50 Concrete Quotes to Strengthen Your Mentally

By Norbert Juma

Master quote curator and editor on a mission to inspire

Published July 10, 2023

Concrete quotes are worthy of sharing, so we have created a list of such quotes.

You can find your favorite quote by simply going through our list.

In addition to the quotes section, we have also talked about concrete and the reasons for its popularity in the construction industry.

So, let’s start!

What is Concrete?

Concrete is a popular construction material used in the construction industry.

It serves as the primary material for building a solid structure for commercial or residential buildings.

Concrete consists of different ingredients like cement, water, aggregates, admixture, etc.

Why does the Construction Industry Rely So much on Concrete?

Below are the reasons why concrete is a preferred construction material:

Durability and Strength
Cost Effective
Adaptability and Versatility
Resistant to Fire
Energy Efficient

Durability and Strength

Concrete is known for its exceptional durability and strength.

It is considered a trusted material for construction purposes.

The concrete structure is capable of withstanding extreme outdoor conditions like scorching heat, windstorms, heavy rain, and snow.

The unsurpassable strength of concrete allows the structure to bear heavy loads.

It can offer necessary resistance against deformation.

This is why concrete is widely used for constructing bridges, dams, and highways.

Cost Effective

Concrete proves to be a cost-effective building material.

Hence, it is used for a wide array of construction projects.

The raw materials are relatively cheaper than wood and steel.

In addition, the machines used for mixing and preparing concrete also have low maintenance expenses.

Adaptability and Versatility

This is another significant advantage of using concrete for construction purposes.

Concrete is a versatile building material, and it offers better adaptability.

You can use it in various ways and mold it into different shapes.

This feature allows engineers and architects to build structures of all shapes and sizes.

Resistant to Fire

Concrete improves the safety features of a building because it’s a fire-resistant material.

It doesn’t burn, melt or deform, making it an ideal material for constructing all types of structures.

As a result, occupants can be evacuated safely if a fire breaks out in the building.

Energy Efficient

Concrete also proves to be an energy-efficient building material.

It releases heat slowly, which minimizes energy consumption for keeping the buildings warm during winter.

Apart from this, concrete also reflects more light when compared to wood.

It also helps save on energy bills when lighting a huge area.

Top 10 Concrete Quotes

Here are the top concrete quotes by famous personalities that will help you know about concrete in more detail.

1. “Commies love concrete.” — P. J. O’Rourke

2. “I don’t like concrete jungles.” — Callan McAuliffe

3. “If you fall on concrete, that’s your ass fault.” — Kanye West

4. “Love could never bloom in a concrete block room.” — Janet Fitch

5. “The city is not a concrete jungle; it is a human zoo.” — Desmond Morris

6. “Concrete is heavy; iron is hard – but the grass will prevail.” — Edward Abbey

7. “Finding solitude in the concrete jungle is powerful and peaceful.” — Michael Dolan

8. “I’m quite lucky because I’ve got a small, decorative concrete pig.” — Bill Bailey

9. “The real thing is the heart; you know the heart shouldn’t be covered with concrete.” — Chuck D

10. “Las Vegas is the expression, in glitter and concrete, of America brittle and mutating id.” — John Burdett

Concrete Quotes About Accomplishments

Concrete can be related to accomplishments as concrete is the primary substance that can transform into many things. These quotes will motivate you to work hard and achieve your goals.

11. “I’ll skate on concrete if I have to. I’m not worried about how fast the ice is. I’m worried about how fast I can go on the ice.” — Clara Hughes

12. “Reduce your plan to writing. The moment you complete this, you will have definitely given concrete form to the intangible desire.” — Napoleon Hill

13. “I just can’t recruit where there’s grass around. You gotta have a concrete lawn before I feel comfortable enough to go in and talk to your parents.” — Al McGuire

14. “Gotham City. Clean shafts of concrete and snowy rooftops. The work of men who died generations ago. From here, it looks like an achievement. From here, you can’t see the enemy.” — Frank Miller

15. “You have to remember that I came to America as an immigrant. You know, on a ship, through the Statue of Liberty. And I saw that skyline, not just as a representation of steel and concrete and glass, but as really the substance of the American Dream.” — Daniel Libeskind

16. “I love investigating the natural world, and I find a lot of truths there, truths about survival and beauty – nature continually surprises me (amazing how clever a woodchuck is, amazing how plants roots can break up concrete, amazing how delicious the thimbleberry is!).” — Bonnie Jo Campbell

17. “We wouldn’t ask why a rose that grew from the concrete for having damaged petals; in turn, we would all celebrate its tenacity, and we would all love its will to reach the sun; well, we are the roses, this is concrete and these are my damaged petals, don’t ask me why, thank god, and ask me how.” — Tupac Shakur

18. “Rain was coming down in sheets. I could hear it on the concrete outside and the old building above me. It creaked and swayed in the spring thunderstorm and the wind, timbers gently flexing, wise enough with age to give a little rather than put up stubborn resistance until they broke. I could probably stand to learn something from that.” — Jim Butcher

19. “I do not rush into actual work. When I get a new idea, I start at once building it up in my imagination and make improvements and operate the device in my mind. When I have gone so far as to embody everything in my invention, every possible improvement I can think of, and when I see no fault anywhere, I put into concrete form the final product of my brain.” — Nikola Tesla

20. “Do you realize it’s been only a century that we’ve been able to go from house to car to office to car to wherever, with the heater on and the defroster on, protected from the rain and the cold? It hasn’t been much longer than that we’ve had lighting for streets. Think of all that darkness, all that world out there, all that mystery that we’ve turned into well-lighted concrete bunkers, safe and warm and dull.” — Sheri S. Tepper

Concrete Quotes About Reality

The following quotes about concrete are related to reality and show various daily life facts related to concrete. So make sure you know these real-life facts about concrete.

21. “The city and nature, the built stone and the foundation stone, concrete and slate, poetry addresses them all democratically.” — Shirley Geok-lin Lim

22. “Life is rich, always changing, always challenging, and we architects have the task of transmitting into the wood, concrete, glass, and steel, of transforming human aspirations into habitable and meaningful space.” — Arthur Erickson

23. “For weeks after 9/11, you could smell the dust and pulverized concrete in New York, and the National Guard came in, so there was a military presence on the streets. It was intense. Overwhelming. Heartbreaking.” — Mark Boal

24. “The clock of communism has stopped striking. But its concrete building has not yet come crashing down. For that reason, instead of freeing ourselves, we must try to save ourselves from being crushed by its rubble.” — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

25. “In the West, there has always been the attempt to try to make the religious building, whether it’s a Medieval or Renaissance church, an eternal object for the celebration of God. The material chosen, such as stone, brick, or concrete, is meant to preserve what is inside eternally.” — Tadao Ando

26. “Being a member of the court is a lot like walking through fresh concrete. Do you remember doing that as a child and leaving a footprint, and it hardens after you? I’m afraid that’s what we do, and we look back, and we see those opinions we’ve written, and they’ve sort of hardened after us.” — Sandra Day O’Connor

27. “It’s like if you plant something in the concrete and if it grows and the rose petal got all kinds of scratches and marks, you ain’t gonna say, ‘Damn, look at all the scratches and marks on the rose that grew from the concrete.’ You’re gonna be like, ‘Damn, a rose grew from the concrete?” — Tupac Shakur

28. “By Interstate 70: a dog skeleton, a vacuum cleaner, TV dinners, a doll, a pie, rolls of carpet.Later, next to the South Platte River: algae, broken concrete, jet contrails, and the smell of crude oil. What I hope to document, though not at the expense of surface detail, is the form that underlies this apparent chaos.” — Robert Adam

29. “Looking out of my window this lovely spring morning, I see an azalea in full bloom. No, no! I do not see that, though that is the only way I can describe what I see. That is a proposition, a sentence, a fact, but what I perceive is not a proposition, sentence, or fact, but only an image that I make intelligible in part by means of a statement of fact. This statement is abstract, but what I see is concrete.” — Charles Sanders Peirce

30. “Stop watering things that were never meant to grow in your life. Water is what works, what’s good, what’s right. Stop playing around with those dead bones and stuff you can’t fix; it’s over…leave it alone! You’re coming into a season of greatness. If your water what’s alive and divine, you will see the harvest as you’ve never seen before. Stop wasting water on dead issues, dead relationships, dead people, and a dead past. No matter how much you water concrete, you can’t grow a garden.” — T. D. Jakes

As concrete is the main and basic component of the construction industry, these quotes show concrete’s use in construction. You can get ideas from these quotes about using concrete in various ways.

31. “You need a blueprint to build a house because you need to know how far the concrete is going to be poured and you need to know how to think the walls have to be.” — Isaiah Washington

32. “When I was still at school, I’d help Dad at the concrete yard he had prior to the garden center. I was doing things there, like driving the tractors and forklifts, that most kids my age couldn’t.” — Rick Astley

33. “I’ve begun to look at the world through apocalypse eyes. Our society, which seems so sturdily built out of concrete and custom, is just a temporary resting place, a hotel our civilization checked into a couple of hundred years ago and must one day check out of.” — Neil Strauss

34. “Landscaping is the great cardinal sin of modern architecture. It’s not your garden; it’s not a park – it’s a formless patch of grass, shrubbery, and the occasional tree that exists purely to stop the original developer’s plans from looking like a howling concrete wilderness.” — Ben Aaronovitch

35. “One has to keep in mind the countless human tragedies that played out in these days. Through the middle of a city, where several thousand connections existed daily, despite administrative division, the concrete pillars were driven into the border, which was expanded like a Chinese wall.” — Willy Brandt

36. “I was attracted to the concept of Hollywood and the lifestyle here. But I’ve grown to mistrust it because it has changed. I didn’t bargain for digital access parking in some concrete structure. Real heaven for me was to drive somewhere and park right in front. Now the city is going vertical.” — Edward Ruscha

37. “The transformation of forests into deserts, fertile earth into sunbaked concrete, and running rivers into silted floodwaters show that only through care for the environment can the livelihoods of those most dependent on it be sustained. We cannot allow economic and environmental concerns to be played off against each other.” — Petra Kelly

38. “All right, you great git, you’ve asked for it. I’ll cover the world in Tastee-Freez and Wimpy Burgers. I’ll fill it with concrete runways, motorways, aircraft, television, automobiles, advertising, plastic flowers, frozen food, and supersonic bangs. I’ll make it so noisy and disgusting that even you’ll be ashamed of yourself! No wonder you’ve so few friends; you’re unbelievable!” — Peter Cook

39. “For me, there’s no difference between what’s temporary and what’s definitive. I built the church in Kobe, which was supposed to be temporary, and people liked it so much that there’s a version of it still there today – unlike some concrete buildings that were just built for money and that can be destroyed from one day to the next. Concrete can be very fragile during earthquakes.” — Shigeru Ban

40. “Fresh pits and, however, in spite of all its excellence in concrete structures, is not equally useful in stucco, the richness of which, when the lime and straw are mixed with such sand, will cause it to crack as it dries on account of the great strength of the mixture. But river sand, though useless in “signum” on account of its thinness, becomes perfectly solid in stucco when thoroughly worked by means of polishing instruments.” — Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

Wise Concrete Quotes

These quotes highlight the wisdom related to concrete. So you can become wise by going through the following concrete quotes.

41. “If flowers want to grow right out of the concrete sidewalk cracks, I’m going to bend down to smell them.” — David Ignatow

42. “Anybody who can’t hear the difference between a ball hitting wood and a ball hitting concrete must be blind.” — Yogi Berra

43. “The road is a word, conceived elsewhere and laid across the country in the wound prepared for it: a word made concrete and thrust among us.” — Wendell Berry

44. “People have separated from each other with walls of concrete that blocked the roads to connection and love. and Nature has been defeated in the name of development.” — Yasunari Kawabata

45. “A hundred yards away, Mike Newton was lowering Bella’s limp body to the sidewalk. She slumped unresponsively against the wet concrete, her skin chalky as a corpse. I almost took the door off the car.” — Stephenie Meyer

46. “If you throw seeds on concrete, they won’t grow. They have to meet fertile soil. So it is with germs. Even if they do get into your body unless it is nice and acidic, they can’t grow and multiply and make you sick – or kill you.” — Robert O. Young

47. “I suddenly understood that even love and caring weren’t always enough. They were the concrete bricks of our relationship, but unstable without the mortar of time spent together, time without the threat of imminent separation hanging over us.” — Nicholas Sparks

48. “Some argued that the youth of today were poorly educated and insufficiently industrious, but one of them had sought to validate his generation by spending considerable time and effort chiseling an obscene word in the concrete picnic table, and he had spelled it correctly.” — Dean Koontz

49. “I want to tear myself from this place, from this reality, rise up like a cloud and float away, melt into this humid summer night and dissolve somewhere far, over the hills. But I am here, my legs blocks of concrete, my lungs empty of air, my throat burning. There will be no floating away.” — Khaled Hosseini

50. “The physical reinvention of the world is endless, relentless, fascinating, exhaustive; nothing that seems solid is. If you could stand at just a little distance in time, how fluid and shape-shifting physical reality would be, everything hurrying into some other form, even concrete, even stone.” — Mark Doty