The first thing that strikes a visitor to Paris is a taxi.
—Fred Allen (1894–1956) American Humorist, Radio Personality
Towns are excrescences, gray fluxions, where men, hurrying to find one another, have lost themselves.
—E. M. Forster (1879–1970) English Novelist, Short Story Writer, Essayist
No city should be too large for a man to walk out of in a morning.
—Cyril Connolly (1903–74) British Literary Critic, Writer
We do not look in our great cities for our best morality.
—Jane Austen (1775–1817) English Novelist
Any city however small, is in fact divided into two, one the city of the poor, the other of the rich. These are at war with one another.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
All great art is born of the metropolis.
—Ezra Pound (1885-1972) American Poet, Translator, Critic
If one had but a single glance to give the world, one should gaze on Istanbul.
—Alphonse de Lamartine (1790–1869) French Poet, Politician, Historian
A city is a place where there is no need to wait for next week to get the answer to a question, to taste the food of any country, to find new voices to listen to and familiar ones to listen to again.
—Margaret Mead (1901–78) American Anthropologist, Social Psychologist
Cities give us collision. ‘Tis said, London and New York take the nonsense out of a man.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
I have never felt salvation in nature. I love cities above all.
—Michelangelo (1475–1564) Italian Painter, Sculptor, Architect, Poet, Engineer
If you suppress the exorbitant love of pleasure and money, idle curiosity, iniquitous purpose, and wanton mirth, what a stillness would there be in the greatest cities.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
A great city is not to be confounded with a populous one.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
If you would be known, and not know, vegetate in a village; if you would know, and not be known, live in a city.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
The life of our city is rich in poetic and marvelous subjects. We are enveloped and steeped as though in an atmosphere of the marvelous; but we do not notice it.
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) French Poet, Art Critic, Essayist, Translator
A large city cannot be experientially known; its life is too manifold for any individual to be able to participate in it.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
Hog butcher for the world,
Tool maker, stacker of wheat,
Player with railroads and the nation’s freight handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the big shoulders.
—Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) American Biographer, Novelist, Socialist
In the country, a man’s mind is free and easy, and at his own disposal; but in the city, the persons of friends and acquaintance, one’s own and other people’s business, foolish quarrels, ceremonies, visits, impertinent discourses, and a thousand other fopperies and diversions steal away the greatest part of our time, and leave no leisure for better and more necessary employment. Great towns are but a larger sort of prison to the soul, like cages to birds, or pounds to beasts.
—Pierre Charron (1541–1603) French Preacher, Philosopher
New York is an exciting town where something is happening all the time, most unsolved.
—Johnny Carson (1925–2005) American Comedian
The city is not a concrete jungle. It is a human zoo.
—Desmond Morris (b.1928) English Ethologist, Writer
When in Rome, do as Rome does.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
In the small town each citizen had done something in his own way to build the community. The town booster had a vision of the future which he tried to fulfill. The suburb dweller by contrast started with the future.
—Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004) American Historian, Academic, Attorney, Writer
Towns oftener swamp one than carry one out onto the big ocean of life.
—D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Literary Critic
Boston is a moral and intellectual nursery always busy applying first principals to trifles.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
We will neglect our cities to our peril, for in neglecting them we neglect the nation.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
New York now leads the world’s great cities in the number of people around whom you shouldn’t make a sudden move.
—David Letterman (b.1947) American TV Personality, Comedian
If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a movable feast.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
The crime problem in New York is getting really serious. The other day the Statue of Liberty had both hands up.
—Jay Leno (b.1950) American Comedian, TV Personality
The screech and mechanical uproar of the big city turns the citified head, fills citified ears—as the song of birds, wind in the trees, animal cries, or as the voices and songs of his loved ones once filled his heart. He is sidewalk-happy.
—Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American Architect
The great city is that which has the greatest man or woman: if it be a few ragged huts, it is still the greatest city in the whole world.
—Walt Whitman (1819–92) American Poet, Essayist, Journalist, American, Poet, Essayist, Journalist
Washington is a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
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