Quotes About City

Lightning flickered above the city, a crescent moon sneered through a gap in the clouds. The boutique huddled against the storm, a tiny island of light on an unlit street.

Det er forbløffende hvor stemningsfull kunstig belysning kan være når det har begynt å mørkne, hvordan den kan påvirke oss følelsmessig, selv nå, ved begynnelsen av det enogtyvende århundre, i byer så store og godt opplyst som denne.

One's relationship to windows now changed in the city. A window was the border through which death was possibly most likely to come. Windows could not stop even the most flagging round of ammunition: any spot indoors with a view of the outside was a spot potentially in the crossfire. Moreover the pane of a window could itself become shrapnel so easily, shattered by a nearby blast, and everyone had heard of someone or other who had bled out after being lacerated by shards of flying glass.

Indeed, all books, each and every book ever written, could be said to be said to be offered to the reader as a form of self-help. Textbooks, those whores, as particularly explicit in acknowledging this, and it is with a textbook that you, at this moment, after several years in the city, are walking down the street.

There is something magical about London. It can coax a water lily to tie its roots to land.

Lightning's echo comes as thunder. And the city waits for thunder's echo, for a wall of heat that burns Lahore with the energy of a thousand summers, a million partitions, a billion atomic souls split in half.

They next faced the problem that confronted all young people in the city who wanted to continue in one another's company past a certain hour. During the day there were parks, and campuses, and restaurants, cafés. But at night, after dinner, unless one had access to a home where such things were safe and permitted, or had a car, there were few places to be alone.

The city waits for thunder's echo, for a wall of heat that burns Lahore with the energy of a thousand summers, a million partitions, a billion atomic souls split in half.

abandoning the city to the predations of warriors on both sides who seemed content to flatten it in order to possess it.

but I would suggest that it is instead our solitude that most disturb us, the fact that we are all but alone despite being in the heart of a city.

but that is the way of things, with cities as with life, for one moment we are pottering about our errands as usual and the next we are dying, and our eternally impending ending does not put a stop to our transient beginnings and middles until the instant when it does.

And the city itself was just a glow on the dark earth...

In a city swollen by refugees but still mostly at peace, or at least not yet openly at war, a young man met a young woman in a classroom and did not speak to her.

The only credential the city asked was the boldness to dream. For those who did, it unlocked its gates and its treasures, not caring who they were or where they came from.

It was possible in this wonderful city for that nameless little boy -for any of its millions- to have a decent chance to scale the walls and achieve what they wished. Wealth, rank or an imposing name counted for nothing. The only credential the city asked was the boldness to dream. For those who did, it unlocked its gates and its treasures, not caring who they were or where they came from.

It was then that Miss Brodie looked beautiful and fragile, just as dark, heavy Edinburgh itself could suddenly be changed into a floating city when the light was a special pearly white and fell upon one of the gracefully fashioned streets. In the same way Miss Brodie's masterful features became clear and sweet to Sandy when viewed in the curious light of the woman's folly, and she never felt more affection for her in her later years than when she thought upon Miss Brodie silly.

que voy de nuevo entre las calles, entre orichas, entre el calor oscuro y corpulento, entre los colegiales que declaman Martí, entre los automóviles, entre los nichos, entre mamparas, entre la Plaza del pueblo, entre los negros, entre guardacantones, entre los parques, entre la ciudad vieja, entre el viejo viejo Cerro, entre mi Catedral, entre mi puerto aquí vuelvo a decír: amor, ciudad atribuída (de Amor, Ciudad Atribuída)

quién oye el sueño de mi boca maldita para quién hablo, qué oído dirá sí a mis palabras (de Amor, Ciudad Atribuída)

La noche de la ciudad no tenía el brillo de la luna o de las estrellas; solo algunos retazos de luz amarillenta procedente de los escaparates se reflejaban en el pavimento, tornando la oscuridad todavía más negra.

Pieces of a living city cannot be auctioned off without taking into consideration that there are indigenous traditions, even if they seem odd to foreigners … . But these are our traditions and our city. For a long time we lived under the dictatorship of the Communists, but now we have found out that life under the dictatorship of business people is no better. They couldn't care less about what country they are in. —Grigory Gorin, Russian writer, 19931

Oh dear, Laurence said; he felt rather awkward explaining that the main attraction was the abundance of harbor prostitutes and cheap liquor. Well, a city has a great many people in it, and thus various entertainments provided in close proximity, he tried. Do you mean such as more books? Temeraire said.

I stood panting with my hands clenched at my sides, still ringing head-to-foot, and said, Is that magic enough to put me on the list? Or do you want to see more? They stared at me, and in the silence I heard shouts outside in the courtyard, running feet. The guards were looking in with their hands on their sword-hilts, and I realized I'd just shaken the king's castle, in the king's city, and shouted at the highest wizards of the land.

When my father was growing up inside the Old City of Jerusalem, he and his friends liked to trade desserts after diner.

The women streamed out of the auditorium with old or new friends, heading toward drinks or a nighttime walk, or to the Tube together, in the endlessly exciting, inviting city. I still have a picture from that last day of the old world.