Quotes about the city in ancient and medieval times
“Men gather in cities to live. They stay there together to enjoy life Aristotle (384-322 BC).
“Two loves have thus made two cities: love of self to the point of contempt for God, the earthly city; love of God to the point of contempt for self, the heavenly city.” – Saint Augustine, The City of God
Quote on the city in the modern era
“The Utopians apply in this the principle of common possession. To destroy even the idea of individual and absolute property, they change houses every ten years, and draw lots for the one that is to be shared with them.” — Thomas More, Utopia
Quotes on the city in the contemporary era
“It is in the midst of this foul cesspool that the greatest river of human industry has its source and will fertilize the universe – Alexis de Tocqueville, Complete Works: Travels in England, Ireland, Switzerland and Algeria
“Paris chewed up its two million inhabitants. It was like a great central organ beating furiously, throwing the blood of life into every vein.” Émile Zola, The Belly of Paris.
“New York is a standing city.” — Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Journey to the End of the Night
“The greatest division of material and intellectual labor is the separation of the city and country – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The German Ideology, 1845-46
“The city was born with the road” – Georges Duby
« By opposing the traditional layout of the villages, the missionaries destroy everything » – Claude Lévi-Strauss
“Men] inscribe invisible signs throughout their daily journey that end up physically modifying the architecture of the city itself.” — Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities, 1972
“Since cities are consumers rather than producers of men, the value of human life and the social esteem of personality will not be without an impact from the balance between births and deaths.” — Louis Wirth
“As the years go by, every area, every neighborhood in the city acquires something of the character and qualities of its inhabitants.” — Robert Ezra Park, The City, a proposal for research on human behavior in urban areas
“there were many hunters in Cadenet, but, for some of the new inhabitants, ‘killing animals is not good’.” – Jean-Pierre le Goff
→ General Knowledge Quotes
