London Quotes - Page 26

• Take of London fog 30 parts; malaria 10 parts, gas leaks 20 parts, dewdrops gathered in a brickyard at sunrise 25 parts; odor of honeysuckle 15 parts. Mix. The mixture will give you an approximate conception of a Nashville drizzle.

  O. Henry

  Fog, Nashville, Giving

  O. Henry (1992). “The Gift of the Magi and Other Short Stories”, p.56, Courier Corporation

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• And London shops on Christmas Eve Are strung with silver bells and flowers As hurrying clerks the City leave To pigeon-haunted classic towers, And marbled clouds go scudding by The many-steepled London sky

  John Betjeman

  Flower, Clouds, Silver Bells

  John Betjeman (2005). “Faith and Doubt of John Betjeman: An Anthology of Betjeman's Religious Verse”, p.82, A&C Black

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• The inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea in bed, the various products of the whole earth -- he could at the same time and by the same means adventure his wealth in the natural resources and new enterprise of any quarter of the world -- he could secure forthwith, if he wished, cheap and comfortable means of transit to any country or climate without passport or other formality.

  John Maynard Keynes

  Country, Morning, Peace

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• Never was there a dingier, uglier, less picturesque city than London ... it is really wonderful that so much brick and stone, for centuries together, should have been built up with so poor a result.

  Nathaniel Hawthorne

  Should Have, Cities, Together

  Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Julian Hawthorne (2015). “Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne: Letters, Diaries, Reminiscences and Extensive Biographies: Autobiographical Writings of the Renowned American Novelist, Author of “The Scarlet Letter”, “The House of Seven Gables” and “Twice-Told Tales””, p.817, e-artnow

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• I once played the chief part in a rather exciting business without ever once budging from London . And the joke of it was that the man who went out to look for adventure only saw a bit of the game, and I who sat in my chambers saw it all and pulled the strings. 'They also serve who only stand and wait,' you know.

  John Buchan

  Adventure, Men, Games

  John Buchan (2016). “The Complete Works of John Buchan (Unabridged): Thriller Classics, Spy Novels, Supernatural Tales, Short Stories, Poetry, Historical Works, The Great War Writings, Essays, Biographies & Memoirs – All in One Volume”, p.1649, e-artnow

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• London is like a dream come true. As I ramble through it I am haunted by the curious feeling of something half-forgotten, but still dimly remembered, like a reminiscence of some previous state of existence. It is at once familiar and strange.

  Joseph Fort Newton

  Dream, Feelings, Half

  Joseph Fort Newton (1922). “Preaching in London: A Diary of Anglo-American Friendship”

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• We cannot know what John of Leyden felt Under the Bishop 's tongs - we can only Walk in temperate London, our educated city, Wishing to cry as freely as they did who died In the Age of Faith. We have our loneliness And our regret with which to build an eschatology.

  Peter Porter

  Regret, Loneliness, Cities

  Peter Porter (1989). “A Porter Selected: Poems, 1959-1989”, Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press

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• I always wanted to see what America was like. I had that curiosity in my 20s when I was working in the theatre here [ in London]... there was the mystery of LA and I wondered what happened over there. I wanted to go and check it out and I'm pleased that I have.

  Tom Hiddleston

  America, Curiosity, Theatre

  "Marvel Avengers Assemble - Tom Hiddleston interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

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• if you want to be a little bit solitary and work very hard, you can do it more easily in New York than in a town like Paris or London. Because you depend so much for human relationships here on the phone. If you don't answer your phone, you are quite a lonely couple.

  Arman

  Lonely, New York, Couple

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• After one month with a saxophone shoved in my mouth, my military combatant's enthusiasm disappeared completely. Instead of flying choppers behind enemy lines, I started to fantasise about living in New York, London or Paris.

  Gilad Atzmon

  New York, Military, Creativity

  Gilad Atzmon (2011). “The Wandering Who?: A Study of Jewish Identity Politics”, p.3, John Hunt Publishing

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• Women made up 44% of Olympic competitors at London 2012 - the greatest show of gender equality in Olympic history. By comparison, in the 1908 Games men outnumbered women 53 to 1.

  Donna de Varona

  Men, Games, Gender

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• White as a winding sheet,
  Masks blowing down the street:
  Moscow, Paris London, Vienna - all are undone.
  The drums of death are mumbling, rumbling, and tumbling,
  Mumbling, rumbling, and tumbling,
  The world's floors are quaking, crumbling and breaking.

  Edith Sitwell

  Paris, White, Vienna

  "Façades". Book by Edith Sitwell, 1922.

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• To hold the same views at forty as we held at twenty is to have been stupefied for a score of years, and take rank, not as a prophet, but as an unteachable brat, well birched and none the wiser. It is as if a ship captain should sail to India from the Port of London; and having brought a chart of the Thames on deck at his first setting out, should obstinately use no other for the whole voyage.

  Robert Louis Stevenson

  Years, Views, Voyages

  Robert Louis Stevenson (1999). “The Lantern-Bearers and Other Essays”, p.63, Cooper Square Press

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• How long would it take a school-inspector of average activity to tumble head over heels from London toYork?

  Charles Kingsley

  School, Average, Long

  1863 The Water Babies, ch.8.

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• In a museum in London there is an exhibit called "The Value of Man": a long coffinlike box with lots of compartments where they've put starch phosphorus flour bottles of water and alcohol and big pieces of gelatin. I am a man like that.

  Stephane Mallarme

  Men, Museums, Water

  Letter, May 17, 1867.

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• People who talk of the spread of music in England and the increasing love of it, rarely seem to know where the growth of the art is really strong and properly fostered: some day the press will awake to the fact, already known abroad and to some few of us in England, that the living centre of music in Great Britain is not London, but somewhere further North.

  Edward Elgar

  Art, Strong, People

  Letter to Canon Gorton, organizer of the Morecambe Music Festival, published in "The Musical Times", July 1903.

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• The Knight in the triumph of his heart made several 6 reflections on thegreatness of the British Nation; as, that one Englishman could beat three Frenchmen; that we could never be in danger of Popery so long as we took care of our fleet; that theThames was thenoblest river in Europe; that London Bridge was a greater piece of work than any of the Seven Wonders of the World; with many other honest prejudices which naturally cleave to the heart of a true Englishman.

  Joseph Addison

  Heart, Reflection, Knights

  'The Spectator' no. 383, 20 May 1712

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• Driving a Porsche in London is like bringing a Ming vase to a football game.

  Douglas Adams

  Football, Games, Vases

  "Don't Panic: The Official Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Companion". Book by Neil Gaiman, 1988.

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• London is like a cold dark dream sometimes.

  Jean Rhys

  Dream, Dark, Cold

  Jean Rhys (1966). “Wide Sargasso Sea”

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• Imust have a London audience.I could never preach, but to the educated; to those who were capable of estimating my composition.

  Jane Austen

  Estimating, Educated, Audience

  1814 Mansfield Park, ch.34.

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• All we ever got in those [early] days was "Where are you from? Liverpool? You'll have to be in London before you can do it. Nobody's ever done it from Liverpool.

  Paul McCartney

  Done, Can Do, Liverpool

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• London is an endless skirmish between angles and emptiness.

  China Mieville

  Emptiness, Angle, Endless

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• A city like London was always going to be a paradox, the best of it so very riddled with the opposite, so Swiss-cheesed with moral holes.

  China Mieville

  Cities, Opposites, Moral

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• London is like a woman with too many years to encourage confession.

  Louise Closser Hale

  Years, Confession

  Louise Closser Hale, Walter Hale (1915). “We Discover New England”, New York, Dodd, Mead

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• If a man go into the London Docks sober without means of getting drunk, and comes out of one of the cellars very drunk wherein are a million gallons of wine, I think that would be reasonable evidence that he had stolen some of the wine in that cellar, though you could not prove that any wine was stolen, or any wine was missed.

  William Henry Maule

  Wine, Mean, Men

  Reg. v. Burton, Dearsly's C. C. 284, 1854.

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