"Observe how every truth and every error, each a thought of someone's mind, clothes itself with societies, houses, cities, language, ceremonies, newspapers"
Cities quotes
Cities
4.7K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Topics related to Cities
Browse quotes that often appear alongside cities — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Cities quotes (page 44 of 237)
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"Cities of mortals woe-begone Fantastic care derides, But in the serious landscape lone Stern benefit abides."
"I always seem to suffer some loss of faith on entering cities."
"The city is recruited from the country."
"Whilst we want cities as the centres where the best things are found, cities degrade us by magnifying trifles."
"What care though rival cities soar Along the stormy coast, Penn's town, New York, Baltimore, If Boston knew the most!"
"From Washington, proverbially "the city of distances," through all its cities, states, and territories, it is a country of beginnings, of projects, of designs, and expectations."
"So, for a book set in 2006, Open City evades certain markers, while it embraces certain others. Julius doesn't use a smartphone, and he doesn't discuss contemporary US politics in any fine detail."
"They who have already enjoyed the crowds and noise of the great city, know their desire to return is little more than the restlessness of a vacant mind, that they are not so much led by hope as driven by disgust, and wish rather to leave the country than to see the town."
"There is such a difference between the pursuits of men in great cities that one part of the inhabitants lives to little other purpose than to wonder at the rest. Some have hopes and fears, wishes and aversions, which never enter into the thoughts of others, and inquiry is laboriously exerted to gain that which those who possess it are ready to throw away."
"In Reno, there is always a bull market, never a bear market, for the stocks and bonds of happiness."
"If there were such a thing as an inter-city thieving contest, Ankh-Morpork would bring home the trophy and probably everyone’s wallets."
"The city's full of people who you just see around."
"Poets have tried to describe Ankh-Morpork. They have failed. Perhaps it's the sheer zestful vitality of the place, or maybe it's just that a city with a million inhabitants and no sewers is rather robust for poets, who prefer daffodils and no wonder. So let's just say that Ankh-Morpork is as full of life as an old cheese on a hot day, as loud as a curse in a cathedral, as bright as an oil slick, as colourful as a bruise and as full of activity, industry, bustle and sheer exuberant busyness as a dead dog on a termite mound."
"The Captain of the Watch says if you're still in the City by sunrise he will personally have you buried alive."
"Sergeant Colon of the Ankh-Morpork City Guard was on duty. He was guarding the Brass Bridge, the main link between Ankh and Morpork. From theft. When it came to crime prevention, Sergeant Colon found it safest to think big."
"A police procedural novel can be even funnier if the police include Trolls and Dwarves and things like that. You start looking at the whole basis of the cop novel. You get the cop moving in a different way when you've actually set it in a fantasy city."
"Minnesota's a great city."
"The country is the place for children, and if not the country, a city small enough so that one can get out into the country."
"We cannot afford merely to sit down and deplore the evils of city life as inevitable, when cities are constantly growing, both absolutely and relatively. We must set ourselves vigorously about the task of improving them; and this task is now well begun."