The best Quotes by Bill Bryson

I have long known that it is part of God's plan for me to spend a little time with each of the most stupid people on earth.

Boston's freeway system is insane. It was clearly designed by a person who had spent his childhood crashing toy trains.

I've been writing all these books that have been largely autobiographical and yet, really, they don't tell you anything about me. I just use my life story as a kind of device on which to hang comic observations. It's not my interest or instinct to tell the world anything pertinent about myself or my family.

If you drive to, say, Shenandoah National Park, or the Great Smoky Mountains, you'll get some appreciation for the scale and beauty of the outdoors. When you walk into it, then you see it in a completely different way. You discover it in a much slower, more majestic sort of way.

You don't have to know anything about baseball to respond to Babe Ruth because he's just this magnificent human being. And a really good story because he was this kid who grew up essentially as an orphan, you know, had a tough life, and then he became the most successful baseball player ever. But he was also a really good guy.

There'd never been a more advantageous time to be a criminal in America than during the 13 years of Prohibition. At a stroke, the American government closed down the fifth largest industry in the United States - alcohol production - and just handed it to criminals - a pretty remarkable thing to do.

You have never seen such lofty clouds, such towering anvils, as in Iowa in July.

They say money can't buy happiness, but it can buy a flight to Iowa - and that's pretty much the same thing.

Baseball was, is and always will be to me the best game in the world.

You just can't beat the person who never gives up.

Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.

Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.

No one has ever been delighted to be in Boston in December. December? What are you excited about? "Oh, I love chapped lips and getting thrown up on by Patriots fans, how peachy."

Welcome to Boston, where the weather is made up and the seasons don't matter.

If I had my way, I'd remove January from the calendar altogether and have an extra July instead.

Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August.

After all, you still need time to just sit there and take a look around.

"Oh yes, time flies and before you know it you're old," said Pippi. "Come autumn I'll be ten, and I suppose I'll be past my prime then."

It's real, Six. You can't get mad at a real ending. Some of them are ugly. It's the fake happily ever afters that should piss you off.

I want you to help them open... because I need you to watch me give you the very last piece of my heart.

What other people think of you is none of your business.

If you're brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a new hello.

This is the true measure of love: When we believe that we alone can love, that no one could ever have loved so before us, and that no one will ever love in the same way after us.

There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.

The Light failed; but the Darkness that followed was more than loss of light.

The Elves made many rings; but secretly Sauron made One Ring to rule all the others, and their power was bound up with it.

Whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home.

I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book.

The first time you fall in love, it changes you forever and no matter how hard you try, that feeling just never goes away.

Every girl is beautiful. Sometimes it just takes the right guy to see it.

She was beautiful, but not like those girls in the magazines. She was beautiful, for the way she thought. She was beautiful, for the sparkle in her eyes when she talked about something she loved. She was beautiful, for her ability to make other people smile, even if she was sad. No, she wasn't beautiful for something as temporary as her looks. She was beautiful, deep down to her soul.

The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly.

Hope is like a shard of glass. Tread on it, and you'll end up wincing with every step. The best policy is to tweezer it out. Sure, it will hurt like billy-o and the wound will take a while to heal, but after that you can walk again.

"Lost something?"
"Yes, my mind."

The dead are dead, and talking won't bring them back to life.

"It's no use fretting for what you can't get," croaked the raven. "Does being angry make any difference? Be sensible! What can you do about it?"

There are so many magical places in books that you can't go to, like Hogwarts and Middle Earth, so I wanted to set a story in a place where children can actually go.

The night breathed through the apartment like a dark animal. The ticking of a clock. The groan of a floorboard as he slipped out of his room. All was drowned by its silence. But Jacob loved the night. He felt it on his skin like a promise. Like a cloak woven from freedom and danger.

That's the thing about pain. It demands to be felt.

If you want the rainbow, you have to deal with the rain.