London

   All of London littered with remembered kisses.

—MacNeice, (Frederick) Louis

So poetry, which is in Oxford made An art, in London only is a trade.

—Dryden,John

  Pitt is to Addington As London is to Paddington.

—Canning, George

The deceased Gentlemanwas, weare informed, a native of Ashbourn, Derbyshire, at which place he was born in theYear of Grace, 217, and was consequently in the 1643rd year of his age. For some months the patriotic Old Man had been suffering from injuries sustained in his native town, so far back as Shrovetide in last year; he was at once removed (byappeal) to London, where he lingered in suspense till the law of death put its icy hand upon him, and claimed as another trophy to magisterial interference one who had long lived in the hearts of the people.

—Anonymous

Avery fine city; the four principal streets are the fairest for breadth, and the finest built that I have ever seen in one city together† In a word,'tis the cleanest and beautifullest, and best built city in Britain, London excepted.

—Defoe, Daniel

I think†that it is the best club in London.

—Dickens, CharlesJohn Huffam

Cam ye ower frae France? Cam ye doun by Lunnon? Saw ye Geordie Whelps And his bonnie woman? Were ye at the place Ca'd the Kittle Housie? Saw ye Geordie's grace Ridin'on a goosie?

—Anonymous

Unreal City, Under the brown fog of a winter dawn, A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many, I had not thought death had undone so many.

—Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)

The dependence of London on Washington for the supplyof our so-called independent nuclear weaponsis all that remains of the'special relationship'and†it is reallya ball and chainlimitingourcapacity toplaya more positive role in the world. See Churchill 217:93.

—Benn,Tony (Anthony Neil Wedgwood)

Si nolueris habitare cum turpidis, non habitatis Londonie. If you do not want to live among wicked people, do not live in London.

—Richard of Devizes   fl.c.1190

Go down to Kew in lilac-time (it isn't far from London!) And you shall wander hand in hand with love in summer's wonderland.

—Noyes, Alfred

A foggy day in LondonTown Had me low and had me down.

—Gershwin, Ira originally Israel Gershowitz

He sipped at the weak hock and seltzer As he gazed at the London skies Through the Nottingham lace of the curtains Or was it his bees-winged eyes?

—Betjeman, SirJohn

Hell is a city much like Londonö A populous and smoky city.

—Shelley, Percy Bysshe

If a man bring to London an ounce of Silver out of the Earth in Peru in the same time that he can produce a bushel of Corn, then one isthe natural price of the other.

—Petty, Sir William

The most striking of all the impressions that I have formed since I left London a month ago is of the strength of African national consciousness. In different places it may take different forms, but it is happening everywhere. The wind of change is blowing through this continent.Whether we like it or not, the growth of national consciousness is a political fact.

—Stockton

A man who, until he made the journey from London, thought that woad began at Watford.

—Talbot, Godfrey Walker

The Knight in the triumph of his heart made several 6 reflections on thegreatness of the British Nation; as, that one Englishman could beat three Frenchmen; that we could never be in danger of Popery so long as we took care of our fleet; that theThames was thenoblest river in Europe; that London Bridge was a greater piece of work than any of the Seven Wonders of the World; with many other honest prejudices which naturally cleave to the heart of a true Englishman.

—Addison,Joseph

London, hast thou accused me Of breach of laws, the root of strife? Within whose breast did boil to see, So fervent hot, thy dissolute life, That even the hate of sins that grow Within thy wicked walls so rife, For to break forth did convert so That terror could it not repress.

—Surrey, Henry Howard, Earl of

London is a modern Babylon.

—Disraeli, Benjamin, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield

London is enchanting. I step out upon a tawny coloured magic carpet, it seems, and get carried into beauty without raising a finger† People pop in and out, lightly, divertingly like rabbits; and I look down Southampton Row, wet as a seal's back or red and yellow with sunshine, and watch the omnibuses going and coming and hear the old crazy organs.One of these days I will write about London, and how it takes up the private life and carries it on, without any effort.

—Woolf, (Adeline) Virginia ne¤  e Stephen

†the Metropolis of Great-Britain, founded before the City of Rome, walled by Constantine the Great, no ways inferior to the greatest in Europe for Riches and Greatness.

—Bailey, Nathan   d.1742

Who can tell without instruction what is likely to be the effect of thenew loans of England toforeignnations? We press upon half-finished and half-civilized communities incalculable sums; we are to them what the London money-dealers are to students at Oxford and Cambridge.

—Bagehot,Walter

I thought of London spread out in the sun, Its postal districts packed like squares of wheat.

—Larkin, Philip Arthur

London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained.

—Doyle, SirArthur Conan

London, that great sea, whose ebb and flow At once is deaf and loud, and on the shore Vomits its wrecks, and still howls on for more.

—Shelley, Percy Bysshe

   London, thou art of townes A per se. Soveraign of cities, someliest in sight, Of high renoun, riches, and royaltie; Of lordis, barons, and many goodly knyght; Of most delectable lusty ladies bright; Of famous prelatis in habitis clericall; Of merchauntis full of sybstaunce and myght; London, thou art the flour of Cities all.

—Dumas, Alexandre, pe'  re

Why should it take three times longer to elect a Mayor for London as it does to set up an entire Scottish Parliament?

—Waterhouse, Keith Spencer

It is my belief,Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.

—Doyle, SirArthur Conan

In a word, man in London is not quite so good a creature as he is out of it.

—Galt,John

The problem is that many MPs never see the London that exists beyond the wine bars and brothels of Westminster.

—Livingstone, Ken

Imust have a London audience.I could never preach, but to the educated; to those who were capable of estimating my composition.

—Austen,Jane

I have been assured by a very knowing American of my Acquaintance in London; that a young healthy Child, well nursed, is, at aYearold, a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome Food; whether Stewed,Roasted,Baked, or Boiled; and,I make no doubt, that it will equally serve in a Fricassee, or a Ragout.

—Swift,Jonathan

No foteball player be used or suffered within the City of London and the liberties thereof upon pain of imprisonment.

—Elizabeth I

You will recognize, my boy, the first sign of old age: it is when you go out into the streets of London and realize for the first time how young the policemen look.

—Hicks, Sir Edward Seymour

   A duller spectaclethis earth of ourshas not toshow than a rainy Sunday in London.

—Depp,Johnny (John Christopher)

Would you rather live in lively London or where a young penguin lies screaming?

—Ewart, Gavin Buchanan

'I dinna ken muckle about the law,'answered Mrs Howden; 'but I ken, when we had a king, and a chancellor, and parliament-men o'our ain, we could aye peeble them wi'stanes when they werena gude bairnsöBut naebody's nails can reach the length o' Lunnon.'

—Scott, Sir Walter

[Travel] preservesmy young noblemanfromsurfeiting of hisparents,andweanshimfroma dangerousfondness of his mother. It teacheth him wholesome hardship† Whereas the country gentleman that never travelled, can scarce go to London without making his will, at least without wetting his handkerchief.

—Lassels, Richard

You will hear more good things on the outside of a stagecoach from London to Oxford than if you were to pass a twelvemonth with the undergraduates, or heads of colleges, of that famous university.

—Hazlitt,William

This is a London particular† A fog, miss.

—Dickens, CharlesJohn Huffam

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

—Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson

How long would it take a school-inspector of average activity to tumble head over heels from London toYork?

—Kingsley, Charles

  He who drinks a tumbler of London Water has literally in his stomach more animated beings than there are men, Women and Children on the face of the globe.

—Smith, Rev Sydney

Si inuenissem emptorum, Londoniam uendidissem. If I could have found a buyer I would have sold London itself.

—Richard I known as  'the Lionheart'