Eating in Sweden is really just a series of heartbreaks. Bill Bryson More Quotes by Bill Bryson More Quotes From Bill Bryson Hardly anyone ever leaves. This is because Des Moines is the most powerful hypnotic known to man. Outside town there is a big sign that says, WELCOME TO DES MOINES. THIS IS WHAT DEATH IS LIKE. There isn't really. I just made that up. But the place does get a grip on you. Bill Bryson powerful doe men From an evolutionary point of view, sex is really just a reward mechanism to encourage us to pass on our genetic material. Bill Bryson rewards views sex I had always thought that once you grew up you could do anything you wanted - stay up all night or eat ice-cream straight out of the container. Bill Bryson ice-cream childhood night The remarkable position in which we find ourselves is that we don't actually know what we actually know. Bill Bryson position remarkable knows People don't talk like this, theytalklikethis. Syllables, words, sentences run together like a watercolour left in the rain. To understand what anyone is saying to us we must separate these noises into words and the words into sentences so that we might in our turn issue a stream of mixed sounds in response. Bill Bryson issues rain running I often feel I'm a disappointment to people because they expect me to be the guy in the books. When I sit next to someone at a dinner party I can see they expect me to be quick and witty, and I'm not at all. Bill Bryson party disappointment witty Every kid I knew had a father with a little stash of men's magazines which the father thought was secret and which the kid knew all about. Bill Bryson men father kids The English invented cricket to make other human endeavors look interesting. Bill Bryson cricket looks interesting When I was growing up I used to think that the best thing about coming from Des Moines was that it meant you didn't come from anywhere else in Iowa. By Iowa standards, Des Moines is a mecca of cosmopolitanism, a dynamic hub of wealth and education, where people wear three-piece suits and dark socks, often simultaneously. Bill Bryson growing-up dark thinking The best that can be said for Norwegian television is that it gives you the sensation of a coma without the worry and inconvenience. Bill Bryson worry giving television America is a very seductive place in terms of lifestyle and comfort, but it wasn't for me. Bill Bryson seductive comfort america I think it's only right that crazy people should have their own city, but I cannot for the life of me see why a sane person would want to go there. Bill Bryson crazy should-have thinking America is a great disappointment to me. As I said in one of my books, other societies create civilisations; we build shopping malls. Bill Bryson shopping disappointment book I have a small tattered clipping that I sometimes carry with meand pull out for purposes of privateamusement. It's a weather forecast from theWestern Daily Mail and it says, in toto: 'Outlook: Dry and warm, but cooler with some rain. Bill Bryson mail rain weather But what is life to a lichen ? Yet its impulse to exist, to be, is every bit as strong as ours arguably even stronger. If I were told that I had to spend decades being a furry growth on a rock in the woods, I believe I would lose the will to go on. Bill Bryson rocks strong believe Absolute brain size does not tell you everything or possibly sometimes even much. Elephants and whales both have brains larger than ours, but you wouldn't have much trouble outwitting them in contract negotiations. Bill Bryson whales elephants brain Houses aren't refuges from history. They are where history ends up. Bill Bryson refuge ends house A world without newspapers or a world where the newspapers are purely electronic and you read them on a screen is not a very appealing world. Bill Bryson screens newspapers world As James Surowiecki noted in a New Yorker article, given a choice between developing antibiotics that people will take every day for two weeks and antidepressants that people will take every day for ever, drug companies not surprisingly opt for the latter. Although a few antibiotics have been toughened up a bit, the pharmaceutical industry hasn't given us an entirely new antibiotic since the 1970s. Bill Bryson choices two people I can't fix the world. If you want to make a difference in life, you have to direct your energies in a focused way. Bill Bryson making-a-difference differences energy
