woods. I was more than ready for this.”

PeopleIfsWould BeTodayWantedAmericaCertainFeltWalksReadyMonthsSurpriseWoodsStuckSmokeThis DayTrafficJamAmerica TodayForebodingTraffic JamKeennessWalk In The WoodsStuck In Traffic
Author:Bill Bryson
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“At the foot of the mountain, the park ended and suddenly all was squalor again. I was once more struck by this strange compartmentalization that goes on in America -- a belief that no commercial activities must be allowed inside the park, but permitting unrestrained development outside, even though the landscape there may be just as outstanding. America has never quite grasped that you can live in a place without making it ugly, that beauty doesn't have to be confined behind fences, as if a national park were a sort of zoo for nature.”

IfsMayAmericaBeliefBehindsFeetStrangeGoes OnDevelopmentActivityMountainUglyLandscapeParksFenceConfinedOutstandingZoosNational ParksSqualor
Book:The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-town America
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“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.”

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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.”

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Author:Bill Bryson
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