Londoners Quotes

• We argued, as did the security services in this country, that the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq would increase the threat of terrorist attack in Britain. Tragically Londoners have now paid the price of the government ignoring such warnings.

  George Galloway

  Country, Government, Iraq

  "Galloway: Bombings price of Iraq". news.bbc.co.uk. July 8, 2005.

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• People say that New Yorkers aren't friendly, but I think they're more friendly than Londoners. Here there is a front-footed nature of Americans. You can go out on a night out and meet 10 random people and stay in touch with them, whereas that's not going to happen in the same way in London.

  Theo James

  Night, Thinking, People

  "Theo James (AKA Mr. Pamuk on Downton!) On His New Show Golden Boy, NYC, and More". Interview with Anna Moeslein, www.glamour.com. February 26, 2013.

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• London is a roost for every bird.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Bird, London, Roost

  Benjamin Disraeli (1870). “Lothair”

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• When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

  Samuel Johnson

  Life, Tired, Men

  Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) (entry for 20 Sept. 1777)

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• Nobody is healthy in London, nobody can be.

  Jane Austen

  Healthy, London, England

  Jane Austen (1854). “Emma: A Novel”, p.91

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• I hate London when it's not raining.

  Groucho Marx

  Travel, Hate, Rain

  "Whatever happened to ... the national water grid?" by Iain Hollingshead, www.theguardian.com. April 14, 2006.

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• London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained.

  Arthur Conan Doyle

  London, Empires, Idlers

  A Study in Scarlet ch. 1 (1888)

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• The truth is, that in London it is always a sickly season. Nobody is healthy in London, nobody can be.

  Jane Austen

  Healthy, London, Truth Is

  Jane Austen (1882). “Emma”, p.87

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• The lowest and vilest alleys of London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.

  Arthur Conan Doyle

  Smile, Beautiful, Doe

  "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches" (1892)

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• The man who can dominate a London dinner-table can dominate the world.

  Oscar Wilde

  Men, Political, World

  1893 Lord Illingworth. A Woman of No Importance, act 3.

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• I'm leaving because the weather is too good. I hate London when it's not raining.

  Groucho Marx

  Funny, Hate, Rain

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• It is not the walls that make the city, but the people who live within them. The walls of London may be battered, but the spirit of the Londoner stands resolute and undismayed.

  George VI

  Wall, Cities, People

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• I would like to express to all Londoners, to all of the British people, the solidarity, the compassion and the friendship of France and the French people.

  Jacques Chirac

  Friendship, Compassion, People

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• This melancholy London - I sometimes imagine that the souls of the lost are compelled to walk through its streets perpetually. One feels them passing like a whiff of air.

  William Butler Yeats

  Air, Soul, London

  William Butler Yeats, Richard J. Finneran (1969). “John Sherman & Dhoya”

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• There's a hole in the world Like a great black pit And the vermin of the world Inhabit it ... And it goes by the name of London.

  Stephen Sondheim

  Names, Black, World

  Song: No Place Like London

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• My Dad says that being a Londoner has nothing to do with where you're born. He says that there are people who get off a jumbo jet at Heathrow, go through immigration waving any kind of passport, hop on the tube and by the time the train's pulled into Piccadilly Circus they've become a Londoner.

  Ben Aaronovitch

  Dad, People, Immigration

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• These cruel, wanton, indiscriminate bombings of London are, of course, a part of Hitler's invasion plans. He hopes, by killing large numbers of civilians, and women and children, that he will terrorise and cow the people of this mighty imperial city ... Little does he know the spirit of the British nation, or the tough fibre of the Londoners.

  Winston Churchill

  Children, Numbers, Cities

  Sir Winston Churchill (1966). “Sir Winston Churchill, K. G., P. C., O. M., C. H., M. P.: selections from his writings and speeches”

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• Italian cities have long been held up as ideals, not least by New Yorkers and Londoners enthralled by the ways their architecture gives beauty and meaning to everyday acts.

  Rebecca Solnit

  Italian, Cities, Long

  Rebecca Solnit (2001). “Wanderlust: A History of Walking”, p.138, Penguin

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• The greatest mystery about a human being is not his reaction to sex or praise, but the manner in which he contrives to put in twenty-four hours a day. It is this which puzzles the longshoreman about the clerk, the Londoner about the bushman.

  Sinclair Lewis

  Sex, Clerks, Twenties

  Sinclair Lewis (1995). “Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott”, p.237, Penguin

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• If Men and Women took their Pleasures as noisily as the Cats, what Londoner could ever hope to sleep of nights?

  Aldous Huxley

  Sex, Sleep, Cat

  Aldous Huxley (1983). “After Many a Summer Dies the Swan”, Harpercollins

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• I do love New York. But I'm a Londoner at heart.

  Kate Moss

  New York, Heart

  Interview Magazine Interview, www.interviewmagazine.com. August 12, 2013.

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• I feel like all Londoners relate more to New York - L.A. doesn't feel like a 'city' city. It's like a sleepy town.

  Natalia Kills

  New York, Cities, Towns

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• But what is coffee, but a noxious berry, Born to keep used-up Londoners awake?

  Charles Stuart Calverley

  Coffee, Berries, Used

  Charles Stuart Calverley (1862). “Verses and Translations”, p.57

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• My biggest concern is security and keeping Londoners safe.

  Sadiq Khan

  Safe, Concern, Security

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• Being a seasoned Londoner, Martin gave the body the "London once-over" - a quick glance to determine whether this was a drunk, a crazy or a human being in distress. The fact that it was entirely possible for someone to be all three simultaneously is why good-Samaritanism in London is considered an extreme sport - like BASE jumping or crocodile wrestling.

  Ben Aaronovitch

  Sports, Crazy, Wrestling

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