50 NYC Quotes About The Greatest City On Earth

By Clifton Sankofa

School Leader, Language Arts Expert & Master Quote Curator

Published June 21, 2023

Enjoy these NYC quotes about the big apple.

New York is also a very educated city.

The New York Public Library houses over fifty million books and is the third-largest library in the world.

The United Nations made its headquarters in New York after World War II, so you could make a case that New York is the headquarters of the world.

What is the New York state of mind?

The New York state of mind is a double-edged sword.

In one way, a kill-or-be-killed mindset forces a person to take the necessary steps to ensure their survival.

This means being competitive and never giving an inch to anyone.

At the same time, the New York state of mind represents hope and possibility.

There is a reason why people travel to New York to pursue their dreams.

It is because New York City represents a chance to follow your dream no matter who you are or where you are from.

To learn more, check out our NYC quotes below.

And you might also like these New Jersey quotes!

Short NYC quotes about the big apple

These quotes demonstrate the power of NYC.

1. “New York is a sucked orange.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

2. “I’m in a New York state of mind.” — Billy Joel, New York State of Mind

3. “Times Square can’t shine as bright as you.” — Plain White T’s, Hey There Delilah

4. “I want to be a part of it, New York, New York.” — Frank Sinatra, New York, New York

5. “Big lights will inspire you. Hear it for New York.” — Alicia Keys and JAY-Z, Empire State of Mind

6. “I’m from New York. I will kill to get what I need.” — Lady Gaga

7. “One can’t paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt.” — Georgia O’Keefe

8. “Things always change, and New York teaches you that.” — Richard Hell

9. “New York is appalling, fantastically charmless and elaborately dire.” — Henry James

10. “There is something in the New York air that makes sleep useless.” — Simone de Beauvoir

The top NYC quotes about the Empire State

These quotes remind us that New York City defines New York.

11. “Welcome to New York, it’s been waiting for you.” — Taylor Swift, Welcome to New York

12. “Manhattan is an accumulation of possible disasters that never happen.” — Ed Koch

13. “Let them come to New York, stand on the shore of the Hudson, look and kneel.” — Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

14. “People go to LA to “find themselves,” they come to New York to become someone new.” — Lindsey Kelk

15. “When I’m in New York, I just want to walk down the street and feel this thing, like I’m in a movie.” — Ryan Adams

16. “New York is the true capital of America. Every New Yorker knows it, and by God, we always shall.” — Edward Rutherfurd

17. “The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding.” — John Updike

18. “I get out of the taxi, and it’s probably the only city which in reality looks better than on the postcards, New York.” — Milos Forman

19. “New York is the only city in the world where you can get deliberately run down on the sidewalk by a pedestrian.” — Russell Baker

20. “In Boston, they ask, how much does he know? In New York, how much is he worth? In Philadelphia, who were his parents?” — Mark Twain

The best NYC quotes about the city that never sleeps

Here are some NYC quotes about the city. Does not rest

21. “Here we are, Marv. New York City, the land of opportunity.” — Harry, Home Alone 2

22. “The only people who can afford to be artists in New York are rich.” — Frances Ha, Sophie

23. “On a New York subway, you get fined for spitting, but you can throw up for nothing.” — Lewis Grizzard

24. “The flag of New York City should be someone with four bags opening a door with their shoulder.” — Alex Baze

25. “If a newspaper prints a sex crime, it’s smut, but when The New York Times prints it, it’s a sociological study.” — Adolph S. Ochs

26. “A hundred times I have thought: New York is a catastrophe, and fifty times: it’s a beautiful catastrophe.” — Le Corbusier

27. “I moved to New York City for my health. I’m paranoid, and it was the only place where my fears were justified.” — Anita Weiss

28. “There is no question that there is an unseen world. The problem is, how far is it from midtown and how late is it open?” — Woody Allen

29. “If you’re greedy for life, that’s what New York is all about. If you’re trying to get as much as you can every day, this city is the place to be.” — Pam Nelson

30. “New York is a place where the rich walk, the poor drive Cadillacs, and the beggars die of malnutrition with thousands of dollars hidden in their mattresses.” — Duke Ellington

NYC quotes and sayings about why New York is the best

These quotes remind us why people travel worldwide to see NYC.

31. “New York is a different country.” — Henry Ford

32. “Don’t you love New York in the fall?” — Joe Fox, You’ve Got Mail

33. “I’m staying! You hear that, New York? The frog is staying!” — Kermit the Frog, The Muppets Take Manhattan

34. “And I always heard people in New York never get to know their neighbors.” — Paul Varjak, Breakfast at Tiffany’s

35. “When I first moved to New York, I bought Vogue instead of dinner. I just felt it fed me more.” — Carrie Bradshaw, Sex and the City

36. “In New York, most people don’t have cars, so if you want to kill a person, you have to take the subway to their house.” — George Carlin

37. “You can try to change New York, but it’s like Jay-Z says: ‘Concrete bunghole where dreams are made up. There’s nothing you can do.’” — Liz Lemon

38. “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.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

39. “When it’s 100 degrees in New York, it’s 72 in Los Angeles. When it’s 30 degrees in New York, in Los Angeles, it’s still 72. However, there are 6 million interesting people in New York, and only 72 in Los Angeles.” — Neil Simon

40. “A few she [New York] favors and fondles, riding them high on the bubbles of fortune; then with a sudden breath she blows the bubbles out and laughs mockingly as she watches them fall.” — James Weldon Johnson

Famous NYC quotes about the greatest city on earth

NYC stands alone as the cultural capital of the world.

41. “New York City is itself a detective story.” — Agatha Christie

42. “It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City.” — Agatha Christie

43. “London is satisfied, Paris is resigned, but New York is always hopeful.” — Dorothy Parker

44. “Practically everybody in New York has half a mind to write a book, and does.” — Groucho Marx

45. “Yet, as only New Yorkers know, if you can get through the twilight, you’ll live through the night.” — Dorothy Parker

46. “One belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to its as much as five minutes as in five years.” — Tom Wolfe

47. “More than anything else, New York is a city of superlatives, a place where the best, the brightest, the biggest is the norm.” — Marilyn J. Appleberg

48. “But there is one thing about it once you have lived in New York and it has become your home, no place else is good enough.” — John Steinbeck

49. “If you want to become a real New Yorker, there’s only one rule: You have to believe New York is, has been, and always will be the greatest city on earth. The center of the universe.” — Ellen R. Shapiro

50. “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.” — Nora Ephron