For centuries, London has been the focus and inspiration for writers, poets and designers, each with their own unique view of the city. The capital is crammed full of history and has been home to some of the most infamous characters both past and present. In homage to the coolest city in the world (we’re biased of course) we have compiled our top 25 London quotes. Funny, true and a little harsh in places (we’re looking at you, Fran Lebowitz), they sum up our city down to a tee
Read our top 25 London quotes below:
1. “If you’re curious, London’s an amazing place.” – David Bailey
2. “London: a place you go to get bronchitis.” – Fran Lebowitz
3. “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
4. “I love the free spirit in London.” – Carine Roitfeld
5. “I was 14 when I started modelling. At the end of that first day my mum said, if you want to do this, you’re on your own because I’m not traipsing around London ever again like that. It’s a nightmare.” – Kate Moss
6. “Nothing is certain in London but expense.” – William Shenstone
7. “London, thou art the flower of cities all!” – William Dunbar
8. “Whenever I go to bars in London, people send me over Cosmopolitans. It’s a very sweet gesture, but I don’t like them, so they just sit there.” – Kim Cattrall
9. “Flowers are as common in the country as people are in London.” – Oscar Wilde
10. “Nobody is healthy in London, nobody can be.” – Jane Austen
11. “By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show.” – Samuel Johnson
12. “In London, love and scandal are considered the best sweeteners of tea.” – John Osborne
13. “I would rather start out somewhere small, like London or England.” – Britney Spears
14. “I thought of Paris as a beauty spot on the face of the earth, and of London as a big freckle.” – James Weldon Johnson
15. “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.” – Samuel Johnson
16. “I don’t come from any great culinary tradition – I’m from London!” – Arthur Potts Dawson
17. “London is a riddle. Paris is an explanation.” – G. K. Chesterson
18. “I don’t know what London’s coming to — the higher the buildings the lower the morals.” – Noël Coward
19. “Do you realise that people die of boredom in London suburbs? It’s the second biggest cause of death amongst the English in general. Sheer boredom…” – Alexander McCall Smith
20. “Paris is a woman but London is an independent man puffing his pipe in a pub.” – Jack Kerouac, Lonesome Traveler
21. “London and Fog! When these two come together, it is time to be a writer!” – Mehmet Murat Ildan
22. “I want you to know that I have nothing against Orlando, though you are, of course, far more likely to get shot or robbed there than in London.” – Boris Johnson
23. “This is life, in all its gruesome, lovely, neon-lit glory.” – Nuala Casey
24. “It was a rule of London life that anybody could be anybody.” – John Lanchesterter
25. “In a town like London there are always plenty of not quite certifiable lunatics walking the streets, and they tend to gravitate towards bookshops, because a bookshop is one of the few places where you can hang about for a long time without spending any money.” – George Orwell
