“A Walk in the Woods” is a book by Bill Bryson, published in 1998.
This book chronicles Bryson’s attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail with his friend Katz.
The book is a travelogue that explores the American wilderness and its history.
It has been well-received and has become a popular read for those interested in hiking and nature.
Let’s go through some of the best quotes from ‘A Walk in the Woods’ book.
Table of Contents
Best A Walk in the Woods Quotes
“Look, if you draw a two thousand-mile-long line across the United States at any angle, it’s going to pass through nine murder victims.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“That’s the trouble with losing your mind; by the time it’s gone, it’s too late to get it back.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“There is no point in hurrying because you are not actually going anywhere. However far or long you plod, you are always in the same place: in the woods.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“I wanted to quit and to do this forever, sleep in a bed and in a tent, see what was over the next hill and never see a hill again. All of this all at once, every moment, on the trail or off.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“I had come to realize that I didn’t have any feelings towards the AT that weren’t thoroughly contradictory. I was weary of the trail, but captivated by it; found the endless slog increasingly exhausting but ever invigorating; grew tired of the boundless woods but admired their boundlessness; enjoyed the escape from civilization and ached for its comforts. All of this together, all at once, every moment, on the trail or off.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“What on earth would I do if four bears came into my camp? Why, I would die of course. Literally shit myself lifeless.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“Finally, this being America, there is the constant possibility of murder.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“Jesus, I smell like Jeffrey Dahmer’s refrigerator.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“All over America today people would be dragging themselves to work, stuck in traffic jams, wreathed in exhaust smoke. I was going for a walk in the woods.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“This wouldn’t be so bad, I told myself. But secretly, I knew that I was quite wrong.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“I hung up again and looked at Katz. “What is it with this town? I’ve blown more intelligent life into a handkerchief.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
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Famous A Walk in the Woods Quotes
“I hate all the technology on the trail. Some AT hikers… carry laptop computers and modems, so they can file daily reports to their family and friends.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“When you’re on the AT, the forest is your universe, infinite and entire. It is all you experience day after day. Eventually it is about all you can imagine.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“I wanted a little of that swagger that comes with being able to gaze at a far horizon through eyes of chipped granite and say with a slow, manly sniff, “Yeah, I’ve shit in the woods.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“To tell you the truth, I’m amazed we’ve come this far,” he said, and I agreed. We had hiked 500 miles, a million and a quarter steps, since setting off from Amicalola. We had grounds to be proud. We were real hikers now. We had shit in the woods and slept with bears. We had become, we would forever be, mountain men.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“The National Park Service actually has something of a tradition of making things extinct.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“If the mattress stains were anything to go by, a previous user had not so much suffered from incontinence as rejoiced in it.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“Hunters will tell you that a moose is a wily and ferocious forest creature. Nonsense. A moose is a cow drawn by a three-year-old.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“Black bears rarely attack. But here’s the thing. Sometimes they do. All bears are agile, cunning and immensely strong, and they are always hungry. If they want to kill you and eat you, they can, and pretty much whenever they want. That doesn’t happen often, but – and here is the absolutely salient point – once would be enough.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“Four times I was honked at for having the temerity to proceed through town without the benefit of metal.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“The Forest Service is truly an extraordinary institution. A lot of people, seeing that word forest in the title, assume it has something to do with looking after trees. In fact, no—though that was the original plan.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
Popular A Walk in the Woods Quotes
“When Daniel Boone is uneasy, you know it’s time to watch your step.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“Salamanders are interesting, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“I watched him go, looking old and tired, and wondered for a minute what on earth we were doing up here. We weren’t boys anymore.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“The hardest part was coming to terms with the constant dispiriting discovery that there is always more hill.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“I ended up with enough equipment to bring full employment to a vale of sherpas” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“Daniel Boone, who not only wrestled bears but tried to date their sisters, described corners of the southern Appalachians as “so wild and horrid that it is impossible to behold them without terror.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“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, and Mary Ellen was proof that even in the Appalachian woods I would not be spared. It became evident that she was a rarity.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
Great A Walk in the Woods Quotes
“If there’s one thing the AT teaches, it is low-level ecstasy—something we could all do with more of in our lives.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“It is an intoxicating experience to taste Coca-Cola as if for the first time and to be conveyed to the very brink of orgasm by white bread. Makes all the discomfort worthwhile, if you ask me.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“Compared with most other places in the developed world, America is still to a remarkable extent a land of forests. One-third of the landscape of the lower forty-eight states is covered in trees.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“Talking equipment is one of those things you just have to do, like chatting to your mother’s friends in the supermarket.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“A significant fraction of thru-hikers reach Katahdin, then turn around and start back to Georgia. They just can’t stop walking, which kind of makes you wonder.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“When I awoke it was daylight. The inside of my tent was coated in a curious flaky rime, which I realized after a moment was all of my nighttime snores, condensed and frozen and pasted to the fabric, as if into a scrapbook of respiratory memories.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“I stood in a Burger King and studied, with absorption, the photographs of the manager and his executive crew (reflecting on the curious fact that people who go into hamburger management always look as if their mother slept with Goofy),” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“There is a phenomenon called Trail Magic, known and spoken of with reverence by everyone who hikes the trail, which holds that often when things look darkest some little piece of serendipity comes along to put you back on a heavenly plane.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
“Everywhere throughout New England you find old, tumbledown field walls, often in the middle of the deepest, most settled- looking woods- a reminder of just how swiftly nature reclaims the land in America.” ~ Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods).
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