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Quote by Jane Jacobs

“Americans don't really think that other places are as real as America.”

Quote by Jane Jacobs

Author

Jane Jacobs, an American journalist and urban theorist, was born on May 4, 1916, and passed away on April 25, 2006. She is renowned for her profound insights into urban life and her unique perspectives on urban planning. Her book, 'The Death and Life of Great American Cities,' had a revolutionary impact on modern urban planning. more

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“I think that may be the biggest difference between Americans and people elsewhere. Unlike Americans, Canadians know that there are places just as real as Canada. It's a self-centeredness that's a very strange thing.”

People Thinking Knows May Real Self Differences Strange Canada Elsewhere Strange Things Self Centeredness Centeredness

Author:Jane Jacobs

“Americans have got it so dinged into them that they are the most fortunate people on Earth, and that the rest of the world - the sooner it copies what America is like, the better.”

People World Earth America Fortunate Copies

Author:Jane Jacobs

“I still have a lot of family in America. I still have a lot of friends there. There is a lot that I admire there very much. When I find America getting too much criticized outside America, I want to tell them how many things are good about it.”

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Author:Jane Jacobs

“I am not any hate-America person. I really came here for positive reasons.”

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Author:Jane Jacobs

“Why did I become a Canadian citizen? Not because I was rejecting being a U.S. citizen. At the time when I became a Canadian citizen, you couldn't be a dual citizen. Now you can. So I had to be one or the other. But the reason I became a Canadian citizen was because it simply seemed so abnormal to me not to be able to vote.”

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Author:Jane Jacobs

“I think that intelligent people to a great extent are captives of their time or place.”

People Thinking Intelligent Captives

Author:Jane Jacobs

“Everybody's got a worldview, whether they know they have it or they don't. They might even get it when they are little tiny kids. Suppose they get it when they are in college, which is often the case, or in high school, whatever. Everything they learn after that or every thing they see after that, they fit it into that worldview. And they are making coherence of what's good, what's bad, what will work, what won't work, what's noble, what's ignoble, and so on... all through this filter.”

Knows Littles Might Kids School Cases College Fit High School Noble Tiny Worldview Filters Coherence Ignoble

Author:Jane Jacobs

“There are two ways you encounter things in the world that are different. One is everything that comes in reinforces what you already believe and everything that you know. The other thing is that you stay flexible enough or curious enough and maybe unsure of yourself enough, or may be you are more sure of yourself - I don't know which it is - that the new things that come in keep reforming your world view.”

Knows World Way Believe May Two Different Enough Views Curious Encounters Be You New Things Flexible Two Ways World View Unsure

Author:Jane Jacobs

“By the end of the book, it is quite different than the way you thought it would be when you started the book - both in form and what it contains and what you think. Well, you tipped in a lot and you digested a lot - it wasn't pre-digested in your view. And it changed what you thought and how you see things.”

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Author:Jane Jacobs

“The notion - and I tell you this one even worries me that it extends into New Urbanism - the notion of the shopping center [as] a valid kind of downtown. That's taken over. It's very hard for architects of this generation even to think in terms of a downtown or a center that is owned by all different people, with different ideas.”

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Author:Jane Jacobs