Cities Quotes - Page 11

• Corruption never has been compulsory; when the cities lie at the monster's feet there are left the mountains.

  Robinson Jeffers

  Lying, Feet, Mountain

  Robinson Jeffers, Tim Hunt (2001). “The Selected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers”, p.23, Stanford University Press

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• There are some pop songs I hate but I can't get them out of my head. Our songs also have the standard pop format: Verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo, bad solo. All in all, I think we sound like The Knack and the Bay City Rollers being molested by Black Flag and Black Sabbath.

  Kurt Cobain

  Song, Hate, Thinking

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• I don't want to talk about intelligence matters. I will say, however, that intelligence-community estimates should not become public in the way of this city and in the way of Congress.

  Warren Christopher

  Community, Want, Matter

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• O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?

  Walt Whitman

  Dead Poets Society, Leaves Of Grass, Foolish

  Walt Whitman (2016). “Leaves of Grass”, p.261, Xist Publishing

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• Clouds out of control decoct anticipation. What use can any of us have for two moons? The miracle of order has run out and I am left in an unmiraculous city where anything may happen.

  Samuel R. Delany

  Running, Moon, Clouds

  "Dhalgren". Book by Samuel R. Delany, January, 1975.

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• Everyone is aware that tremendous numbers of people concentrate in city downtowns and that, if they did not, there would be no downtown to amount to anything--certainly not one with much downtown diversity.

  Jane Jacobs

  Numbers, People, Diversity

  Jane Jacobs (2016). “The Death and Life of Great American Cities”, p.201, Vintage

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• Automobiles are often conveniently tagged as the villains responsible for the ills of cities and the disappointments and futilities of city planning. But the destructive effect of automobiles are much less a cause than a symptom of our incompetence at city building.

  Jane Jacobs

  Disappointment, Causes, City Planning

  Jane Jacobs (2016). “The Death and Life of Great American Cities”, p.7, Vintage

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• I have been dwelling upon downtowns. This is not because mixtures of primary uses are unneeded elsewhere in cities. On the contrary they are needed, and the success of mixtures downtown (on in the most intensive portions of cities, whatever they are called) is related to the mixture possible in other part of cities.

  Jane Jacobs

  Dwelling, Use, Downtown

  Jane Jacobs (2016). “The Death and Life of Great American Cities”, p.164, Vintage

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• In our American cities, we need all kinds of diversity.

  Jane Jacobs

  Diversity, Needs, Kind

  Jane Jacobs (2016). “The Death and Life of Great American Cities”, p.240, Vintage

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• 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

  Thinking, People, Giving

  "The Death and Life of Great American Cities". Book by Jane Jacobs, p. 71, 1961.

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• This is something everyone knows: A well-used city street is apt to be a safe street. A deserted city street is apt to be unsafe.

  Jane Jacobs

  Safe, City Streets, Used

  Jane Jacobs (1989). “The Death and Life of Great American Cities”, Vintage

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• Erosion of cities or attrition of automobiles?

  Jane Jacobs

  Erosion, Attrition, Automobile

  Jane Jacobs (2016). “Vital Little Plans: The Short Works of Jane Jacobs”, p.84, Random House

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• This is what a city is, bits and pieces that supplement each other and support each other.

  Jane Jacobs

  Support, Pieces, Supplements

  Jane Jacobs (1989). “The Death and Life of Great American Cities”, Vintage

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• Cities and landscapes are illustrations of our spiritual and material worth. They not only express our values but give them a tangible reality. They determine the way in which we use or squander our energy, time, and land resources.

  Leon Krier

  Spiritual, Reality, Land

  Léon Krier (1998). “Architecture: Choice Or Fate”, p.90, Papadakis Publisher

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• Viewed from a certain distance and under good light, even an ugly city can look like the promised land.

  Leon Krier

  Distance, Light, Land

  Leon Krier (2009). “The Architecture of Community”, p.75, Island Press

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• A city is not an accident but the result of coherent visions and aims.

  Leon Krier

  Vision, Results, Aim

  Léon Krier (1998). “Architecture: Choice Or Fate”, p.91, Papadakis Publisher

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• In fact, the public will accept any city plan and skyline provided that its architecture is traditional.

  Leon Krier

  Skylines, Facts, Architecture

  Léon Krier (1998). “Architecture: Choice Or Fate”, p.83, Papadakis Publisher

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• All buildings, large or small, public or private, have a public face, a facade; they therefore, without exception, have a positive or negative effect on the quality of the public realm, enriching or impoverishing it in a lasting and radical manner. The architecture of the city and public space is a matter of common concern to the same degree as laws and language—they are the foundation of civility and civilisation.

  Leon Krier

  Law, Space, Quality

  Leon Krier (2009). “The Architecture of Community”, p.439, Island Press

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• In a Society becoming steadily more privatized with private homes, cars, computers, offices and shopping centers, the public component of our lives is disappearing. It is more and more important to make the cities inviting, so we can meet our fellow citizens face to face and experience directly through our senses. Public life in good quality public spaces is an important part of a democratic life and a full life.

  Jan Gehl

  Home, Shopping, Space

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• A good city is like a good party - people stay longer than really necessary, because they are enjoying themselves.

  Jan Gehl

  Party, People, Enjoy

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• An endless number of green buildings doesn't make a sustainable city.

  Jan Gehl

  Numbers, Green, Building

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• The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to us than the city of happiness. I cannot describe it at all. It is possible it does not exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

  Ursula K. Le Guin

  Doe, Walks, Knows

  URSULA K. LE GUIN (1975). “The Wind's Twelve Quarters”

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• Whence shall come the new barbarians? Go through the squalid quarters of great cities, and you may see, even now, their gathering hordes! How shall learning perish? Men will cease to read, and books will kindle fires and be turned into cartridges.

  Henry George

  Book, Men, Fire

  Henry George (2006). “Progress and Poverty”, p.381, Cosimo, Inc.

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• I first saw the light in the city of Boston in the year 1857.

  Edward Bellamy

  Light, Boston, Years

  Edward Bellamy (2016). “Looking Backward, 2000 to 1887: American literature”, p.2, VM eBooks

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• Having plenty of living space has to be the greatest luxury in a city, and I guess in some sense Bombay is the antithesis of what living in Canada must be.

  Aravind Adiga

  Luxury, Space, Canada

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