# Quotes about cities - Quotes: 31 - Authors: 20 - Broader topic: [Quotes about society](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society.md) - Topic page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities - JSON version (same data): https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.json ## Quotes > Even if the room they rented was smaller than the heifer’s stall and darker than a morning privy, they stayed to look at their number, hear themselves in an audience, feel themselves moving down the street among hundreds of others who moved the way they did, and who, when they spoke, regardless of the accent, treated language like the same intricate, malleable toy designed for their play. [Toni Morrison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/toni-morrison.md) · [Jazz](https://www.leafyquotes.com/toni-morrison/jazz.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/toni-morrison/jazz/even-if-the.md) Topics: [language](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/language.md), [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md) > How soon country people forget. When they fall in love with a city it is forever, and it is like forever. As though there never was a time when they didn't love it. The minute they arrive at the train station or get off the ferry and glimpse the wide streets and the wasteful lamps lighting them, they know they are born for it. There, in a city, they are not so much new as themselves: their stronger, riskier selves. [Toni Morrison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/toni-morrison.md) · [Jazz](https://www.leafyquotes.com/toni-morrison/jazz.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/toni-morrison/jazz/how-soon-country.md) Topics: [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md) > Vishnu, in his wisdom, had seen that there must be a balance between the metropolis and the wilderness. While wilderness can exist independent of cities, that which dwells within a city requires more than the tamed plants of a pleasance. If the world were all city, he had reasoned, the dwellers within it would turn a portion of it into a wilderness, for there is that within them all which desires that somewhere there be an end to order and a beginning of chaos. So, within his mind there had grown up a forest, pumping forth streams and the smells of growth and decay, uttering the cries of the uncitied creatures who dwelled within its shadows, shrugging in the wind and glistening in the rain, falling down and growing up again. [Roger Zelazny](https://www.leafyquotes.com/roger-zelazny.md) · [Lord of Light](https://www.leafyquotes.com/roger-zelazny/lord-of-light.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/roger-zelazny/lord-of-light/vishnu-in-his.md) Topics: [nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature.md), [chaos](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chaos.md), [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md) > The brown book I carry says there is nothing stranger than to explore a city wholly different from all those one knows, since to do so is to explore a second and unsuspected self. I have found a thing stranger: to explore such a city only after one has lived in it for some time without learning anything of it. [Gene Wolfe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gene-wolfe.md) · [The Sword of the Lictor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gene-wolfe/the-sword-of-the-lictor.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gene-wolfe/the-sword-of-the-lictor/the-brown-book.md) Topics: [identity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity.md), [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md) > The city is very different from the country, girl. It is a kind of shared consciousness that begins its work on you as soon as you enter it, if not well before, a consciousness that begins to separate you from the country possibly even before you decide to journey toward it. It encircles you with forces much greater than the walls and gates which imitate tinier villages or towns. People who come to it come seeking the future, not realizing all that will finally affect them in it is their own, only more or less aware, involvement with the past. The way we do things here—really, that’s all there is to be learned in our precincts. But in the paving of every wide, clear avenue, in the turnings of every dark, overhung alley, in the ornaments on every cornice, in the salt-stained stones of each neighborhood cistern, there are traces of the way things once were done—which is the key to why they are done as they are today. [Samuel R. Delany](https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany.md) · [Neveryona](https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany/neveryona.md) · p. 104 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany/neveryona/the-city-is-very.md) Topics: [the past](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past.md), [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md) > Great cities are not like towns, only larger. They are not like suburbs, only denser. They differ from towns and suburbs in basic ways, and one of them is that cities are, by definition, full of strangers. [Jane Jacobs](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-jacobs.md) · [The Death and Life of Great American Cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-jacobs/the-death-and-life-of-great-american-cities.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-jacobs/the-death-and-life-of-great-american-cities/great-cities-are.md) Topics: [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md) > It may be that we have become so feckless as a people that we no longer care how things do work, but only what kind of quick, easy outer impression they give. If so, there is little hope for our cities or probably for much else in our society. But I do not think this is so. [Jane Jacobs](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-jacobs.md) · [The Death and Life of Great American Cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-jacobs/the-death-and-life-of-great-american-cities.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-jacobs/the-death-and-life-of-great-american-cities/it-may-be-that.md) Topics: [appearances](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/appearances.md), [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md) > As for really new ideas of any kind—no matter how ultimately profitable or otherwise successful some of them might prove to be—there is no leeway for such chancy trial, error and experimentation in the high-overhead economy of new construction. Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings. [Jane Jacobs](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-jacobs.md) · [The Death and Life of Great American Cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-jacobs/the-death-and-life-of-great-american-cities.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-jacobs/the-death-and-life-of-great-american-cities/as-for-really.md) Topics: [ideas](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideas.md), [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md), [architecture](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/architecture.md) > Town-scapes are changing. The open-plan city belongs in the past — no more ramblas, no more pedestrian precincts, no more left banks and Latin quarters. We're moving into the age of security grilles and defensible space. As for living, our surveillance cameras can do that for us. People are locking their doors and switching off their nervous systems. [J. G. Ballard](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-g-ballard.md) · [Cocaine Nights](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-g-ballard/cocaine-nights.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-g-ballard/cocaine-nights/town-scapes-are-changing.md) Topics: [safety](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/safety.md), [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md) > Urbanized men and women experience not life but the abstraction of life, on ever higher levels of refinement and dislocation from reality. They become processors of ideas, and have evolved such esoteric occupations as the critic, the critic who criticizes criticism, and even the critic who criticizes criticism of criticism. It is a very sad misuse of human talent and energy. [Jack Vance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance.md) · [The Book of Dreams](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance/the-book-of-dreams.md) · p. 264 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance/the-book-of-dreams/urbanized-men-and.md) Topics: [criticism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/criticism.md), [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md) > London is a sort of whirlpool which draws derelict people towards it, and it is so vast that life there is solitary and anonymous. Until you break the law nobody will take any notice of you, and you can go to pieces as you could not possibly do in a place where you had neighbours who knew you. [George Orwell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell.md) · [The Road to Wigan Pier](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/the-road-to-wigan-pier.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/the-road-to-wigan-pier/london-is-a-sort.md) Topics: [loneliness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness.md), [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md) > "Ah, God," says Bokonon, "what an ugly city every city is." [Kurt Vonnegut](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut.md) · [Cat's Cradle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/cats-cradle.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/cats-cradle/ah-god-says.md) Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md) > This makes living in big cities invaluable because you increase the odds of serendipitous encounters — you gain exposure to the envelope of serendipity. [Nassim Nicholas Taleb](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb.md) · [The Black Swan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-black-swan.md) · p. 209 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-black-swan/this-makes-living.md) Topics: [chance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance.md), [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md) > I never really have believed in the existence of friendship in big societies—in great towns and great crowds. It is a plant that takes times and space and air; and London society is a huge "squash," as we elegantly call it—an elbowing, pushing, perspiring, chattering mob. [Henry James](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-james.md) · [The Awkward Age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-james/the-awkward-age.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-james/the-awkward-age/i-never-really.md) Topics: [friendship](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/friendship.md), [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md) > If the street life, not the Whitechapel street life, but that of the common but so-called respectable part of town is in any city more gloomy, more ugly, more grimy, more cruel than in London, I certainly don't care to see it. Sometimes it occurs to one that possibly all the failures of this generation, the world over, have been suddenly swept into London, for the streets are a restless, breathing, malodorous pageant of the seedy of all nations. [Willa Cather](https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather.md) · [Willa Cather In Europe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather/willa-cather-in-europe.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather/willa-cather-in-europe/if-the-street.md) Topics: [poverty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poverty.md), [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md) > Freedom so often means that one isn't needed anywhere. Here you are an individual, you have a background of your own, you would be missed. But off there in the cities there are thousands of rolling stones like me. We are all alike; we have no ties, we know nobody, we own nothing. When one of us dies, they scarcely know where to bury him... We have no house, no place, no people of our own. We live in the streets, in the parks, in the theatres. We sit in restaurants and concert halls and look about at the hundreds of our own kind and shudder. [Willa Cather](https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather.md) · [O Pioneers!](https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather/o-pioneers.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather/o-pioneers/freedom-so-often.md) Topics: [freedom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom.md), [loneliness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness.md), [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md) > In the case of European towns, the passing of centuries provides an enhancement; in the case of American towns, the passing of years brings degeneration. It is not simply that they have been newly built; they were built so as to be renewable as quickly as they were put up, that is, badly. [Claude Lévi-Strauss](https://www.leafyquotes.com/claude-levi-strauss.md) · [Tristes Tropiques](https://www.leafyquotes.com/claude-levi-strauss/tristes-tropiques.md) · p. 95 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/claude-levi-strauss/tristes-tropiques/in-the-case.md) Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md) > The skyline of New York is a monument of a splendor that no pyramids or palaces will ever equal or approach. [Ayn Rand](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand.md) · [The Virtue of Selfishness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-virtue-of-selfishness.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-virtue-of-selfishness/the-skyline-of-new.md) Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md) > LA is the loneliest and most brutal of American cities; New York gets god-awful cold in the winter but there's a feeling of wacky comradeship somewhere in some streets. [Jack Kerouac](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-kerouac.md) · [On the Road](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-kerouac/on-the-road.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-kerouac/on-the-road/la-is-the.md) Topics: [loneliness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness.md), [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md) > Life in Anaheim, California, was a commercial for itself, endlessly replayed. Nothing changed; it just spread out farther and farther in the form of neon ooze. What there was always more of had been congealed into permanence long ago, as if the automatic factory that cranked out these objects had jammed in the on position. [Philip K. Dick](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick.md) · [A Scanner Darkly](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/a-scanner-darkly.md) · p. 31 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/a-scanner-darkly/life-in-anaheim.md) Topics: [consumerism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/consumerism.md), [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md) > In cities men cannot be prevented from concerting together, and from awakening a mutual excitement which prompts sudden and passionate resolutions. Cities may be looked upon as large assemblies, of which all the inhabitants are members; their populace exercises a prodigious influence upon the magistrates, and frequently executes its own wishes without their intervention. [Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/in-cities-men.md) Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md) > It's paradoxical that where people are the most closely crowded, in the big coastal cities in the East and West, the loneliness is the greatest. Back where people were so spread out in western Oregon and Idaho and Montana and the Dakotas you'd think the loneliness would have been greater, but we didn't see it so much. > > The explanation, I suppose, is that the physical distance between people has nothing to do with loneliness. It's psychic distance, and in Montana and Idaho the physical distances are big but the psychic distances between people are small, and here it's reversed. [Robert M. Pirsig](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig.md) · [Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance/its-paradoxical-that.md) Topics: [loneliness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness.md), [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md) > This study of different nations in their remoter provinces, and in the simplicity of their native genius, gives a general result which is very satisfactory, to my thinking, and very consoling to the human heart; it is this: All the nations, if you observe them in this fashion, seem much better worth observing; the nearer they are to nature, the more does kindness hold sway in their character; it is only when they are cooped up in towns, it is only when they are changed by cultivation, that they become depraved, that certain faults which were rather coarse than injurious are exchanged for pleasant but pernicious vices. [Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/this-study-of-different.md) Topics: [nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature.md), [kindness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/kindness.md), [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md) > It is the great towns which exhaust the state and are the cause of its weakness; the wealth which they produce is a sham wealth, there is much money and few goods. They say the town of Paris is worth a whole province to the King of France; for my own part I believe it costs him more than several provinces. I believe that Paris is fed by the provinces in more senses than one, and that the greater part of their revenues is poured into that town and stays there, without ever returning to the people or to the king. It is inconceivable that in this age of calculators there is no one to see that France would be much more powerful if Paris were destroyed. Not only is this ill-distributed population not advantageous to the state, it is more ruinous than depopulation itself, because depopulation only gives as produce nought, and the ill-regulated addition of still more people gives a negative result. When I hear an Englishman and a Frenchman so proud of the size of their capitals, and disputing whether London or Paris has more inhabitants, it seems to me that they are quarrelling as to which nation can claim the honour of being the worst governed. [Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/it-is-the.md) Topics: [the state](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-state.md), [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md) > All capitals are just alike, they are a mixture of all nations and all ways of living; they are not the place in which to study the nations. Paris and London seem to me the same town. Their inhabitants have a few prejudices of their own, but each has as many as the other, and all their rules of conduct are the same. We know the kind of people who will throng the court. We know the way of living which the crowds of people and the unequal distribution of wealth will produce. As soon as any one tells me of a town with two hundred thousand people, I know its life already. What I do not know about it is not worth going there to learn. [Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/all-capitals-are.md) Topics: [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md) > The savage, who has need of no one, and envies no one, neither knows nor seeks to know any other country but his own. If he requires more land for his subsistence he shuns inhabited places; he makes war upon the wild beasts and feeds on them. But for us, to whom civilised life has become a necessity, for us who must needs devour our fellow-creatures, self-interest prompts each one of us to frequent those districts where there are most people to be devoured. This is why we all flock to Rome, Paris, and London. Human flesh and blood are always cheapest in the capital cities. Thus we only know the great nations, which are just like one another. [Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/the-savage-who.md) Topics: [civilization](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/civilization.md), [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md) > The charms of a peaceful family life must be known to be enjoyed; their delights should be tasted in childhood. It is only in our father's home that we learn to love our own, and a woman whose mother did not educate her herself will not be willing to educate her own children.' Unfortunately, there is no such thing as home education in our large towns. Society is so general and so mixed there is no place left for retirement, and even in the home we live in public. We live in company till we have no family, and we scarcely know our own relations, we see them as strangers; and the simplicity of home life disappears together with the sweet familiarity which was its charm. > > In our great towns depravity begins at birth; in the smaller towns it begins with reason. Young women brought up in the country are soon taught to despise the happy simplicity of their lives, and hasten to Paris to share the corruption of ours. [Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/the-charms-of-a-peaceful.md) Topics: [family](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/family.md), [home](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/home.md), [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md) > This is one reason why I want to bring up Emile in the country, far from those miserable lacqueys, the most degraded of men except their masters; far from the vile morals of the town, whose gilded surface makes them seductive and contagious to children; while the vices of peasants, unadorned and in their naked grossness, are more fitted to repel than to seduce, when there is no motive for imitating them. [Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/this-is-one.md) Topics: [upbringing](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/upbringing.md), [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md) > In the country the darkness of night is friendly and familiar, but in a city, with its blaze of lights, it is unnatural, hostile and menacing. It is like a monstrous vulture that hovers, biding its time. [William Somerset Maugham](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham.md) · [A Writer's Notebook](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/a-writers-notebook.md) · p. 48 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/a-writers-notebook/in-the-country.md) Topics: [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md) > Mandalay has its name; the falling cadence of the lovely word has gathered about itself the chiaroscuro of romance. [William Somerset Maugham](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham.md) · [The Gentleman In The Parlour](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/the-gentleman-in-the-parlour.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/the-gentleman-in-the-parlour/mandalay-has-its.md) Topics: [words](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/words.md), [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md) > They are like a face full of character that intrigues and excites you, but that on closer acquaintance you discover is merely the mask of a vulgar soul. Such is Tourane. [William Somerset Maugham](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham.md) · [The Gentleman In The Parlour](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/the-gentleman-in-the-parlour.md) · p. 582 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/the-gentleman-in-the-parlour/they-are-like.md) Topics: [appearances](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/appearances.md), [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md)