London is one of the world’s great cities—a source of inspiration to generations of poets, novelists, journalists, and commentators who have visited or called it home. Be it praise or colorful invective, everyone, it seems, has something to say about the city and this slender volume—filled with wise, witty, and sometimes scandalous quotes—presents the full range of impressions it has made.
Some London Quotations
“Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“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, or is sick of being overcharged.”
—Paul Theroux (b. 1941)
“London; a nation, not a city.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)
“Go where we may—rest where we will,
Eternal London haunts us still.”
—Thomas Moore (1779–1852)
“I love London Society! I think it has immensely improved. It is entirely composed now of beautiful idiots and brilliant lunatics. Just what Society should be.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“I don’t know what London’s coming to—the higher the buildings the lower the morals.”
—Noël Coward (1899–1973)
“The truth is, that in London it is always a sickly season. Nobody is healthy in London, nobody can be.”
—Jane Austen (1775–1817)
“To a lover of books, the shops and sales in London present irresistible temptations.”
—Edward Gibbon (1737–1794)
“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. It is Infinite London.”
—Peter Ackroyd (b. 1949)
“Nothing is certain in London but expense.”
—William Shenstone (1714–1763)
“I had been in London innumerable times, and yet till that day I had never noticed one of the worst things about London—the fact that it costs money even to sit down.”
—George Orwell (1903–1950)
Copyright notice: Excerpted from London in Quotations compiled by Jaqueline Mitchell, distributed by the University of Chicago Press for Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. ©2014 by Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. All rights reserved. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that this entire notice, including copyright information, is carried and provided that the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford is notified and no fee is charged for access. Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the University of Chicago Press. (Footnotes and other references included in the book may have been removed from this online version of the text.)