Famous Urban Planning Quotes
Also see Big Ideas, Free Tools, and Country Stroads!
Urban
Planning
Quotes
The Fun Ones
Top Ten Urban Planning Quotes
10 A suburb is where they cut all the trees to build houses, then name the streets after trees. --Bill Vaughn
9 The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit. - Nelson Henderson
8 Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell. --Edward Abbey
7 Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood. --Daniel H. Burnham, architect
6 Always plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark. --Richard Cushing
5 A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. --Jesus
4 By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail. --Benjamin Franklin
3 Where there is no vision, the people perish. --Proverbs 29:18
2 Begin with the End in mind. --Stephen R. Covey
1 Today's problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them. --Albert Einstein
Fun Urban Planning Quotes
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BANANAS! Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything!
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There's a simple solution to our traffic problems. We'll have business build the roads,
and government build the cars. --Will Rogers -
The good thing about small cars is that you can fit twice as many into a traffic jam.
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Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for. --Will Rogers
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A plan that everyone dislikes for different reasons is a success. A plan everyone dislikes for the same reason is a failure. A plan that everyone likes for the same reason is an act of God! --Richard Carson
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Every public action which is not customary, either is wrong or, if it is right, is a dangerous precedent. It follows that nothing should ever be done for the first time. --F.M. Cornford
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Always plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark. --Richard Cushing
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Good judgment is the result of experience. Experience is frequently the result of bad judgment. --Robert Lovett
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The suburb is a place where someone cuts down all the trees to build houses,
and then names the streets after the trees. --Bill Vaughn -
Democrats say government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. Republicans say government doesn't work, and then they get elected and prove it. - P.J. O'Rourke
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Prediction is difficult, especially about the future. - Yogi Berra
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The future isn’t what it used to be. –Yogi Berra (originally Paul Valery)
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The home is where part of the family waits until the others are through with the car. - Herbert Prochnow
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The thing generally raised on city land is taxes. - Charles Dudley Warner
Yogi Berra Quotes - Planning Related
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When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
(Fork in the road... now there's a traffic calming idea!) -
No one goes there nowadays, it’s too crowded.
(Congestion - a sign of success!) -
The future ain’t what it used to be.
(Travel demand modelers often over-estimate future congestion) -
You can observe a lot by just watching.
(Slow down, take a walk, create "Places" that are worth seeing!) -
It ain’t over till it’s over.
(Keep going! Someday sustainable development will be the norm) -
It’s like déjà vu all over again.
(Pre-WWII urbanism is coming back, because it was good!) -
Baseball is 90% mental and the other half is physical.
(Cities would do well to invest in solid planning, or the physical result will suffer) -
So I’m ugly. I never saw anyone hit with his face.
(Get bang for your buck - avoid gold-plated "ribbon-cutting" projects). -
Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets.
(Stroads keep all people off the streets - so sad!) -
If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be.
(Don't over do it: Encourage incremental urbanism, variety, mix of rich and poor, organic growth - real life!) -
Slump? I ain’t in no slump… I just ain’t hitting.
(Consultants on a losing streak... Stay in the game!) -
If you ask me anything I don’t know, I’m not going to answer.
(People trust what you say that you know... when you quickly admit what you don't know). -
If I didn’t make it in baseball, I won’t have made it workin’. I didn’t like to work.
(If you love what you do, you can be great!) -
A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.
(Stroads and "big" killed downtown's nickel arcades and a lot of other cool urban things) -
I never said most of the things I said.
(Don't blame anyone for bad urbanism. They wouldn't admit it anyway. Just fix it!)