Looking for some lovely London quotes? Here’s my personalized roundup of all the London quotes that make you fall in love with the city all over again. Enjoy!
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If you follow me on Instagram, you know I love my quotes. Every day I share my favorite and when it comes to London, I’ve got a few. 29 to be exact. From movies to books, poems, and everything in between, Londoners have a lot to say about this city.
It’s magical, it’s chaotic, it’s charming, it’s home, and within a few months of being a Londoner I instantly fell for the Big Smoke. Four years later here are all the London quotes that bring the city to life for me. From profound to witty they embody London to a T. I hope you fall in love with London and these quotes as much as I have.
1. “The vibe of London as a city is captivating. It’s both fast-paced and extremely rushed but still has the calmness that would attract any big-city person.”
Ali Fazal
2. “There are two places in the world where men can most effectively disappear — the city of London and the South Seas.”
Herman Melville
3. “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
4. “The man who can dominate a London dinner table can dominate the world.”
Oscar Wilde
5. “It is not the walls that make the city, but the people who live within them. The walls of London may be battered, but the spirit of the Londoner stands resolute and undismayed.”
George VI
6. “I’ve been walking about London for the last 30 years, and I find something fresh in it every day.”
Walter Besant
7. “One of the the things I most liked about the city – apart from all its obvious attractions, the theatre, the galleries, the exhilarating walks by the river – was that so few people ever asked you personal questions.”
Julia Gregson
8. “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
9. “The English language is like London: proudly barbaric yet deeply civilised, too, common yet royal, vulgar yet processional, sacred yet profane.”
Stephen Fry
10. “In London, everyone is different, and that means anyone can fit in.”
Paddington Bear
11. “London is a bad habit one hates to lose.”
William Sansom
12. “Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, 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
13. “In this city 300 languages are spoken and the people that speak them live side by side in harmony. This city typifies what I believe is the future of the human race and a future where we grow together and we share and we learn from each other.”
Ken Livingston
14. “Oh, I love London Society! It is entirely composed now of beautiful idiots and brilliant lunatics. Just what society should be.”
Oscar Wilde
15. “London is a cluster of communities, great and small, famous and unsung; a city of contrasts, a congregation of diversity.”
Roy Porter
16. “My Dad says that being a Londoner has nothing to do with where you’re born. He says that there are people who get off a jumbo jet at Heathrow, go through immigration waving any kind of passport, hop on the tube and by the time the train’s pulled into Piccadilly Circus they’ve become a Londoner.”
Ben Aaronovitch
17. “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
18. “New York has a great energy, but London is better.”
Jaime Winstone
19. “A bad day in London is still better than a good day anywhere else.”
Unknown
20. “I like the spirit of this great London which I feel around me.”
Charlotte Brontë
21. “To walk alone in London is the greatest rest.”
Virginia Woolf
22. “London’s greatest strength is our diversity.”
Sadiq Khan
23. “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. Mayfair to Piccadilly to Soho to the Strand.”
Anna Quindlen
24. “When exploring London, you will come across lots of excitement by chance, so try to take everything in rather than just rushing around to all of the major tourist haunts.”
Richard Branson
25. “Aesthetically, London is just beautiful; it’s a gorgeous city. The architecture, monuments, the parks, the small streets – it’s an incredible place to be”
Sara Bareilles
26. “I came to London. It had become the center of my world and I had worked hard to come to it. And I was lost.”
V. S. Naipaul
27. “London is a modern Babylon.”
Benjamin Disraeli
28. “If you’re curious, London’s an amazing place.”
David Bailey
29. “There’s nowhere else like London. Nothing at all, anywhere.”
Vivienne Westwood
I hope you loved reading these London quotes as much as I did!
Happy Londoning,
If you liked this post be sure to explore the beauty of London on the blog and read 50 reasons to love London!
