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Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson Quotes

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Famous Bill Bryson Quotes

“When I was growing up I used to think that the best thing about coming from Des Moines was that it meant you didn't come from anywhere else in Iowa. By Iowa standards, Des Moines is a mecca of cosmopolitanism, a dynamic hub of wealth and education, where people wear three-piece suits and dark socks, often simultaneously.”

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Book:The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-town America
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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.”

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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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“I can't think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything.”

ThinkingInspirationalI CanCountryFunnyWonderGreaterTravelSillyIgnorantWanderWhere You AreInsightfulTime TravelTraveledFunny TravelTourismTravel WritingChildlikeGreat TravelInspiring TravelLife Is An AdventureTravel And TourismInspirational VacationRoad LifeChildlike WonderTravel LightForeign TravelVacation Time
Author:Bill Bryson
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“But that's the glory of foreign travel, as far as I am concerned. I don't want to know what people are talking about. I can't think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything. Suddenly you are five years old again. You can't read anything, you have only the most rudimentary sense of how things work, you can't even reliably cross a street without endangering your life. Your whole existence becomes a series of interesting guesses.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsWantYearsI CanCountryWholeInterestingExistenceTalkingWonderFiveGreaterStreetsTravelGloryConcernedCrossesSeriesIgnorantWanderMemorableFive YearsWhere You AreTravel WritingChildlikeGreat TravelFive Year OldsLife Is An AdventureLife AdventureWant To TravelChildlike WonderForeign Travel
Book:Neither here nor there: travels in Europe
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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.”

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Author:Bill Bryson
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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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“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.”

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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.”

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Author:Bill Bryson
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“Germans are flummoxed by humor, the Swiss have no concept of fun, the Spanish think there is nothing at all ridiculous about eating dinner at midnight, and the Italians should never, ever have been let in on the invention of the motor car.”

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Book:Neither Here, Nor There: Travels in Europe
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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.”

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Book:Notes From A Small Island: Journey Through Britain
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