Best American Cities Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

Source: Empire of Sin: A Story of Sex, Jazz, Murder, and the Battle for Modern New Orleans

“Sooner or later there will be a nuclear 9/11 [by Islamic terrorists] in an American city or that of a US ally... A terrorist nuclear attack against an American city could take many forms. A worst case scenario would be the detonation of a nuclear device within a city. Depending upon the size and sophistication of the weapon, it could kill hundreds of thousands or even millions of people.”

“A good two years after Hurricane Katrina I remember feeling so devastated and so ignorant that there was so much damage still left. I felt like here I was an American and this is an American city and the government hasn't done enough and people haven't given back enough. Everyone forgot and the city was lying in waste.”

“No other American city is so intensely American as New York.”

Cities New York American Cities

Book:North America

Source: North America

“The American city should be a collection of communities where every member has a right to belong. It should be a place where every man feels safe on his streets and in the house of his friends. It should be a place where each individual's dignity and self-respect is strengthened by the respect and affection of his neighbors. It should be a place where each of us can find the satisfaction and warmth which comes from being a member of the community of man. This is what man sought at the dawn of civilization. It is what we seek today.”

Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965

“Most American cities shop to their best advantage when seen from a height or from a distance, at a point where the ugliness of the buildings dissolves into the beauty of an abstraction.”

America Cities Building Advantage Distance Height Shops Abstraction Ugliness American Cities

Author:Lewis H. Lapham

“American cities are kind of difficult contexts to work in. They are politically complex. There are a lot of different interest groups. It takes immense political skill to get anything done at all.”

Kind Different Done Political Difficult Interest Cities Groups Skills Complexes Immense Interest Groups American Cities

Author:William J. Mitchell

“Texas Gov. Rick Perry referred to the Mexican city of Juarez as the most dangerous city in America. In his defense, he probably just thought it was an American city because there were so many Mexicans there.”

America Cities Dangerous Defense Texas Mexican American Cities

Author:Jay Leno

“Miami, in many ways, is a quintessentially American city. The juxtaposition of showy wealth with dire pennilessness, the tussle of glitz and decay doesnt come any more marked than here.”

Way Wealth Cities Decay Miami Juxtaposition American Cities Showy Glitz

Author:Tibor Fischer

“I'm not from Indianapolis, but I like living in Indianapolis. If I were to explain it, I'd tell someone to imagine a city that perfectly captures the best and the worst of America. Imagine the truly American city, because that's what it is.”

Ifs America Cities Imagine Worst Capture American Cities Indianapolis

Author:John Green

“While the focus in the landscape of Old World cities was commonly government structures, churches, or the residences of rulers, the landscape and the skyline of American cities have boasted their hotels, department stores, office buildings, apartments, and skyscrapers. In this grandeur, Americans have expressed their Booster Pride, their hopes for visitors and new settlers, and customers, for thriving commerce and industry.”

“Curitiba is not a paradise. We have all the problems that most Latin American cities have. We have slums. We have the same difficulties, but the big difference is the respect given by people due to the quality of the services which are provided.”

People Problem Bigs Given Differences Cities Quality Difficulty Dues Paradise Latin Latin America Slums American Cities Latin American

Author:Jaime Lerner

“The Boston bombing provided the opportunity for the government to turn what should have been a police investigation into a military-style occupation of an American city. This unprecedented move should frighten us as much or more than the attack itself.”

Should Has Beens Government Moving Turns Opportunity Cities Military Style Should Have Police Occupation Investigation Boston Should Have Been Unprecedented Bombing American Cities

Author:Ron Paul

“There's no question that there's been a breach in the trust between urban - especially urban community, African-American and minority communities and the police in major American cities.”

Community Cities Majors Police African American Minorities Urban Breach American Cities

Author:Mark Shields

“The bottom line is that we have entered an age when local communities need to invest in themselves. Federal and state dollars are becoming more and more scarce for American cities. Political and civic leaders in local communities need to make a compelling case for this investment.”

Needs States Age Political Community Lines Cities Leader Cases Becoming Dollars Investment Bottom Locals Compelling Bottom Line Civics Scarce Becoming More American Cities Local Community

Author:Mick Cornett

“I personally object to the veil on aesthetic as well as other grounds; but I must admit that, for instance in the suburbs of American cities, I have often seen women attired more sloppily than our Persian women normally are.”

Wells Cities Objects Instance Aesthetic Veils Suburbs Persian American Cities

Author:Mohammed Reza Pahlavi

“In all mammalian species that have so far been carefully studied, the rate at which their members engage in the killing of conspecifics is several thousand times greater than the highest homicide rate in any American city.”

Cities Greater Thousand Members Highest Species Killing Rate Homicide American Cities

Author:Daniel Dennett

“If you visit American city, You will find it very pretty. Just two things of which you must beware: Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air. Pollution, pollution, They got smog and sewage and mud. Turn on your tap and get hot and cold running crud. See the halibuts and the sturgeons Being wiped out by detergents. Fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly, But they don't last long if they try. Pollution, pollution, You can use the latest toothpaste, And then rinse your mouth with industrial waste.”

“Traffic growled and snarled, rising at times to a machine-gun rata-tat-tat, while pedestrians were scuttling about with that desperate ratlike urgency characteristic of all big American cities, but which reaches its ultimate in New York.”

Bigs Cities New York Gun Machines Ultimate Characteristics Rising Desperate Traffic Urgency Pedestrians American Cities Machine Guns

Book:Ship of Shadows

Source: Ship of Shadows

“They (#ISIS) are going to be bombing American cities coming across from Mexico.”

Cities Mexico Isis Bombing American Cities

Author:Duncan Hunter

“The penalty for getting mugged in an American city and losing your ID is that you can't fly home.”

Home Cities Losing Penalties American Cities

Author:Christopher Hitchens

“The same advice my commanding officer at Patrol Squadron 17, Cmdr. Robert J. Quinn, gave me before I was grilled to be given the responsibility to lead a crew of 12 all over the world, ready to stop a Russian submarine preparing to wipe out an American city with a nuclear missile: ‘Always remember that common sense and communication will solve 95 percent of the challenges you face in the Navy and life.”

“It's time for us to come together. It's time for us to rebuild New Orleans - the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans. This city will be a majority African American city. It's the way God wants it to be. You can't have New Orleans no other way. It wouldn't be New Orleans.”

Way Want Should Together Cities Majority African American Chocolate Be You New Orleans American Cities

Author:Ray Nagin

“The American city should be a collection of communities where every member has a right to belong. It should be a place where every man feels safe on his streets and in the house of his friends.”

Men Feels Should House Community Cities Streets Safe Members Every Man Collections American Cities Great Society

Book:Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965

Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965

“I'd rather we were rebuilding Philadelphia, as opposed to Kabul...There are American cities with serious infrastructure problems and we're not addressing them.”

Problem Cities Serious Infrastructure Philadelphia Rebuilding American Cities Kabul

Author:Mick Cornett

“Philadelphia is the most pecksniffian of American cities, and thus probably leads the world.”

World Cities Philadelphia American Cities

Book:The American Language: A Preliminary Inquiry Into the Development of English in the United States

Source: The American Language: A Preliminary Inquiry Into the Development of English in the United States

“The terrifying breakdown of social cohesion in the American city, in spite of intense institutionalized police surveillance equipped with every sophisticated aid to public control, illustrates that social behaviour depends upon mutual responsibility rather than upon the policeman.”

Social Cities Responsibility Depends Police Aids Intense Spite Mutual Behaviour Sophisticated Policemen Surveillance Breakdown Cohesion American Cities

Author:Colin Ward

“Yet again, the family of a young black man is grieving a life cut short. Yet again, the streets of an American city are marred by violence. What we have seen in Baltimore should, indeed I think does, tear at our soul.”

Thinking Men Should Doe Soul Young Black Cities Cutting Violence Streets Tears Grieving Baltimore American Cities

Author:Hillary Clinton

“I think many people are not seeing the change. They`re really upset with the current situation. We haven`t seen a major American city go up like this in quite some time.”

People Thinking Cities Situation Seeing Havens Majors Currents Upset American Cities Current Situation

Author:Hillary Clinton

“The notion of a defense that will protect American cities is one that will not be achieved, but it is that goal that supplies the political magic, as it were, in the president's vision.”

Political Goal President Cities Vision Magic Protect Notion Defense Supplies American Cities

Author:James R. Schlesinger

“Paris is one of the largest, and certainly it is the pleasantest, of modern American cities.”

Cities Modern Paris American Cities

Book:Dodsworth

Source: Dodsworth

“In a summer marked by instability in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, I know the world also took notice of the small American city of Ferguson, Missouri - where a young man was killed, and a community was divided. So yes, we have our own racial and ethnic tensions.”

Knows Men World Young Community Cities Middle Summer Europe East Young Man Tension Divided Middle East Eastern Instability Eastern Europe Missouri American Cities Ferguson

Author:Barack Obama

“By 1975 - and continuing to today - all Americans came to believe that they had a "right" to a safe, clean, healthy environment. When I grew up, no one seriously criticized the steel mills and paper mills for the deadly stench they produced - that was the smell of prosperity. In the modern society, no one would tolerate such conditions in an American city.”

Believe Today Cities Environment Modern Conditions Grew Healthy Safe Paper Grew Up Clean Prosperity Smell Tolerate Continuing Steel Mills Modern Society American Cities Healthy Environment

Author:Denis Hayes

“...It is statistically irrefutable that those American cities with stringent "gun control" (e.g. N.Y.C., D.C., Chicago, L.A.) have higher crime rates. It is also irrefutable that those 31 states which have made conceal carry of handguns easy for law-abiding citizens have correspondingly enjoyed significant drops in their crime rates.”

Made States Law Easy Cities Crime Higher Citizens Gun Rate Significant Enjoyed Chicago Gun Control Abiding Handguns American Cities Law Abiding Citizen Crime Rates

Author:Kenneth W. Royce

“The message [of Donald Trump] is that that type of thing happening. Let's focus on what happened.What happened was the murder, the murder of this person pushing a stroller, it's unacceptable in an American city to continue to have this level of violence and the level of violence in Chicago is unacceptable.”

Persons Levels Cities Focus Violence Happened Type Trump Messages Happenings Murder Things Happen Pushing Chicago American Cities Strollers

Author:Chris Christie

“I'm old enough to remember when the air over American cities was a lot dirtier than it is now. You've probably never woken up early on a winter morning to the acid stink of coal smoke in the air, which was everywhere when I was a little kid. My grade school was heated with coal. Not only was coal used to generate electricity, it was without any scrubbers in the stacks.”

“[Political actions] has to happen on the local and state level; we have to convince our cities to join the growing number of more than 200 American cities who have signed on to the mayor's climate campaign.”

States Happens Action Political Levels Numbers Cities Growing Climate Campaigns Locals Convince Mayors American Cities Political Action

Author:Bill McKibben

“If you sit around and wring your hands as they're all doing now until something happens to a major American city, then it is too late.”

Ifs Hands Happens Cities Late Majors Things Happen Too Late American Cities

Author:James Inhofe

“If the choice is go to war or end up with an American city hit by weapon of mass destruction, then the choice is easy.”

Ifs War Ends Choices Easy Cities Weapons Mass Destruction Weapons Of Mass Destruction Mass Destruction American Cities

Author:James Inhofe

“I enjoy Chicago as one of the great American cities. When I come here and take a taxi from the airport, I meet a young man from Somalia. I meet a young man from Eritrea who engages with this nation with a sense of hope and a sense of desire. But we also we know that there are other elements of this nation that are toxic.”

Knows Men Young Desire Nations Enjoy Cities Elements Young Man Chicago Toxic Airports Taxi Great American American Cities Somalia Eritrea

Author:Kehinde Wiley

“I'm old enough to remember when the air over American cities was a lot dirtier than it is now.”

Enough Remember Cities Air Remember When American Cities

Author:P. J. O'Rourke

“All of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as video in a single large American city in a single year. Not all bits have equal value.”

World Years Book Science Values Games Bits Cities Technology Information Equal Video Science And Technology American Cities Single Relationship

Book:Cosmos

Source: Cosmos

“I went to public schools, and while Gary was, like most American cities, racially segregated, it was at least socially integrated - a cross section of children from families of all walks of life.”

Children School Walks Cities Crosses Sections Public School Integrated Gary Walks Of Life American Cities

Author:Joseph Stiglitz

“Chicago is not the most corrupt American city. It's the most theatrically corrupt.”

Cities Chicago American Cities City Of Chicago

Author:Studs Terkel

“New York is only 97 miles from Philadelphia but was the Big Time as no other American city has ever been.”

Bigs Cities New York Miles Philadelphia American Cities

Author:Ethel Waters

“When good Americans die they go to Paris.”

Dies Paris American Cities France Paris Best American

Author:Oscar Wilde

“Elevated locations imply elevated purposes, even in American cities departing as radically as Los Angeles does from the traditional planning patterns of the Eastern Seaboard.”

Doe Purpose Cities Patterns Planning Traditional Los Angeles Location Eastern American Cities Departing

Author:Martin Filler

“LA is the loneliest and most brutal of American cities; NY gets god-awful cold in the winter but there's a feeling of wacky comradeship somewhere in some streets. LA is a jungle.”

Feelings Cities Streets Cold Winter Awful Los Angeles Brutal Jungle Wacky American Cities Comradeship

Book:On the Road

Source: On the Road

“It's an odd thing, but anyone who disappears is said to be seen in San Francisco. It must be a delightful city and possess all the attractions of the next world”

World Said Next Cities Travel Disappear Attraction Odd Delightful San Francisco American Cities Odd Things Bay Area

Book:Epigrams of Oscar Wilde

Source: Epigrams of Oscar Wilde

“Planning is for the world's great cities, for Paris, London, and Rome, for cities dedicated, at some level, to culture. Detroit, on the other hand, was an American city and therefore dedicated to money, and so design had given way to expediency.”

World Way Hands Culture Given Levels Cities Design London Planning Paris Rome Dedicated Detroit Great Cities Expediency Urban Planning American Cities

Book:Middlesex

Source: Middlesex

American Cities Quotes

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American Cities Quotes