Last Updated on: 18th March 2023, 11:06 pm
Looking for the best quotes about New York?
The Big Apple has inspired some hilarious and beautiful quotes! From historians to comedians and everyone in between, it seems everyone has something to say about NYC.
So whether you’re looking for travel inspiration or New York Instagram captions, here are my favorite New York quotes!
Read next: 250 Inspirational Travel Quotes & Travel Instagram Captions
Can’t read now? Pin for later!
My Favorite Travel Booking Sites for 2023
These are my favorite companies that I use on my own travels.
Protect Your Trip via Safety Wing
Find the best city tours, day tours, bus tours, & skip-the-line tickets on GetYourGuide and Viator.
Find the best deals on hotels & vacation rentals on Booking.com.
For English-speaking private airport transfers, book through Welcome Pickups.
For road trips and independent travel, rent a car through Discover Cars.
Find information and cruise reviews on Cruise Critic.
For packing and travel essentials order via Amazon.
Book an affordable family or romantic photography session on your trip through Flytographer (Use the code HISTORYFANGIRL for 10% off your first photoshoot).
For travel guidebooks to have with you during your trip, I always pick one or two from Rick Steves and Lonely Planet.
The Best New York Quotes & New York Instagram Captions
Here are my favorite quotes about New York, including inspiration from, poems, literature, pop culture, and quotes by famous New York authors!
Beautiful New York Travel Quotes
London is satisfied, Paris is resigned, but New York is always hopeful. Always it believes that something good is about to come off, and it must hurry to meet it. –
I look out the window and I see the lights and the skyline and the people on the street rushing around looking for action, love, and the world’s greatest chocolate chip cookie, and my heart does a little dance. –
The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world. –
If a man can live in Manhattan, he can live anywhere. –
There is something in the New York air that makes sleep useless. –
People go to LA to “find themselves”, they come to New York to become someone new. –
I love New York, even though it isn’t mine, the way something has to be, a tree or a street or a house, something, anyway, that belongs to me because I belong to it. –
The most wonderful street in the universe is Broadway. It is a world within itself. High and low, rich and poor, pass along at a rate peculiar to New York, and positively bewildering to a stranger. –
A hundred times have I thought New York is a catastrophe, and fifty times: It is a beautiful catastrophe. –
You could grow up in the city where history was made and still miss it all. –
In New York, you’ve got to have all the luck. -Charles Bukowski
Each neighborhood of the city appeared to be made of a different substance, each seemed to have a different air pressure, a different psychic weight: the bright lights and shuttered shops, the housing projects and luxury hotels, the fire escapes and city parks. –
It couldn’t have happened anywhere but in little old New York. –
New York had all the iridescence of the beginning of the world. –
New York is a diamond iceberg floating in river water. –
Pull up the shades so I can see New York. I don’t want to go home in the dark. –
One belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years. –
Once you have lived in New York and it has become your home, no place else is good enough. –
If London is a watercolor, New York is an oil painting. –
Guys like you can’t escape the city. Hell, you got a blood contract with this place. You’re married to the old girl. –
As for New York City, it is a place apart. There is not its match in any other country in the world. –
There is more sophistication and less sense in New York than anywhere else on the globe. –
I’m bound to say that New York’s a topping place to be exiled in. Everybody was awfully good to me, and there seemed to be plenty of things going on, and I’m a wealthy bird, so everything was fine. –
When you leave New York you ain’t going anywhere. –
To Europe she was America. To America, she was the gateway to the earth. But to tell the story of New York would be to write a social history of the world. –
It was never built for the comfort and happiness of its citizens, but to astonish the world. –
The city is like poetry; it compresses all life, all races, and breeds, into a small island and adds music and the accompaniment of internal engines. –
Coming to New York from the muted mistiness of London, as I regularly do, is like traveling from a monochrome antique shop to a technicolor bazaar. –
The whole of New York is rebuilt about once in ten years. –
Everybody ought to have a lower East Side in their life. –
The city was different back then–poor and crumbling–kept alive only by the gritty determination and steely cynicism of its occupants.
But underneath the dirt was the apple-cheeked optimism of possibility, and while she worked, the whole city seemed to throb along with her. –
New York is large, glamorous, easy-going, kindly and incurious, but above all it is a crucible – because it is large enough to be incurious. –
Sometimes, from beyond the skyscrapers, the cry of a tugboat finds you in your insomnia, and you remember that this desert of iron and cement is an island. –
New York is to the nation what the white church spire is to the village – the visible symbol of aspiration and faith, the white plume saying the way is up. –
While America will always, I think, feel foreign to me, New York City is my home. This is where I can construct my own identity freely and reject labels imposed on me. –
I regret profoundly that I was not an American and not born in Greenwich Village. It might be dying, and there might be a lot of dirt in the air you breathe, but this is where it’s happening. –
New York City is where specks of dust aspire randomly with all their cunning to become grains of sand. –
The great city of New York wields more of the destinies of this great nation that five times the population of any other portion of the country. –
Sometimes to walk in shaded parts of Manhattan is to be inserted into a Magritte: the street is night while the sky is day. –
Don’t you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address. –
Funny Quotes About New York
I love New York. You can pop out of the Underworld in Central Park, hail a taxi, head down Fifth Avenue with a giant hellhound loping behind you, and nobody even looks at you funny. –
You haven’t lived until you died in New York. –
My dad was the town drunk. Most of the time that’s not so bad; but New York City? –
In New York, most people don’t have cars, so if you want to k**l a person, you have to take the subway to their house.
And sometimes on the way, the train is delayed and you get impatient, so you have to k**l someone on the subway.
That’s why there are so many subway mu*ders; no one has a car. –
New York, the nation’s thyroid gland. –
New York was a city where you could be frozen to death in the midst of a busy street and nobody would notice. –
New York is the biggest collection of villages in the world. –
But if I had to choose a single destination where I’d be held captive for the rest of my time in New York, I’d choose the Metropolitan Museum of Art. -Tim Gunn
I once started out
to walk around the world
but ended up in Brooklyn,
that Bridge was too much for me.
When I had a look at the lights of Broadway by night, I said to my American friends: What a glorious garden of wonders this would be, to any who was lucky enough to be unable to read. –
If you live in New York, even if you’re Catholic, you’re Jewish. –
On a New York subway, you get fined for spitting, but you can throw up for nothing. –
I knew I couldn’t live in America and I wasn’t ready to move to Europe so I moved to an island off the coast of America – New York City. –
New York – The city where the people from Oshkosh look at the people from Dubuque in the next theater seats and say “These New Yorkers don’t dress any better than we do. –
New York is the only city in the world where you can get run down on the sidewalk by a pedestrian. –
Brooklyn was like Philadelphia made better by its proximity to Manhattan. –
New York is strange in the summer. Life goes on as usual but it’s not, it’s like everyone is just pretending as if everyone has been cast as the star in a movie about their life, so they’re one step removed from it.
And then in September, it all gets normal again. –
New York is a sucked orange. –
New York City has finally hired women to pick up the garbage, which makes sense to me, since, as I’ve discovered, a good bit of being a woman consists of picking up garbage. –
I moved to New York City for my health. I’m paranoid and it was the only place where my fears were justified. –
To people from ‘Brooklyn-Brooklyn,’ North Brooklyn is really just South Queens. –
Central Park is the grandiose symbol of the front yard each child in New York hasn’t got. –
Skyscraper National Park –
It’s a city where everybody mutinies but no one deserts. –
I had enough electricity in my booty to jump-start the whole of New York City. –
It’ll be a great place if they ever finish it. –
If one is looking for cultural testosterone and raging off-the-wall competition in the world of communications, Manhattan was – and is – home plate. –
Manhattan in the morning is a living stream of Purpose; everyone’s got a place to be and a problem on their mind.
That doesn’t mean it’s an unfriendly place — just busy and preoccupied. Personally, I love it.
I’m a social creature but there are times and places you just don’t want to do more than grunt at your fellow human being. -L
Quotes About New Yorkers
The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding. –
This is the city, and I am one of the citizens/Whatever interests the rest interests me –
Anytime four New Yorkers get into a cab together without arguing, a bank robbery has just taken place. -Johnny Carson
True New Yorkers do not really seek information about the outside world. They feel that if anything is not in New York it is not likely to be interesting. –
Every true New Yorker believes with all his heart that when a New Yorker is tired of New York, he is tired of life. –
People in New York love having roof parties. -Todd Barry
Yet, as only New Yorkers know, if you can get through the twilight, you’ll live through the night. –
You can do what you like, sir, but I’ll tell you this. New York is the true capital of America. Every New Yorker knows it, and by God, we always shall. –
I believe in New Yorkers. Whether they’ve ever questioned the dream in which they live, I wouldn’t know, because I won’t ever dare ask that question. -Dylan Thomas
My favorite thing about New York is the people because I think they’re misunderstood. I don’t think people realize how kind New York people are. -Bill Murray
Critics in New York are made by their dislikes, not by their enthusiasm. –
Practically everybody in New York has half a mind to write a book -and does. –
When I was younger, I had wanted to be at the very center of all the action in New York, but I slowly came to realize that there is no one center.
The center is everywhere – wherever people are living out their lives. It’s a city with a million centers. –
Quotes About Not Liking New York
I hate Brooklyn. –
New York is appalling, fantastically charmless and elaborately dire. –
New York makes one think of the collapse of civilization, about Sodom and Gomorrah, the end of the world.
The end wouldn’t come as a surprise here. Many people already bank on it. –
New York: A third-rate Babylon. –
New York City is a great monument to the power of money and greed… a race for rent. -Frank Lloyd Wright
Vulgar of manner, overfed,
Overdressed and underbred;
Heartless, Godless, hell’s delight,
Rude by day and lewd by night…
Crazed with avarice, lust and rum,
New York, thy name’s delirium.
The city is the size of a country but has been operated like a candy store. –
New York is a different country. Maybe it ought to have a separate government. Everybody thinks differently, they just don’t know what the hell the rest of the United States is. –
New York makes one think of the collapse of civilization, about Sodom and Gomorrah, the end of the world. The end wouldn’t come as a surprise here. Many people already bank on it. –
My one thought is to get out of New York, to experience something genuinely American. –
New York – that unnatural city where everyone is an exile, none more so than the American. –
The Bronx? No Thonx! –
Song Lyrics About New York
Give my regards to Broadway,
Remember me to Herald Square,
Tell all the gang at 42nd Street,
That I will soon be there; Whisper of how I’m yearning
To mingle with the old-time throng,
Give my regards to old Broadway,
And say that I’ll be there e’er long.
Yeah, I’m up at Brooklyn, now I’m down in Tribeca
Right next to DeNiro, but I’ll be hood forever
I’m the new Sinatra and since I made it here
I can make it anywhere, yeah, they love me everywhere
-Jay-Z
Hey, I’ve got nothing to do today but smile.
Da-n-do-da-n-do-da-n-do here I am,
The only living boy in New York.
Half of the time we’re gone but we don’t know where,
And we don’t know where.
-Simon & Garfunkel
See me age 19 with some dumb haircut from
1960 moving to New York City
Live with my friends there
we’re all taking the same steps
seems foolish now.
We’ve been had you say it’s over.
Sometimes I’m just happy I’m older.
We’ve been had I know it’s over.
Somehow it got easy to laugh out loud.
-The Walkmen
Well nobody came to bug us,
Hustle us or shove us
So we decided to make it
Our home
If the man wants to shove
Us out
We gonna jump and shout
The Statue of Liberty said,
“Come!”
-John Lennon
New York isn’t New York
Without you, love
-St. Vincent
Little Joe never once gave it away
Everybody had to pay and pay
A hustle here and a hustle there
New York City’s the place
Where they said, “Hey, babe,
Take a walk on the wild side.”
-Lou Reed
Start spreading the news
You’re leaving today (tell him, friend)
I want to be a part of it, New York, New York
Your vagabond shoes, they are longing to stray
And steps around the heart of it, New York, New York
-Frank Sinatra
Love Travel Quotes?
I’m a little obsessed with travel quotes. If you are too, check out this massive guide to 250 Inspirational Travel Quotes & Travel Instagram Captions, plus:
101 Gorgeous Quotes About California & Fabulous California Instagram Captions
50 Stunning Hawaii Quotes & Hawaii Instagram Caption Inspiration
50 Awesome Las Vegas Quotes & Las Vegas Instagram Caption Inspiration
30 Beautiful Chicago Quotes & Chicago Instagram Caption Inspiration
5 Things to Pack for Your Trip to New York
The Lonely Planet New York guidebook. It can be kind of a pain to find the major guidebooks once you land, or you’ll find them overpriced. I always like to pick mine up ahead of time.
An Unlocked Cell Phone so that you can use a local sim card while here to help navigate public transportation and when you’re on the road. (For people without American cell phone plans).
Backup Charging Bank for your cell phone since you’ll be using it as a camera, GPS system, and general travel genie.
A Camera since New York is super photogenic. I use a mix of my Nikon D810 and my Samsung8 smartphone these days.
A Great Day Bag so you can carry what you need with you (like your camera, snacks, water, sunscreen, cash, etc).
My current favorite is the Pacsafe Citysafe, which is especially great for New York because it has many anti-theft features designed to deter pickpockets.
It also transitions to a night bag more easily and won’t embarrass you if you go to dinner directly after sightseeing all day.
More New York Travel Resources
Headed to New York? Check out my guides to renting a car in NYC, my Hamilton-inspired list of things to do in New York, and how to visit the Statue of Liberty.
I also have podcast episodes on the history of Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge, and Penn Station for you to listen to before (or during) your trip!
Don’t Forget About Travel Insurance!
Before you leave for New York make sure you have a valid Travel Insurance Policy because accidents happen on the road.
I pay for World Nomads, and I happily recommend them. It’s especially important to get travel insurance if you’ll be hanging enjoying time in big cities like NYC.
I have been a paying customer of World Nomads for travel insurance for three years, and I happily recommend them.
If you get sick, injured, or have your stuff stolen, you’ll be happy to have the ability to pay for your medical bills or replace what’s stolen or broken.
Get a travel insurance quote for your trip.
Pin this guide to the Best Quotes about New York & New York Instagram Captions for Your Trip!
