Quotessence
Home / Authors / Bill Bryson
Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllIfsPeopleScienceWorldKnowsKindThinkingTravelWayLittlesHumansAmericaHistoryLooksMayWantYearsBookI CanSeems

Famous Bill Bryson Quotes

“On the dashboard of our family car is a shallow indentation about the size of a paperback book. If you are looking for somewhere to put your sunglasses or spare change, it is the obvious place, and it works extremely well, I must say, so long as the car is not actually moving. However, as soon as you put the car in motion ... everything slides off ... It can hold nothing that has not been nailed to it. So I ask you: what then is it for?”

IfsWellsLongBookMovingAsksCarSizeObviousOur FamilySparesShallowSlidesSunglassesDashboardsSpare Change
Author:Bill Bryson
Create image

“If this book has a lesson, it is that we are awfully lucky to be here-and by 'we' I mean every living thing. To attain any kind of life in this universe of ours appears to be quite an achievement. As humans we are doubly lucky, of course: We enjoy not only the privilege of existence but also the singular ability to appreciate it and even, in a multitude of ways, to make it better. It is a talent we have only barely begun to grasp.”

IfsWayHumansKindMeanBookUniverseCoursesEnjoyAbilityExistenceTalentLessonsLuckyAchievementAppreciatePrivilegeMultitudesLiving Things
Book:A Short History of Nearly Everything
Create image

“Book tours are really kind of fun. You get to stay in nice hotels, you are driven everywhere in big silver cars, you are treated as if you are much more important than you are, you can eat steak three times a day at someone else's expense, and you get to talk endlessly about yourself for weeks at a stretch.”

IfsKindImportantBookBigsThreeFunNiceWeekCarDrivenTreatedHotelSilverExpensesAbout YourselfThree TimesSteak
Book:Notes From A Big Country: Journey Into the American Dream
Create image

“For most of us the rules of English grammar are at best a dimly remembered thing. But even for those who make the rules, grammatical correctitude sometimes proves easier to urge than to achieve. Among the errors cited in this book are a number committed by some of the leading authorities of this century. If men such as Fowler and Bernstein and Quirk and Howard cannot always get their English right, is it reasonable to expect the rest of us to?”

IfsMenWritingBookSometimesNumbersAchieveCenturyEasierProveAuthorityErrorsCommittedRememberedReasonableUrgesGrammarQuirksEnglish Grammar
Author:Bill Bryson
Create image