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Bill Bryson Quotes: 8

  • As my father always used to tell me, 'You see, son, there's always someone in the world worse off than you.' And I always used to think, 'So?

    The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America
  • There are three stages in scientific discovery. First, people deny that it is true, then they deny that it is important; finally they credit the wrong person.

    A Short History of Nearly Everything
  • It is a slightly arresting notion that if you were to pick yourself apart with tweezers, one atom at a time, you would produce a mound of fine atomic dust, none of which had ever been alive but all of which had once been you.

    A Short History of Nearly Everything
  • In France, a chemist named Pilatre de Rozier tested the flammability of hydrogen by gulping a mouthful and blowing across an open flame, proving at a stroke that hydrogen is indeed explosively combustible and that eyebrows are not necessarily a permanent feature of one's face.

    A Short History of Nearly Everything
  • When the poet Paul Valery once asked Albert Einstein if he kept a notebook to record his ideas, Einstein looked at him with mild but genuine surprise. "Oh, that's not necessary,"he replied . "It's so seldom I have one.

    A Short History of Nearly Everything
  • Energy is liberated matter, matter is energy waiting to happen.

    A Short History of Nearly Everything
  • Consider the Lichen. Lichens are just about the hardiest visible organisms on Earth, but the least ambitious.

    A Short History of Nearly Everything
  • She was torn between her customer service training and her youthful certitude.

    In a Sunburned Country