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Cities Quotes

“There is nothing in either savage or civilized history that is more utterly complete, more remorselessly sweeping than the Father of Mercy´s campaign among the Midianites. The official report deals only in masses, all the virgins, all the men, all the babies. all ´creatures that breathe,´ all houses. all cities. It gives you just one vast picture ...as far as the eye can reach, of charred ruins and storm-swept desolation... Would you expect this same conscienceless God, this moral bankrupt, to become a teacher of morals, of gentleness, of meekness, of righteousness, of purity?”

MenGivingEyeFatherHouseDealsCitiesMoralTeacherHe ManBabyCreaturesMassMercyStormBreatheCampaignsRuinsOfficialsPurityJust OneReportsCivilizedRighteousnessSavagesVirginsGentlenessSweepingDesolationMeekness
Author:Mark Twain
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“Back before 'Brick,' I wrote a short film that I never ended up shooting: hit men in the present who work for a mob in the future who send their victims back in time. A guy is sent his future self, he lets him run, and the whole short was them chasing each other across the city. That sat in a drawer for 10 years until after I made 'Brothers Bloom.”

MenYearsMadeSelfWholeRunningFilmGuyCitiesBrotherVictimShootingSatChasingBricksDrawersBack In TimeShort FilmsFuture Self
Author:Rian Johnson
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“No true work since the world began was ever wasted; no true life since the world began has ever failed. Oh, understand those two perverted word, failure and success and measure them by the eternal, not the earthly, standard. When after thirty obscure, toilsome, unrecorded years in the shop of the village carpenter, one came forth to be pre-eminently the man of sorrows, to wander from city to city in homeless labors, and to expire in lonely agony upon the shameful cross -- was that a failure.”

MenWorldYearsTwoWorkCitiesHe ManSorrowEternalStandardsLaborCrossesLonelyWanderThirtyShopsVillageAgonyHomelessObscureSuccess And FailureShamefulCarpenterTrue Life
Author:Frederic Farrar
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“At the gates of the forest, the surprised man of the world is forced to leave his city estimates of great and small, wise and foolish. The knapsack of custom falls off his back with the first step he makes into these precincts. Here is sanctity which shames our religions, and reality which discredits our heroes. Here we find Nature to be the circumstance which dwarfs every other circumstance, and judges like a god all men that come to her.”

MenWorldFirstsRealityFallCitiesStepsWiseJudgingHeroCircumstancesShameFoolishForestsGatesCustomsFirst StepsSanctityDwarfsDiscredit
Book:Essays and Lectures
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“A mob is usually a creature of very mysterious existence, particularly in a large city. Where it comes from, or whither it goes, few men can tell. Assembling and dispersing with equal suddenness, it is as difficult to follow to its various sources as the sea itself; nor does the parallel stop here, for the ocean is not more fickle and uncertain, more terrible when roused, more unreasonable or more cruel.”

MenDoeDifficultCitiesExistenceSeaSourceTerribleCreaturesEqualOceanVariousMysteriousUncertainParallelsUnreasonableFickleAssemblingLarge Cities
Book:Charles Dickens's works. Charles Dickens ed. [18 vols. of a 21 vol. set. Wanting A child's history of England; Christmas stories; The mystery of Edwin Drood].
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“There is nothing more hostile to a city that a tyrant, under whom in the first and chiefest place, there are not laws in common, but one man, keeping the law himself to himself, has the sway, and this is no longer equal.”

MenFirstsLawCommonCitiesEqualTyrannyOne ManTyrantsHostile
Book:The Tragedies of Euripides: Hercules furens. The Troades. Ion. Andromache. Suppliants. Helen. Electra. Cyclops. Rhesus
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“And government (to define it de facto, or according to modern prudence) is an art whereby some man, or some few men, subject a city or a nation, and rule it according to his or their private interest; which, because the laws in such cases are made according to the interest of a man, or of some few families, may be said to be the empire of men, and not of laws.”

MenMayArtMadeSaidGovernmentLawNationsInterestCitiesCasesModernSubjectsEmpiresPrudence
Book:Harrington: 'The Commonwealth of Oceana' and 'A System of Politics'
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“But we have not used our waters well. Our major rivers are defiled by noxious debris. Pollutants from cities and industries kill the fish in our streams. Many waterways are covered with oil slicks and contain growths of algae that destroy productive life and make the water unfit for recreation. "Polluted Water-No Swimming" has become a familiar sign on too many beaches and rivers. A lake that has served many generations of men now can be destroyed by man in less than one generation.”

MenWellsUsedGrowthWaterCitiesGenerationsIndustryMajorsRiversEnvironmentalFishesOilFamiliarDestroyedBeachStreamsProductiveLakesCoveredSwimmingRecreationSlickDebrisAlgaeProductive Life
Author:Lyndon B. Johnson
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“Tell me what you will of the benefactions of city civilization, of the sweet security of streets-all as part of the natural upgrowth of man towards the high destiny we hear so much of. I know that our bodies were made to thrive only in pure air, and the scenes in which pure air is found. If the death exhalations that brood the broad towns in which we so fondly compact ourselves were made visible, we should flee as from a plague. All are more or less sick; there is not a perfectly sane man in San Francisco.”

IfsKnowsMenShouldMadeBodyFoundNaturalCitiesDestinyAirStreetsSecuritySweetCivilizationScenePureTravelSickTownsVisibleThriveBroadsSanePlagueSan FranciscoCompact
Book:John Muir, in His Own Words: A Book of Quotations
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“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.”

MenFeelsShouldWarSelfTodayCultureHouseIndividualCommunityCitiesStreetsCivilizationSafeMembersDignityAffectionSatisfactionNeighborEvery ManDawnCollectionsSelf RespectWarmthAmerican CitiesGreat SocietySelf Respect And Dignity
Book:Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965
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“The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and to enlarge his talents. It is a place where the city of man serves not only the needs of the body and the demands of commerce but the desire for beauty and the hunger for community. It is a place where men are more concerned with the quality of their goals than the quantity of their goods.”

MenNeedsMindChildrenBodyDesireGoalPresidentCommunityCitiesQualityBeautyTalentDemandConcernedHungerPresidentialGoodsQuantityCommerceGreat Society
Author:Lyndon B. Johnson
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“We must not only protect the country side and save it from destruction, we must restore what has been destroyed and salvage the beauty and charm of our cities ... Once our natural splendor is destroyed, it can never be recaptured. And once man can no longer walk with beauty or wonder at nature, his spirit will wither and his sustenance be wasted.”

MenHas BeensCountrySpiritSidesNaturalWalksCitiesWonderProtectDestructionDestroyedCharmWildernessSplendorSustenanceSalvage
Author:Lyndon B. Johnson
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“Man is the same today that he has always been. He is a rebel against God. He may, in some generations, hide his rebellion a little more carefully than at other times, but there is no change in his heart. The men who builded the city against God back in the days of Babylon had the same hatred as that which possessed the men who nailed the Lord Jesus Christ to the cross.”

MenHeartMayLittlesTodayChristianJesusChristCitiesLordGenerationsHe ManJesus ChristCrossesHatredRebellionRebelPossessedPreacherLord Jesus ChristBabylon
Author:Donald Barnhouse
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“It is convenient for the old men to blame Eve. To insist we are damned because a country girl talked to the snake one afternoon long ago. Children must starve in Somalia for that, and old women be abandoned in our greatest cities. It’s why we will finally be thrown into the lakes of molten lead. Because she was confused by happiness that first time anyone said she was beautiful. Nevertheless, she must be the issue, so people won’t notice that rocks and galaxies, mathematics and rust are also created in His image.”

PeopleMenFirstsChildrenLongSaidCountryBeautifulGirlCitiesIssuesRocksFirst TimeMathematicsBlameConfusedThrownLakesOld ManAfternoonAbandonedLong AgoNeverthelessSnakesGalaxyConvenientOld WomanRustSomaliaCountry Girl
Book:Collected Poems
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“Fire, loveliest of the four elements of the world, and yet an element too in Hell. While it burned adoringly in the core of the Temple, it had also scorched the life from a city, this night, and spewed its venom over the land. How strange of God to speak from a burning bush, and of Man to make a symbol of Heaven into a symbol of Hell.”

MenWorldNightSpeakHeavenCitiesHellFireFourLandStrangeElementsCoreSymbolsBurningTemplesBurnedVenomBurning BushFour Elements
Book:A Canticle For Leibowitz
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“When human men hold an object that makes a powerful noise, or has moving parts, or spins around fast, or has a button they can push (which either screws or nails something) they become Gods in their own heads.They can do anything: they can eat through walls and bring buildings together to form mighty empires.They can build floating cities and flying tin cans.But they still can't make their own beds.”

MenHumansStillsTogetherMovingFormCan DoPowerfulCitiesObjectsBuildingWallBedFlyingNoiseEmpiresButtonsNailsFloatingScrewsTinMoving PartsTin Cans
Author:Craig Stone
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“In cities men cannot be prevented from concerting together, and from awakening a mutual excitement which prompts sudden and passionate resolutions. Cities may be looked upon as large assemblies, of which all the inhabitants are members; their populace exercises a prodigious influence upon the magistrates, and frequently executes its own wishes without their intervention.”

MenMayTogetherWishCitiesInfluenceExerciseMembersPassionateAwakeningExcitementMutualResolutionInterventionAssemblyPromptsMagistratesProdigious
Book:Democracy in America
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“If future society assumes the contours foretold by Marxism, if the jungle of our cities turns to the polis of man and the dreams of anger are made real, the representative art will be high comedy. Art will be the laughter of intelligence, as it is in Plato, in Mozart, in Stendhal.”

IfsMenArtMadeRealDreamTurnsCitiesComedyLaughterAssumingRepresentativesPlatoJungleMarxismPolisFuture Society
Book:Language and silence: essays on language, literature, and the inhuman
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“We have had the stone age; we have had the iron age; and now we have the sky age, and the sky telegraph, and sky men, and sky cities. Mountains of stone are built out of men's visions. Towers and skyscrapers swing up out of their wills and up out of their hearts.”

MenHeartAgeCitiesVisionSkyMountainBuiltStonesIronSwingsTowersSkyscraperTelegraphStone Age
Book:Crowds: A Study of the Genius of Democracy and of the Fears, Desires, and Expectations of the People
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“Understand me: I wish to be a man from somewhere, a man among men. You see, a slave, when he passes by, weary and surly, carrying a heavy load, limping along and looking down at his feet, only at his feet to avoid falling down; he is in his town, like a leaf in greenery, like a tree in a forest, argos surrounds him, heavy and warm, full of herself; I want to be that slave, Electra, I want to pull the city around me and to roll myself up in it like a blanket. I will not leave.”

MenWantFallWishCitiesTreeFeetTownsSlaveHeavyWarmForestsSurroundLoadWearyLeafsBe A ManFalling DownBlanketUnderstand MeLooking DownSurlyLimpingElectraGreeneryHeavy Loads
Author:Jean-Paul Sartre
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“Not very long ago some one invented the assertion that there were only "Four Hundred" people in New York City who were really worth noticing. But a wiser man has arisen - the census taker - and his larger estimate of human interest has been preferred in marking out the field of these little stories of the "Four Million.”

PeopleMenHumansLittlesLongHas BeensStoriesInterestCitiesMillionsFourNew YorkFieldsHundredNew York CityLong AgoWiserAssertionNoticingCensus
Book:The Complete Poetry of O. Henry (Including a Biography of the Author): From the American writer, a master of short stories, known for The Gift of the Magi, Cabbages and Kings, The Cop and the Anthem, Options, Roads of Destiny, The Four Million…
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“Standing at the edge of our city, a man could feel that we had made this place of streets and dwellings in the stillness of the desert, and that we had done a brave thing... Or a man could feel that we had made this city in the desert and that it was a fake thing and that our lives were empty lives, and that we were the contemporaries of the jack rabbits.”

MenFeelsMadeDoneCitiesOur LivesStreetsStandingEmptyBraveEdgesDesertFakeStillnessRabbitsDwellingEmpty Life
Author:William Saroyan
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“Nothing so evil as money ever grew to be current among men. This lays cities low, this drives men from their homes, this trains and warps honest souls till they set themselves to works of shame; this still teaches folk to practise villainies, and to know every godless deed. But all the men who wrought this thing for hire have made it sure that, soon or late, they shall pay the price.”

KnowsMenMadeStillsSoulHomeEvilPayCitiesTeachHonestHe ManGrewLateLowsShameLaysTrainFolksCurrentsDeedsMade ItPay The PricePractiseWarpVillainy
Book:Antigone
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“The great cry that rises from our manufacturing cities, louder than their furnace blast, is all in very deed for this, that we manufacture everything there except men; we blanch cotton, and strengthen steel, and refine sugar, and shape pottery; but to brighten, to strengthen, to refine, or to form a single living spirit, never enters into our estimate of advantages.”

MenFormSpiritCitiesCryShapesAdvantageDeedsSugarSteelManufacturingBlastCottonPotteryFurnaces
Book:Selections From the Works of John Ruskin
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“A long time ago, I took a walk down a street in Harlem in New York City. I came upon a man who asked me for a dollar. He had asked a few other people before me, but they only passed him by without glancing his way. I stopped and handed the man some money. As I began to turn away, he reached out and shook my hand. He looked me in the eyes and said, "I will bless you." Now, I'm not saying that was God Himself. But how do we know that it wasn't someone working for him, walking around in disguise, just to see what we would do?”

PeopleKnowsMenWayLongSaidHandsEyeTurnsWalksCitiesStreetsNew YorkHe ManWalkingLong TimeDollarsBlessNew York CityDisguiseLong Time AgoHarlem
Book:The Soul of a Butterfly: Reflections on Life's Journey
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“Agriculture seems to be the first pursuit of civilized man. It enables him to escape from the life of the savage, and wandering shepherd, into that of social man, gathered into fixed communities and surrounding himself with the comforts and blessings of neighborhood, country, and home. It is agriculture alone, that fixes men in stationary dwellings, in villages, in towns, and cities, and enables the work of civilizations, in all its branches, to go on.”

MenFirstsCountryHomeSeemsSocialCommunityCitiesGoes OnComfortCivilizationBlessingTownsPursuitWanderFixedBranchesNeighborhoodCivilizedVillageAgricultureSavagesDwellingShepherdsStationary
Author:Edward Everett
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“Man makes one journey all his living days, Down through the realms of music and of art; Down through the halls of fame and glorious praise; Down through the tears and triumphs of the heart To some sweet woman waiting some place there. For her he builds his cities and makes war, Seeks gold and glorious wealth to store.”

MenHeartArtWarWaitingWomenWealthCitiesJourneyTearsSweetFameGoldPraiseStoresTriumphRealmsGloriousHallsMen WomenHall Of Fame
Author:John Updike
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