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Bill Bryson

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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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“If you believe in god, it's much more fantastic to believe that he created this universe billions of years ago and set in motion this long train of activities that eventually resulted in us. I think that's so much more satisfying, more thrilling, than the idea that it was all done in seven days.”

IfsThinkingYearsBelieveLongIdeasDoneUniverseActivityYears AgoTrainSevenBillionsFantasticBelieve In GodSatisfyingThrillingIf You BelieveSeven Days
Author:Bill Bryson
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“Being a pessimist is just such a gloomy way of looking at things, so I have to hope for the best - life wouldn't be worth living if we didn't have hope. And I also do think that human beings often do do wonderful, correct, brilliant things. So, on balance, I'd like to be optimistic about the future.”

IfsThinkingWayHumansHuman BeingsWonderfulBalanceBrilliantOptimisticMy WayWorth LivingPessimistGloomyHaving HopeHoping For The BestBeing Optimistic
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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“It is not true that the English invented cricket as a way of making all other human endeavors look interesting and lively; that was merely an unintended side effect... It is the only sport that incorporates meal breaks. It is the only sport that shares its name with an insect. It is the only sport in which spectators burn as many calories as players - more if they are moderately restless.”

IfsWayHumansLooksNamesSportsSidesInterestingBreakPlayerShareEffectsMealsEndeavorCricketInsectsRestlessSpectatorsLivelyCaloriesSide Effects
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“I turned to my own bunk and examined it with a kind of appalled fascination. If the mattress stains were anything to go by, a previous user had not so much suffered from incontinence as rejoiced in it. He had evidently included the pillow in his celebrations.”

IfsKindMy OwnTravelCelebrationUsersFascinationPillowStainsMattressesBunkIncontinence
Book:A Walk In The Woods: The World's Funniest Travel Writer Takes a Hike
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“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?”

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Author:Bill Bryson
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“Your pillow alone may be home to 40 million bed mites. (To them your head is just one large oily bon-bon). And don't think a clean pillow-case will make a difference... Indeed, if your pillow is six years old--which is apparently about the average age for a pillow--it has been estimated that one-tenth of its weight will be made up of sloughed skin, living mites, dead mites and mite dung.”

IfsThinkingYearsMayHas BeensMadeHomeAgeDifferencesMillionsCasesBedSixSkinsWeightCleanAverageJust OneMaking A DifferencePillowSix Year Olds
Author:Bill Bryson
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“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
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“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
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“If you go out on the Appalachian Trail, you have to bring so much more equipment - a tent, sleeping bag - but if you go hiking in England, or Europe, generally, towns and villages are near enough together at the end of the day you can always go to a nice little inn and have a hot bath and something to drink.”

IfsLittlesEndsEnoughTogetherSleepNiceDrinkEuropeEnglandTownsHotThe End Of The DayBagsVillageHikingEquipmentTrailsBathsTentsInnsAppalachiaHot BathsAppalachian Trail
Author:Bill Bryson
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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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“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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“For anyone of a rational disposition, fashion is often nearly impossible to fathom. Throughout many periods of history – perhaps most – it can seem as if the whole impulse of fashion has been to look maximally ridiculous. If one could be maximally uncomfortable as well, the triumph was all the greater.”

IfsWellsLooksHas BeensWholeSeemsGreaterImpossibleFashionPeriodsRidiculousRationalTriumphImpulseUncomfortableDispositionFathom
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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“It is not as if farming brought a great improvement in living standards either. A typical hunter-gatherer enjoyed a more varied diet and consumed more protein and calories than settled people, and took in five times as much viatmin C as the average person today.”

PeopleIfsPersonsTodayFiveStandardsAverageImprovementEnjoyedDietsTypicalHuntersFarmingConsumedProteinCaloriesAverage PersonHunter Gatherers
Book:At Home: A Short History of Private Life
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“To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.”

IfsWorldLifeMindFirstsAbleTakenJourneyPositionThis WorldAdventureTravelSummerFirst TimeRewardsEverydayFamiliarWanderLuxuryAround The WorldGrantedDestinationTime TravelTraveledTravelerFunny TravelAdventurousTourismGreat TravelInspiring TravelTaken For GrantedTravel The WorldTravel AdventureAdventure And TravelRoad TripSeeing The WorldLife Is An AdventureGreat ExperiencesPhotography And TravelSolo TravelInspirational AdventureRoads TraveledLife AdventureAdventure And LifeWant To TravelBackpackingTravel AbroadTravel And TourismTrippingRoads And JourneysInspirational Adventure TimeTravellers FunnyTravel ExperienceTravel BugFunny AdventureRoad LifeSightseeingEveryday ThingsStudy AbroadAdventurous SoulsWandering MindFamiliar ThingsGreatest AdventureExperiencing Things
Author:Bill Bryson
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“Think of a single problem confronting the world today. Disease, poverty, global warming... If the problem is going to be solved, it is science that is going to solve it. Scientists tend to be unappreciated in the world at large, but you can hardly overstate the importance of the work they do. If anyone ever cures cancer, it will be a guy with a science degree. Or a woman with a science degree.”

IfsThinkingWorldProblemTodayScienceGuyPovertyDiseaseDegreesResearchScientistImportanceCancerSolveCuresGlobal WarmingWorld TodayConfronting
Author:Bill Bryson
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“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
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“It isn't easy to become a fossil. ... Only about one bone in a billion, it is thought, becomes fossilized. If that is so, it means that the complete fossil legacy of all the Americans alive today - that's 270 million people with 206 bones each - will only be about 50 bones, one-quarter of a complete skeleton. That's not to say, of course, that any of these bones will ever actually be found.”

PeopleIfsMeanTodayScienceCoursesFoundEasyMillionsAliveBonesBillionsLegacyQuartersFossilsLive For TodaySkeletons
Author:Bill Bryson
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“By the time I had finished my coffee and returned to the streets, the rain had temporarily abated, but the streets were full of vast puddles where the drains where unable to cope with the volume of water. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you would think that if one nation ought by now to have mastered the science of drainage, Britain would be it.”

IfsThinkingWould BeNationsWaterStreetsOughtRainFinishedCoffeeBritainVolumeDrainsPuddlesDrainage
Book:Notes From A Small Island: Journey Through Britain
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