a man is tired of London

You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.


Samuel Johnson, Quoted in: James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson, 20 Sept. 1777 (1791).

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, King of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1895-1952). Broadcast, 23 Sept. 1940, to the Empire during German bomber offensive.