“Consider the fact that for 3.8 billion years, a period of time older than the Earth's mountains and rivers and oceans, every… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
For a long time it puzzled me how something so expensive, so leading edge, could be so useless. And then it occurred… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
By the time I had finished my coffee and returned to the streets, the rain had temporarily abated, but the streets were… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
Coming back to your native land after an absence of many years is a surprisingly unsettling business, a little like waking from… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
The world is very lucky to have America. It's got to be the first time in the whole history of the planet… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“...it occurred to me, not for the first time, what a remarkably small world Britain is. That is its glory, you see--that… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
I wanted to quit and to do this forever, sleep in a bed and in a tent, see what was over the… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
The great failure in education, much of the time, is the lack of excitement and stimulus — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“Suddenly, in the space of a moment, I realized what it was that I loved about Britain - which is to say,… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
The number of people on whose cooperative efforts your eventual existence depends has risen to approximately 1,000,000,000,000,000,000, which is several thousand times… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“It is a challenge to believe that there was ever a time that airline food was exciting, when stewardesses were happy to… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“Take a moment from time to time to remember that you are alive. I know this sounds a trifle obvious, but it… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
In 1927, if you were stuck with idle time, reading is what you did. It's no accident that the 'Book-of-the-Month Club' and… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“Since the dawn of time, several billion human (or humanlike) beings have lived, each contributing a little genetic variability to the total… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
... it occurred to me that never again would he be seven years, one month and six days old, so we had… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“For a long time it was assumed that anything so miraculously energetic as radioactivity must be beneficial. For years, manufacturers of toothpaste… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
Most of the time I am sunk in thought, but at some point on each walk there comes a moment when I… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“As a rule, you knew it was time to eat when you could hear potatoes exploding in the oven. Happily, all this… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
It is a slightly arresting notion that if you were to pick yourself apart with tweezers, one atom at a time, you… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“The 1920s was a great time for reading altogether—very possibly the peak decade for reading in American life. Soon it would be… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
Not one of your pertinent ancestors was squashed, devoured, drowned, starved, stranded, stuck fast, untimely wounded, or otherwise deflected from its life's… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
Four times I was honked at for having the temerity to proceed through town without the benefit of metal. — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“The grouse were almost certainly released a few at a time from cages. For all the sport in it, Walsingham might just… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“If we should be worrying about anything to do with the future of English, it should not be that the various strands… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
I want things to be better all the time. And I tend to get angry about that. Books are an opportunity to… — 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
