Best Quotes About London
Are you looking for the best quotes about London?
London is one of the most iconic cities in the world. It brings to mind images like Big Ben and Tower Bridge, bearskin-capped guards at Buckingham Palace, and shiny red double-decker buses. But beyond the classic tourist attractions, London is a sprawling and diverse city that has so much to offer.
Dozens of distinct neighborhoods, world-class museums and cultural institutions, some of the most beautiful city parks in the world, and incredible restaurants and shopping are just some of the things you’ll find in London. You could spend a lifetime here and still only scratch the surface of this city.
It’s a city that has had a huge impact on the arts, particularly literature and theatre. Countless famous writers have called London home, from William Shakespeare to Charles Dickens to Virginia Woolf.
And don’t even get me started on music. London has provided the world with some of its greatest bands and artists, including The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Pink Floyd, Coldplay, Adele, Amy Winehouse, Elton John… the list of London’s musical talent goes on and on.
London is a city that took me a while to warm up to. In fact, I still have a love-hate relationship with London. It reminds me of New York in some ways and yet it’s also completely different. I think that having mixed feelings about this city, which is nicknamed the Big Smoke, is pretty common.
It can be a difficult city but also an incredible one unlike any other place in the world.
If you’re looking for some inspiration, check out these great London quotes:
Short Quotes About London
Looking for some short quotes about the city? Check out these snappy sayings about London.
“London is a bad habit one hates to lose.” – William Sansom
“London is a modern Babylon.” – Benjamin Disraeli
“To walk alone in London is the greatest rest.” – Virginia Woolf
“If you’re curious, London’s an amazing place.” – David Bailey
“London is a roost for every bird.” – Benjamin Franklin
“London is a city of endless possibility and endless charm.” – Bill Bryson
“When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.” – Samuel Johnson
“London is a city that’s always looking forward, and yet its past is always present.” – Jerry White
“London is a city perpetually creating itself out of chaos.” – A. S. Byatt
“London, thou art the flower of cities all!” – William Dunbar
“In London, everyone is different, and that means anyone can fit in.” – Paddington Bear
“London is a city that has reinvented itself more often than any other.” – Lindsey Kelk
“London is a city of contradiction and chaos, but that’s what makes it so thrilling and alive.” – Emma Watson
“I’ve been walking about London for the last 30 years, and I find something fresh in it every day.” – Walter Besant
“London is a collection of villages, each with its own character and charm.” – Roy Ayers
“The man who can dominate a London dinner table can dominate the world.” – Oscar Wilde
Long Quotes About London
Looking for some longer quotes about the Big Smoke? Here are a series of sentiments from various writers throughout history expressing what makes London such an unparalleled city.
“London goes beyond any boundary or convention. It contains every wish or word ever spoken, every action or gesture ever made, every harsh or noble statement ever expressed. It is illimitable.” – Peter Ackroyd
“London opens to you like a novel itself… It is divided into chapters, the chapters into scenes, the scenes into sentences; it opens to you like a series of rooms, doors and passages.” – Anna Quindlen
“London is a city of ghosts. Everywhere you turn, you are reminded of the lives that came before, of the people who once walked these streets.” – Jennifer Donnelly
“It is difficult to speak adequately or justly of London. It is not a pleasant place; it is not agreeable, or cheerful, or easy, or exempt from reproach. It is only magnificent.” – Henry James
“There are two places in the world where men can most effectively disappear — the city of London and the South Seas.” – Herman Melville
“The best bribe which London offers to-day to the imagination, is, that, in such a vast variety of people and conditions, one can believe there is room for persons of romantic character to exist, and that the poet, the mystic, and the hero may hope to confront their counterparts.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“I like the spirit of this great London which I feel around me. Who but a coward would pass his whole life in hamlets; and for ever abandon his faculties to the eating rust of obscurity?” – Charlotte Bronte
“A person who is tired of London is not necessarily tired of life; it might be that he just can’t find a parking place.” – Paul Theroux
“London is a friend whom I can leave knowing without doubt that she will be the same to me when I return, tomorrow or forty years hence, and that, if I do not return, she will sing the same song to inheritors of my happy lot in future generations.” – Stella Benson
Top Quotes About London
These are the best quotes about London to inspire you.
Which of these quotes is your favorite? I like the short quote from Benjamin Franklin, “London is a roost for every bird.” This shows how everyone can find their place in London and how the city has something to offer to everyone, and I love how that was true even during the 1700s when Benjamin Franklin was there.
I also really like this quote from Jerry White: “London is a city that’s always looking forward, and yet its past is always present.” Although London can feel like just another modern city at times, I love how you can turn the corner and suddenly be reminded how much history there actually is here.
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