CITIES HAVE THE CAPABILITY OF PROVIDING SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE, ONLY BECASUE, AND ONLY WHEN, THEY ARE CREATED BY EVERYBODY 

— Jane Jacobs

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 IT PEOPLE DO NOT HAVE A DIRECT BODILY OR KINESTHETIC RELATION TO THEIR CITY THEY WILL NEVER DEVELOP RESPONSIBLITY. THE SUSTAINABLE CITY IS NOT SO MUCH ABOUT THE ‘HARDWARE’ OF THE CITY BUT THE VERY BEHAVIOR OF THE CITY AND HOW PEOPLE TREAT THE CITY. THE SUSTRAINABLE CITY IS ABOUT BEHAVIOR AND ABOUT CREATING A SIMPLE SET OF RULES THAT EDUCATE PEOPLE TO ACT AND BEHAVE IN A SUSTAINABLE WAY. 

— Thomas Sieverts in an interview to Sustainable Cities

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 WHAT MATTERS IN CITIES… REVOLVES AROUND THE FACT THAT THEY ARE PLACES OF SOCIAL INTERACTION… CITIES ARE ESSENTIALLY DYNAMIC…POLICY FORMULATION MUST WORK WITH THIS; IT MUST NOT THINK IN TERMS OF SOME FINAL, FORMAL PLAN, NOR WORK WITH THE ASSUMPTION OF A REACHABLE PERMANENT HARMONT OF PEACE. THE ORDER OF CITIS IS A DYNAMIC AND FREQUENTLE CONFLUCTUAL – ODER. A NEW POLITIC FOR CITIES MUST BE EQUALLY FLUID AND PROCESSUAL. 

— from the book “Cities for the Many Not the Few” by Ash Amin, Doreen Massey, Nigel Thrift

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 WHAT DISTINGUISHES PUBLIC SPACE FROM MOST OTHER SPACES OF THE CITY IS ITS DIVERSITY. THIS DIVERSITY IS THE OTHER SIDE OF THE OPENNES OF THIS SPACE, THE FACT THAT IT IS NOT SHUT OFF TO SPECIFIC USES OR USERS… 

— Mats Franzen

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 CULTURAL DIVERSITY ENRICHES AND VITALISES COLLECTIVE LIFE, AND IS DESIRABLE NOT ONLY FOR MINORIT COMMUNITIES BUT ALSO FOR THE SOCIETY AS A WHOLE. IT ADDS A VALUABLE AESTHETIC DIMENSION TO SOCIETY, WIDENES THE RANGE OF MORAL SYMPHTHY AND IMAGINATION, AND ENCOURAGES CRITICAL SELF-REFLECTION… WHEN THE PUBLIC REALM PRIZES UNIFORMITY, DIVERSITY TENDS TO BE DEVALUED THROUGHOUT SOCIETY

— Professor Bhikhu Parekh on multiculturalism and the need of enhancing diversity in cities

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“Cities are the greatest expression of human civilisation. We come together in cities to live, work, play and create. Without question, cities are the primary social and economic organising units of our time.”

— Richard Florida

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“Cities and suburbs will learn to accommodate simultaneous live/work spaces for informal economies, and will learn to create the required energy from something we seem to have no problem producing – sewage and rubbish.”

— Jeanne Gang on how will life in cities be different in the next decade?

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“It is difficult to design a space that will not attract people. What is remarkable is how often this has been accomplished.”

— William H. Whyte

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The city is a fact in nature, like a cave, a run of mackerel, or an ant heap. But it is also a conscious work of art, and it holds within its communal framework many simpler and more personal forms of art.

— Lewis Mumford

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But what we have to express in expressing our cities is not to be scorned. Their intricate order – a manifestation of the freedom of countless numbers of people to make and carry out countless plans – is in many ways a great wonder.

— Jane Jacobs

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What is the city but the people?

— William Shakespeare

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A city is a place that can offer maximum freedom. Otherwise it’s incomplete.

— Ai Wei Wei