A city is where you can sign a petition, boo the chief justice, fish off a pier, gaze at a hippopotamus, buy a flower at the corner, or get a good hamburger or a bad girl at 4 A.M. A city is where sirens make white streaks of sound in the sky and foghorns speak in dark grays. San Francisco is such a city.
Interpretation
This quote reflects the diverse and lively experiences found in a city.
In this quote, Herb Caen captures the essence of urban life, emphasizing the rich tapestry of activities, sounds, and sights that characterize a city like San Francisco. It illustrates how cities are dynamic places filled with both mundane and extraordinary experiences, highlighting their unique charm and vibrancy.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech about the beauty and complexity of urban living.
At school he had done things which had formerly seemed to him very horrid and made him feel disgusted with himself when he did them; but when later on he saw that such actions were done by people of good position and that they did not regard them as wrong, he was able not exactly to regard them as right, but to forget about them entirely or not be at all troubled at remembering them.
Let people return to making knots on ropes, instead of writing.
The questions which one asks oneself begin, at least, to illuminate the world, and become one's key to the experience of others.
Everything that is not eternal is worthless in eternity.
I am the infinite sea, and all worlds are but grains of sand upon my shore.
I've reached the point where I hardly care whether I live or die. The world will keep on turning without me, I can't do anything to change events anyway.
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