“It seems madness to think that a society would rate marginal economic growth above a livable earth, but there you are. I… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“[Australia] is the home of the largest living thing on earth, the Great Barrier Reef, and of the largest monolith, Ayers Rock… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
I'm not a natural story-teller. Put a keyboard in front of me and I'm fine, but stand me up in front of… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“Robert G. Elliott was not a murderous person by nature, but he proved, no doubt to his own surprise, to be rather… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“I remember reading once how some Stone Age Indians from the Brazilian rain forest with no knowledge or expectation of a world… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“What an interesting and exciting thought. We may be only one of millions of advanced civilizations. Unfortunately, space being spacious, the average… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
But I got a great deal else from the experience. I learned to pitch a tent and sleep beneath the stars. For… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“In America, alas, beauty has become something you drive to, and nature an either/or proposition--either you ruthlessly subjugate it, as at Tocks… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“Three hundred types of mussel, a third of the world’s total, live in the Smokies. Smokies mussels have terrific names, like purple… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“I know a man who drives 600 yards to work. I know a woman who gets in her car to go a… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“My particular dread--the vivid possibility that left me staring at tree shadows on the bedroom ceiling night after night--was having to lie… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“Occasionally, he would exclaim over a view or regard with admiration some passing marvel of nature, but mostly to him hiking was… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
Perhaps it's my natural pessimism, but it seems that an awfully large part of travel these days is to see things while… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“On a cooler sun on a primordial earth: "I later learned that biologists, when they are feeling jocose, refer to this as… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“What on earth would I do if four bears came into my camp? Why, I would die of course. Literally shit myself… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
Everywhere throughout New England you find old, tumbledown field walls, often in the middle of the deepest, most settled- looking woods- a… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
What this means in practice is that if you are not a born worrier you have nothing to worry about (though of… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“I have long known that it is part of God's plan for me to spend a little time with each of the… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“Do you like that?" I'll say in surprise since it doesn't seem like her type of thing, and she'll look at me… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
At the foot of the mountain, the park ended and suddenly all was squalor again. I was once more struck by this… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“What on earth would I do if four bears came into my camp? Why, I would die, of course. Literally shit myself… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“But don't worry," she continued. "Most snakes don't want to hurt you. If you're out in the bush and a snake comes… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
Hunters will tell you that a moose is a wily and ferocious forest creature. Nonsense. A moose is a cow drawn by… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
I have long known that it is part of God's plan for me to spend a little time with each of the… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
Most big companies don't like you very much, except hotels, airlines and Microsoft, which don't like you at all. — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“But Welsh spellings are as nothing compared with Irish Gaelic, a language in which spelling and pronunciation give the impression of having been devised… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“Pantaloons were often worn tight as paint and were not a great deal less revealing, particularly as they were worn without underwear. . .… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
If you go out on the Appalachian Trail, you have to bring so much more equipment - a tent, sleeping bag - but if… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“The dining table was a plain board called by that name. It was hung on the wall when not in use, and was perched… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“From almost nothing, France in four years built up an aircraft industry that employed nearly 200,000 people and produced some 70,000 planes. Britain built… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“Every twenty minutes on the Appalachian Trail, Katz and I walked farther than the average American walks in a week. For 93 percent of… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“A diarist named George Templeton Strong recorded in the winter of 1866 that even with two furnaces alight and all the fireplaces blazing, he… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
Tune your television to any channel it doesn't receive and about 1 percent of the dancing static you see is accounted for by this… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
As a rule of thumb, I would submit that if you need to call your floss provider, for any reason, you are probably not… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
Nobody gets excited about the future at all, ever. The future is something we find depressing and worrisome. — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“What made this particularly interesting is that John Howard is by far the dullest man in Australia. Imagine a very committed funeral home director… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
