803 Quotes by Bill Bryson

99.99 percent of all species that have ever lived are no longer with us.

It is a curious feature of our existance that we come from a planet that is very good at promoting life but even better at extinguishing it.

Maine is wonderful. It can be very hard. I mean, if you look at the profile maps it doesn't look it, but somehow when you get out there it's really steep and hard.

Roads get wider and busier and less friendly to pedestrians. And all of the development based around cars, like big sprawling shopping malls. Everything seems to be designed for the benefit of the automobile and not the benefit of the human being.

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?

As the saying goes, it takes all kinds to make the world go around, though perhaps some shouldn't go quite so far around it as others.

I want things to be better all the time. And I tend to get angry about that. Books are an opportunity to vent.

There are only three things that can kill a farmer: lightning, rolling over in a tractor, and old age.

To my mind, the only possible pet is a cow. Cows love you. They will listen to your problems and never ask a thing in return. They will be your friends forever. And when you get tired of them, you can kill and eat them. Perfect.