Cities Quotes - Page 24

• 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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• You don't see no city when you look at me cause country's all I am. I love runnin' barefoot through the old cornfields and I love that country ham. Well you say I'm made just to fit your plans but there's a barnyard shovel pick your hands. If your eyes are on me you're lookin' at country.

  Loretta Lynn

  Country, Eye, Hands

  28 Copy quote

• One has not great hopes from Birmingham. I always say there is something direful in the sound.

  Jane Austen

  Sound, Birmingham, City Life

  'Emma' (1816) ch. 36 (Mrs Elton)

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• The city of Memphis has demonstrated that neither character nor standing avails the Negro if he dares to protect himself against the white man or become his rival.

  Ida B. Wells

  Character, Men, White Man

  Ida B. Wells (2013). “Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells”, p.52, University of Chicago Press

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• You're mistaken; men of sense often learn much from their enemies. Prudence is the best safeguard. This principle cannot be learnt from a friend: but an enemy extorts it immediately. It is from their foes and not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of building high walls and ships of war. And this lesson saves their children, their homes, and their properties.

  Aristophanes

  Wall, Children, War

  Aristophanes (1812). “Comedies of Aristophanes: Viz: The Clouds, Plutus, The Frogs, The Birds”, p.434

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• I'll get out of this city alive, even if it kills me!

  Homer

  Alive, Kill Me, Ifs

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• Remember, too, that if your country has the greatest name in all the world, it is because she never bent before disaster; because she has expended more life and effort in war than any other city, and has won for herself a power greater than any hitherto known, the memory of which will descend to the latest posterity.

  Pericles

  Country, Memories, War

  53 Copy quote

• 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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• The explosion would be just the right size to maximize the amount of paperwork your lab would face. If the explosion were smaller, you could potentially cover it up. If it were larger, there would be no one left in the city to submit paperwork to.

  Randall Munroe

  Labs, Faces, Size

  Randall Munroe (2014). “What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions”, p.40, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Los Angeles is seven suburbs in search of a city.

  Alexander Woollcott

  Los Angeles, Seven, Suburbs

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

  Jan Gehl

  Party, People, Enjoy

  273 Copy quote

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

  Jan Gehl

  Numbers, Green, Building

  88 Copy quote

• 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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• But I also believe that a lot of gun owners would agree that AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers, not on the streets of our cities.

  Antonin Scalia

  Believe, Gun, Hands

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• I was on the San Diego school board for 4 years, where I watched children successfully matriculate into elementary schools from Head Start programs from all around our city.

  Bob Filner

  Children, School, Years

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• City government can and must help San Franciscans prepare for emergencies in order to avoid tragedy where possible and minimize loss of life and property when emergencies occur

  Gavin Newsom

  Loss, Government, Order

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• When I came to New York in 1978, I was a full-time school teacher and track runner, and determined to retire from competitive running. But winning the New York City Marathon kept me running for another decade.

  Grete Waitz

  Running, Teacher, New York

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