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Sidewalk Quotes

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Sidewalk Quotes

“Play on lively, diversified sidewalks differs from virtually all other daily incidental play offered American children today: It is play not conducted in a matriarchy. Most city architectural designers and planners are men. Curiously, they design and plan to exclude men as part of normal, daytime life wherever people live. In planning residential life, they aim at filling the presumed daily needs of impossibly vacuous housewives and preschool tots. They plan, in short, strictly for matriarchal societies.”

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Book:The Death and Life of Great American Cities
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“Shirts and jeans litter the asphalt, the empty fabric limbs askew as if they're attempting to escape. Blood smears Sarah's lips as she struggles against the chest of a dirty looking man with a beard. Terror. Terror is the only word my mind can seize on and it forgets what it means. I forget how to think - to move.”

GirlFriendshipBloodCrimeHorrorClothesPoliceLipsTerrorTeenagerFabricAssaultJeansRapeCityBeardCreepySidewalkCriminalDenimAsphaltChestHoboGrabMugging
Book:Placid Girl
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“The New York sidewalk led us along a little corner park rimmed with yellow-orange and violet pansies that seemed to be smiling, their faces upturned, and past a bagel shop that smelled of sesame and salt, delicious warm air. We passed an empty wine bar with a pink chandelier, whimsical and dim inside, and a neighborhood diner with its blue neon sign huge and lit up, little white line-cook hats—the city seemed in my vision like a multifaceted gem, spectacular. I wished I could keep everything I witnessed like a photograph, to forever hold this electric aliveness. The colors of the flowers and the clothing were crisp and rosy, hyper-bright against the subdued sun-drenched pigments of the streets and the brick buildings, all seeming faded, softer than real. Pops of coral and red—a scarf, a lady’s lips—were pops of life.”

PhotographNew York CityFlowersDeliciousSidewalkPansiesGemParkDinerChandelier
Book:Your Blue Is Not My Blue: A Missing Person Memoir
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“Lines and Squares Whenever I walk in a London street, I'm ever so careful to watch my feet; And I keep in the squares, And the masses of bears, Who wait at the corners all ready to eat The sillies who tread on the lines of the street, Go back to their lairs, And I say to them, "Bears, Just look how I'm walking in all of the squares!" And the little bears growl to each other, "He's mine, As soon as he's silly and steps on a line." And some of the bigger bears try to pretend That they came round the corner to look for a friend; And they try to pretend that nobody cares Whether you walk on the lines or squares. But only the sillies believe their talk; It's ever so portant how you walk. And it's ever so jolly to call out, "Bears, Just watch me walking in all the squares!”

BearsWalkingSidewalkTenderSteppingChristopher RobinLines And Squares
Author:A.A. Milne
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“Every few blocks were vacant lots where victory gardens had been planted at the height of the war. By then, they were wrecked and full of debris. Once in a while, when you looked down at the sidewalk along the lots, you’d see a blade of grass growing up out of the concrete. That’s what my friend, the acting teacher Lee Strasberg, once called talent: a blade of grass growing up out of a block of concrete.”

TalentGardenGrassConcreteSidewalkBronxDebrisAl PacinoLee StrasbergSouth Bronx
Book:Sonny Boy: A Memoir
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“I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. I am lost... I am helpless. It isn't my fault. It takes forever to find a way out. I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I pretend I don't see it. I fall in again. I can't believe I am in the same place. But, it isn't my fault. It still takes me a long time to get out. I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I see it is there. I still fall in. It's a habit. My eyes are open. I know where I am. It is my fault. I get out immediately. walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I walk around it. I walk down another street.”

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Book:There's a Hole in My Sidewalk: The Romance of Self-Discovery
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“It's often been said, "Violence never solved anything." The simple truth is that when you are slammed up against the wall and the knife is at your throat, when a circle of teenagers is kicking you as you curl into a ball on the sidewalk, or when the man walks into your office building or school with a pair of guns and starts shooting, only violence, or the reasonable threat of violence, is going to save your life. In the extreme moment, only force can stop force.”

MenSaidMomentsSchoolForceSimpleWalksViolenceBuildingHe ManWallTruth IsOfficeGunBallsThreatExtremesCirclesTeenagerShootingReasonablePairsThroatKnivesGun ControlKickingCurlsSidewalkSimple TruthsOffice Buildings
Author:Rory Miller
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“The swelling and towering omnibuses, the huge trucks and wagons and carriages, the impetuous hansoms and the more sobered four-wheelers, the pony-carts, donkey-carts, hand-carts, and bicycles which fearlessly find their way amidst the turmoil, with foot-passengers winding in and out, and covering the sidewalks with their multitude, give the effect of a single monstrous organism, which writhes swiftly along the channel where it had run in the figure of a flood till you were tired of that metaphor. You are now a molecule of that vast organism.”

WayGivingHandsRunningScienceFourFeetEffectsFiguresHugeTiredMetaphorFloodMultitudesOrganismsTruckBicycleCoveringMonstrousPassengersTurmoilMoleculesSidewalkCartsCarriagesWagonsDonkeyPoniesSwellingImpetuousFour Wheelers
Author:William Dean Howells
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“We had to build a city not for businesses or automobiles, but for children and thus for people. Instead of building highways, we restricted car use. We invested in high-quality sidewalks, pedestrian streets, parks, bicycle paths, libraries; we got rid of thousands of cluttering commercial signs and planted trees. All our everyday efforts have one objective: Happiness.”

PeopleChildrenUseEffortCitiesQualityPathTreeStreetsCarBuildingEverydayLibraryObjectivesParksHighwaysAutomobileBicycleSidewalkHigh QualityPedestrians
Author:Enrique Penalosa
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“Traveling across the United States, it's easy to see why Americans are often thought of as stupid. At the San Diego Zoo, right near the primate habitats, there's a display featuring half a dozen life-size gorillas made out of bronze. Posted nearby is a sign reading CAUTION: GORILLA STATUES MAY BE HOT. Everywhere you turn, the obvious is being stated. CANNON MAY BE LOUD. MOVING SIDEWALK IS ABOUT TO END. To people who don't run around suing one another, such signs suggest a crippling lack of intelligence.”

PeopleMayMadeEndsStatesRunningAmericaMovingTurnsReadingEasyUnitedHalfUnited StatesStupidHotSizeObviousLoudDozenDisplayCautionStatuesZoosSidewalkHabitatCannonsBronzePrimatesGorillasSan DiegoSuingLife Size
Book:Me Talk Pretty One Day
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“Pity is for this life, pity is the worm inside the meat, pity is the meat, pity is the shaking pencil, pity is the shaking voice-- not enough money, not enough love--pity for all of us--it is our grace, walking down the ramp or on the moving sidewalk, sitting in a chair, reading the paper, pity, turning a leaf to the light, arranging a thorn.”

EnoughLightMovingReadingVoiceGraceWalkingPaperSittingPityThis LifeMeatChairsLeafsWormsPencilsShakingSidewalkArrangingRampEnough LoveSitting In A Chair
Author:Jane Austen
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“Radical Christians are not people who wear Christian t-shirts. Radical Christians are those who bear fruit of the Holy Spirit...A little boy, Andrew, a Muslim shot him five times through the stomach and left him on a sidewalk simply because he said, 'I am so afraid, but I can not deny Jesus Christ! Please don't kill me! But I will not deny Him!' He died in a pool of blood, and you talk about being a radical Christian because you wear a t-shirt!”

PeopleLittlesSaidI CanChristianSpiritJesusLeftChristBoysFiveBloodBearsHolyPleaseShotsJesus ChristDiedFruitDenyRadicalShirtsHoly SpiritStomachPoolCan NotT ShirtKill MeLittle BoysAndrewSidewalkRadical Christian
Author:Paul Washer
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“You know, almost everyone is an irritant to me. I think people have forgotten what the word 'public' means. 'Public' means you're going to be irritated. It's a natural consequence of leaving one's home. You go outside, and there are people who are irritating. I'll be standing on the sidewalk, and someone berates me for smoking. I look at the person and think, but what about your shoes? How can you wear shoes like that and have the confidence to accost someone like me?”

PeopleThinkingKnowsLooksMeanPersonsHomeNaturalConsequenceStandingLeavingShoesForgottenLike MeSmokingIrritatingSidewalkIrritatedNatural ConsequencesIrritants
Author:Fran Lebowitz
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“There are complaints that it's hard to remember what you can say and what you can't, which words are 'in' for certain groups and which words are not. And yet we started out learning that the 'kitty' on the sidewalk was actually a squirrel, we learned to differentiate between fire trucks and school buses, and many people today know the difference between linguini, fettucini, and rotini. The same people who say they can't remember the 'right' terms in referring to people are often whizzes at remembering which professional sports teams have moved where and are now called what.”

PeopleKnowsHardTodaySchoolRememberPoliticalCertainSportsTermDifferencesFireGroupsTeamMovedBusComplaintsTruckPolitical CorrectnessReferringSidewalkSquirrelsDifferentiateSports TeamKittiesProfessional SportsSchool Bus
Author:Rosalie Maggio
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“Tears came to my eyes when I read of a mere boy in one of our eastern cities who noticed a vagrant asleep on a sidewalk and who then went to his own room, retrieved his own pillow, and placed it beneath the head of that one whom he knew not. Perhaps there came from the precious past the welcome words: 'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me' (Matt. 25:40).”

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Author:Thomas S. Monson
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“Charles Murray, however, clearly believes that being able to cure fatal diseases is more important than some other things and that Rembrandt was a greater artist than your local sidewalk cartoon sketcher. Most people might regard this as obvious common sense but some of the intelligentsia may be seething with resentment at seeing their pet fetishes ignored.”

PeopleBelieveMayImportantMightAbleArtistCommonGreaterSeeingDiseaseRegardObviousLocalsCommon SenseCuresPetResentmentIgnoredCartoonSidewalkFetishSeething
Book:Ever Wonder Why?: and Other Controversial Essays
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“When you go apartment-hunting in the South, you encounter little old ladies who ask you if you use strong drink. In New York you encounter paranoids who wonder if you will commit suicide--not that they care; what they worry about is blood on their fresh paint, a dubious smell in the hallway, or a hole in the awning as you pass through on your way to the sidewalk. The Southerner who moves to any part of the country has problems, but the culture shock that attacks the Southerner who moves North is almost indescribable.”

IfsWayLittlesCountryUseProblemCareMovingCultureAsksStrongWonderWorryBloodNew YorkDrinkSuicideSouthPaintSmellHolesCommitEncountersShockHuntingApartmentOld LadySidewalkDubiousHallwaysIndescribableSouthernerCulture ShockStrong Drink
Book:Southern ladies and gentlemen
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“Nature is impersonal, awe-inspiring, elegant, eternal. It's geometrically perfect. It's tiny and gigantic. You can travel far to be in a beautiful natural setting, or you can observe it in your backyard - or, in my case, in the trees lining New York City sidewalks, or in the clouds above skyscrapers.”

BeautifulNaturalPerfectCitiesCasesTreeNew YorkEternalCloudsTinySettingSettingsAweNew York CityElegantBackyardsSidewalkSkyscraperAwe InspiringAuthentic Happiness
Author:Gretchen Rubin
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“On the lawn next to the sidewalk a fire ant colony is swarming. The ants are pouring out of a mound nest, here no more than an irregular pile of dirt partly flattened by the last pass of a lawnmower. Winged queens and males are taking off on their nuptial flight, protected by angry-looking workers that run up and down the grass blades and out onto the blistering-hot concrete of the sidewalk. The species is unmistakably Solenopsis geminata, the native fire ant.”

RunningLastsNextFireHotAngrySpeciesWorkersMalesFlightGrassQueensNativeConcreteProtectedDirtBladesUp And DownAntsNestsPouringLawnsColonySidewalk
Author:E. O. Wilson
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“Curiosity restores is a state of heightened awareness. Culturally, this has been considered a child's activity. By the time we're grown, we're supposed to know enough not to get bogged down in life's miraculous detail. But the spiritual journey reactivates our sense of miracle and invites us to pause again, squatting over the sidewalk cracks, to ponder the lives of ants and stars.”

KnowsInspirationalChildrenHas BeensStatesEnoughSpiritualStarsJourneyAwarenessActivityMiracleCuriosityDetailsCracksInvitesPausesMiraculousAntsPonderingSpiritual JourneySidewalk
Book:Life's Companion: Journal Writing as a Spiritual Quest
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“We have the right to rid our houses of ants; but what we have no right to do is to forget to honor the ant as God made it, out in the place where God made the ant to be. When we meet the ant on the sidewalk, we step over him. He is a creature, like ourselves; not made in the image of God, it is true, but equal with man as far as creation is concerned. The ant and the man are both creatures.”

MenMadeHouseForgetStepsCreationHe ManHonorCreaturesEqualConcernedEnvironmentalMade ItStewardshipAntsSidewalkGod Image
Author:Francis Schaeffer
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“This is a dreadful thing to say, but I have wondered in my darker hours that, if everything were legal, wouldn't it be kind of a Darwinian solution to a lot of problems? Who are the bikies that you see who are cruisin' around with no helmet or with a hat turned around like that yoyo in Cheap Trick? They're dummies, and if they splatter their brains all over the sidewalk, they're not going to be collecting food stamps.”

IfsKindProblemHoursBrainSolutionsTricksHatsBe KindStampsCollectingSidewalkHelmetDummyFood Stamps
Book:Bare bones: conversations on terror with Stephen King
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