London Quotes: 100 BEST Quotes About London to Inspire You

With the world open for travel once again, there is no better time to visit “the Big Smoke”, the “Square Mile”, the “Swinging City”… London Town!

Whether you’re there now checking things off your London bucket list, have just returned and are looking for the perfect IG photo captions, or dreaming of your future visit, you’re in the right place.

Considering its millennia of history, it’s no surprise that there’s plenty to be said about London! “The City” leaves a lasting impression on all those that visit, and indeed on native Londoners like myself as well.

Now admittedly, not everyone has good things to say about London – but some of these quotes about the darker side of London, or the London weather, are the funniest of all!

Whether you’re looking for a little inspiration, a photo graphic, or the perfect London Instagram caption, you’ll find it in our list of the 100 best quotes about London below.

WRITTEN BY: Sophie Clapton, Born and bred Londoner.
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Quotes About London: 100 BEST London Quotes

Famous London Quotes

Kicking off this list of the best London quotes are some of the most famous. And the very first one, by wise old Paddington Bear, still remains my favourite of all the quotes about London!

1. “In London, everyone is different, and that means anyone can fit in.” – Paddington Bear
2. “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.” – Samuel Johnson
3. “There’s nowhere else like London. Nothing at all, anywhere.” – Vivienne Westwood
4. “The man who can dominate a London dinner-table can dominate the world.” – Oscar Wilde

5. “If you’re curious, London’s an amazing place.” – David Bailey
6. “London is a world by itself. We daily discover in it more new countries, and surprising singularities, than in all the universe besides.” – Thomas Brown
7. “I have often amused myself with thinking how different a place London is to different people.” – James Boswell
8. “The parks be the lungs of London.” – Charles Dickens

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London Travel Quotes

Having travelled to many different cities around the world, I can happily confirm that there really isn’t another place like London. It’s a dream destination that everyone should visit at least once in their life! The energy in the city is like no other; a vibrant blend of modernity and history, with a generous sprinkling of culture.

9. “I travel continuously, and I see many cities, but there is nowhere like London.” – Norman Foster
10. “The streets of London have their map, but our passions are uncharted. What are you going to meet if you turn this corner?” – Virginia Woolf
11. “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

12. “The interesting thing about London is that there are always stylish surprises around every corner.” – Natalie Massenet
13. “The best thing about the London Eye is the journey. It’s not like the Eiffel tower, where you get in a dark lift and come out on to a platform at the top. The trip round is as important as the view.” – Julia Barfield
14. “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
15. “London always reminds me of a brain. It is similarly convoluted and circuitous. A lot of cities, especially American ones like New York and Chicago, are laid out in straight lines. Like the circuits on computer chips, there are a lot of right angles in cities like this. But London is a glorious mess.” James Geary

Funny London Instagram Captions and Puns

Life’s too short to be serious all the time! Here are some of the best funny London quotes and puns to accompany your London Instagram photos.

16. “A bad day in London is still better than a good day anywhere else.”
17. “Stopping abruptly in central London is a heinous crime, and immediately gives the people around you permission to kick you.” – Beth O’Leary
18. “Having the Thames of my life.”
19. “Eye came, Eye saw, Eye conquered.”

20. “Money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy you a ticket to London.”
21. “LonDONE.”
22. “A person who is tired of London is not necessarily tired of life; it might be that he just can’t find a parking place.” – Paul Theroux
23. “I’m taking life one scone at a time.”

24. “Relationship status: crushing on Big Ben.”
25. “Nothing is certain in London but expense.” – William Shenstone
26. “How can you ever be late for anything in London? They have a huge clock right in the middle of the town.” – Jimmy Kimmel
27. “Visiting Buckingham Palace but I’m having a bad heir day!”

FIND MORE INSTAGRAM INSPIRATION: London’s Most Instagrammable Photo Spots

Short London Quotes and Captions for Instagram

After checking out all the best Instagram spots in London, you’ll need the perfect Instagram caption to go with it! These short but sweet London quotes make for great captions to complement those Insta-worthy moments.

28. “London is calling, so I must go.”
29. “All you need is love and a vacation in London.”
30. “Living like the royals.”
31. “Keep calm and go to London.”

32. “From London with love.”
33. “When in doubt, follow your heart to London.”
34. “Falling hard for London.”
35. “There’s no time to be bored in London.”

36. “London is always a good idea.”
37. “Here’s the hot tea from London.”
38. “London, baby!” – Joey, Friends
39. “Mind the gap.” – London Underground

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Quotes About London Weather

London is infamous for its grey, dreary weather. And its a reputation that is mostly fair – we do get a lot of rain in London. However, when the sun is shining in London it is truly one of the most magnificent of places. Even on a rainy day, there is still beauty to be seen with red phone boxes and buses adding a splash of colour against cement skies and neutral coloured buildings.

40. “Take a perfect day, add six hours of rain and fog, and you have instant London.” 
41. “The English mist is always at work like a subtle painter, and London is a vast canvas prepared for the mist to work on.” – Arthur Symons,

42. “Everything in London is quite good, apart from the weather: it’s cold and rainy there, and the winter is long.” – Sayed Kashua
43. “London is too full of fogs and serious people. Whether the fogs produce the serious people, or whether the serious people produce the fogs, I don’t know.” – Oscar Wilde
44. “I’m leaving because the weather is too good. I hate London when it’s not raining.” – Groucho Marx

London City Quotes

From its beautifully ornate historic buildings to modern architectural marvels, London is a sight to behold. The contrast of new versus old and the juxtaposition of these elements is one of the things that makes London so enthralling. These London city quotes help capture the marvel of this wondrous place.

45. “By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show.” – Samuel Johnson
46. “I’ve been walking about London for the last 30 years, and I find something fresh in it every day.” – Walter Besant
47. “In London, love and scandal are considered the best sweeteners of tea.” – John Osborne
48. “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

49. “One thing about London is that when you step out into the night, it swallows you.” – Sebastian Faulks
50. “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
51. “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
52. “To walk alone in London is the greatest rest.” – Virginia Woolf

53. “London is a bad habit one hates to lose.” – William Sansom
54. “There are two places in the world where men can most effectively disappear – the city of London and the South Seas.” – Herman Melville
55. “New York has a great energy, but London is better.” – Jaime Winstone

56. “I like the spirit of this great London which I feel around me.” – Charlotte Bronte
57. “London, with its monotonous and melancholy houses, seems like an inharmonious patchwork, as if pieced together without design. Yet it is lovable in its sprawling confusion.” – Joseph Fort Newton
58. “You will recognise, my boy, the first sign of old age: it is when you go out into the streets of London and realise for the first time how young the policemen look.” – Sir Seymour Hicks

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Quotes About London and Londoners

One of my favourite things about London is how multicultural and diverse the city is. As you walk through the city, you’re likely to hear countless different languages spoken, or even written on street signs or in shop windows. And with this you can find all the benefits of these various communities, from incredible food options to different cultural events taking place.

These quotes encapsulate the unique identities and traits of London and Londoners!

59. “London is a roost for every bird.” – Benjamin Disraeli
60. “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
61. “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
62. “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 Livingstone

63. “London is a cluster of communities, great and small, famous and unsung; a city of contrasts, a congregation of diversity.” – Roy Porter
64. “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
65. “One of 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
66. “London’s greatest strength is our diversity, and it’s wonderful to see Londoners celebrating our capital’s different traditions, determined to stand up to division.” – Sadiq Khan (Mayor of London)

67. “The English language is like London: proudly barbaric yet deeply civilised, too, common yet royal, vulgar yet processional, sacred yet profane.” -Stephen Fry
68. “In many ways, London is like a great big pinata, and everyone who lives here is like an excited, blindfolded child with a heart full of hope and a big flailing stick. Aim that stick right and London will split at the seams like a ruptured spleen, showering you with the most extraordinary places to visit, places like you won’t find anywhere else in the world. Get it wrong and the chances are you’ll lose your footing and end up in a frustrated, eyeless heap.” – Paul Carr
69. “London has now become almost like a gigantic frog! With its long tongue it draws curious insects from all over the world inside itself!” – Mehmet Murat Ildan

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Inspirational Sayings About London

Looking for a bit of London inspiration? Hopefully these inspirational London quotes will do the trick and help you realise why you need to book that trip to England’s capital city!

70. “I think London is sexy because it’s so full of eccentrics.” – Rachel Weisz
71. “London is a modern Babylon.” – Benjamin Disraeli 
72. “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

73. “Oh, I love London Society! It is entirely composed now of beautiful idiots and brilliant lunatics. Just what Society should be.” – Oscar Wilde
74. “If London is a watercolor, New York is an oil painting.” – Peter Shaffer
75. “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

76. “Fragmentarily the City is nothing, but collectively it is gigantic…” – Charlotte Riddell
77. “As to London we must console ourselves with the thought that if life outside is less poetic than it was in the days of old, inwardly its poetry is much deeper.” – Goldwin Smith
78. “Sir, if you wish to have a just notion of the magnitude of this city, you must not be satisfied with seeing its great streets and squares, but must survey the innumerable little lanes and courts. It is not in the showy evolutions of buildings, but in the multiplicity of human habitations which are crowded together, that the wonderful immensity of London consists.” – Samuel Johnson

Famous London Quotes from Books

London has provided the backdrop for many different books over the years and as such, some of the best London quotes can be found in books!

79. “Scars can come in useful. I have one myself above my left knee which is a perfect map of the London underground.” – J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
80. “The appearance presented by the streets of London an hour before sunrise, on a summer’s morning, is most striking even to the few whose unfortunate pursuits of pleasure, or scarcely less unfortunate pursuits of business, cause them to be well acquainted with the scene. There is an air of cold, solitary desolation about the noiseless streets which we are accustomed to see thronged at other times by a busy, eager crowd, and over the quiet, closely-shut buildings, which throughout the day are swarming with life and bustle, that is very impressive.” – Charles Dickens, Sketches by Boz
81. “I long to go through the crowded streets of your mighty London, to be in the midst of the whirl and rush of humanity, to share its life, its change, its death, and all that makes it what it is.” – Bram Stoker, Dracula

82. “The City seems so much more in earnest: its business, its rush, its roar are such serious things, sights and sounds. The City is getting its living – the West-End but enjoying its pleasure.” – Charlotte Bronte, Villette
83. “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.” – Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes
84. “London is a friend whom I can leave knowing without doubt that she will be the same to me when I return, to-morrow or forty years hence, and that, if I do not return, she will sing the same song to inheritors of my happy lot in future generations.” – Stella Benson, This Is The End

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Songs and Poems About London

London is a cultural hub, home to some of the best music venues and artists, as well as being at the epicentre of many a poem.

85. “Maybe it’s because I’m a Londoner / That I love London so / Maybe it’s because I’m a Londoner / That I think of her wherever I go / I get a funny feeling inside of me / Just walking up and down / Maybe it’s because I’m a Londoner / That I love London town.” – Hubert Gregg, Maybe It’s Because I’m A Londoner
86. “London, London, London town / You can toughen up or get thrown around.” – Kano, London Town
87. “You might laugh you might frown / Walkin’ round London town / Sun is in the sky oh why oh why? / Would I wanna be anywhere else.” – Lily Allen, LDN

88. “And marbled clouds go scudding by. The many-steepled London sky.” – John Betjeman, Christmas
89. “A mighty mass of brick, and smoke, and shipping, / Dirty and dusty, but as wide as eye / Could reach, with here and there a sail just skipping / In sight, then lost amidst the forestry / Of masts; a wilderness of steeples peeping / On tiptoe through their sea-coal canopy; / A huge, dun cupola, like a foolscap crown / On a fool’s head – and there is London Town.” – Lord Byron, Don Juan

Quotes About the River Thames

The River Thames is perhaps synonymous with London. However, what few realise is that it is also England’s longest river, spanning 215 miles from its source in the Cotswolds to the coast. It is a diverse ecosystem, home to a myriad of fish and other aquatic species.

It is an iconic London landmark, cutting through the sprawling city and helping to shape it. It has been intrinsically entwined with the development of the capital city, flowing through the heart of it. These London quotes reflect the River Thames’ important part in shaping the landscape of London.

90. “The Thames is no ordinary waterway, it is the golden thread of our nation’s history.” – Winston Churchill
91. “Twenty bridges from Tower to Kew – Wanted to know what the River knew, Twenty Bridges or twenty-two, For they were young, and the Thames was old. And this is the tale that River told” – Rudyard Kipling
92. “I have admired the romantic elegance of the Place de la Concorde in Paris, have felt the mystic message from a thousand glittering windows at sunset in New York, but to me the view of the London Thames from our hotel window transcends them all for utilitarian grandeur – something deeply human.” – Charlie Chaplin
93. “The Thames is liquid history.” – John Burns

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Quotes about London’s less glamorous side!

While I think London is one of the most beautiful cities in the world… plenty of others would disagree. Like Marmite, London seems to be one of those places you either love or hate!

94. “I don’t know what London’s coming to – the higher the buildings, the lower the morals.” – Noel Coward
95. “I walk to Oxford Street and climb on the number 8. It’s freezing and it starts to rain and it’s the ugliest bus I’ve ever seen, rattling down the ugliest streets, in the ugliest city, in the ugliest country, in the ugliest of all possible worlds.” – David Thewlis
96. “The truth is, that in London it is always a sickly season. Nobody is healthy in London, nobody can be.” – Jane Austen

97. “Yes, London. You know, fish, chips, cup o tea, bad food, worse weather, Mary-fucking-Poppins. London!” – Dennis Farina
98. “This melancholy London – I sometimes imagine that the souls of the lost are compelled to walk through its streets perpetually. One feels them passing like a whiff of air.” – William Butler Yeats
99. “There’s a hole in the world like a great black pit and the vermin of the world inhabit it and it’s filled with people who are filled with shit and it goes by the name of London.” – Stephen Sondheim
100. “London is like a cold dark dream sometimes.” – Jean Rhys

Final Thoughts

Although I’m biased being a local and native, I absolutely adore London. I hope that these London quotes have inspired you to visit the Big Smoke, or provided the perfect accompaniment to your London Instagram shot!

Do you have a favourite London quote on this list? Or are there any we’ve missed?! As always, leave us a comment and let us know what you think.

If you’re here planning a trip to London, you will want to check out some of our local guides as well:

• Most Instagrammable Places in London
• London’s Most Famous Streets
• Non-Touristy Things to do in London
• Ultimate London Bucket List
• 2 Days in London
• Famous London Landmarks

Before you go, don’t forget to check out our other travel quotes blogs for more inspiration:

• 130+ Sunset Captions for Instagram
• 275+ Nature Quotes and Captions for Instagram
• Road Trip Quotes to Inspire Wanderlust
• Best Mountain Quotes
• 200+ Beach Quotes
• Best Quotes About the Ocean
• 120+ Quotes About Hiking

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