Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Cities
Smyrna, Rhodos, Colophon, Salamis, Chios, Argos, Athenæ,
Hæ septem certant de stirpe insignis Homeri.
Smyrna, Rhodes, Colophon, Salamis, Chios, Argos, Athens—these seven cities contend as to being the birthplace of the illustrious Homer. (The second line sometimes runs “Orbis de patria certat, Homere, tua.”)
Anon. Tr. from Greek. Same in Antipater of Sidon.
A rose-red city half as old as Time.
John W. Burgon—Petra. See Libbey and Hoskins—Jordan Valley and Petia.
I live not in myself, but I become
Portion of that around me; and to me
High mountains are a feeling, but the hum
Of human cities torture.
Byron—Childe Harold. Canto III. St. 72.
This poor little one-horse town.
S. L. Clemens—The Undertaker’s Story.
God made the country, and man made the town.
Cowper—The Task. Bk. I. L. 749.
The first requisite to happiness is that a man be born in a famous city.
Euripides—Encomium on Alcibiades. (Probably quoted.) See Plutarch—Life of Demosthenes.
In the busy haunts of men.
Felicia D. Hemans—Tale of the Secret Tribunal. Pt. I. L. 2.
Seven cities warr’d for Homer being dead,
Who living had no roofe to shroud his head.
Thos. Heywood—Hierarchie of the Blessed Angells.
The axis of the earth sticks out visibly through the centre of each and every town or city.
Holmes—The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. VI.
Far from gay cities, and the ways of men.
Homer—Odyssey. Bk. 14. L. 410. Pope’s trans.
Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum.
Every man cannot go to Corinth.
Horace—Epistles. I. 17. 36.
Even cities have their graves!
Longfellow—Amalfi. St. 6.
Friends and loves we have none, nor wealth, nor blest abode
But the hope, the burning hope, and the road, the lonely road.
Not for us are content, and quiet, and peace of mind,
For we go seeking cities that we shall never find.
Masefield—The Seekers.
Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.
Matthew. V. 14.
Towered cities please us then,
And the busy hum of men.
Milton—L’Allegro. L. 117.
Nisi Dominus frustra.
Unless the Lord keep the city the watchman waketh in vain (lit., unless the Lord in vain).
Motto of City of Edinburgh, adapted from Psalms. CVII. 1. Vulgate.
Fields and trees are not willing to teach me anything; but this can be effected by men residing in the city.
Plato—Works. Vol. III. The Phædrus.
I dwelt in a city enchanted,
And lonely indeed was my lot;
*****
Though the latitude’s rather uncertain,
And the longitude also is vague,
The persons I pity who know not the City
The beautiful City of Prague.
W. J. Prowse—The City of Prague. (“Little Village on Thames.”)
Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion,… the city of the great King.
Psalms. XLVIII. 2.
Petite ville, grand renom.
Small town, great renown.
Rabelais—Pantagruel. Bk. V. Ch. XXXV. Of Chinon, Rabelais’s native town.
The people are the city.
Coriolanus. Act III. Sc. 1. L. 200.
Great Homer’s birthplace seven rival cities claim,
Too mighty such monopoly of Fame.
Thomas Seward—On Shakespeare’s Monument at Stratford-upon-Avon.
Urbem lateritiam accepit, mamoream relinquit.
He [Cæsar Augustus] found a city built of brick; he left it built of marble.
Suetonius. (Adapted.) Cæsar Augustus. 28.
The city of dreadful night.
James Thomson—Current Literature for 1889. P. 492.
Divina natura dedit agros, ars humana ædificavit urbes.
Divine Nature gave the fields, human art built the cities.
Varro—De Re Rustica. III. 1.
Fuimus Troes; fuit Ilium.
We have been Trojans; Troy was.
Vergil—Æneid. II. 324.