Being human is itself difficult, and therefore all kinds of settlements (except dream cities) have problems. Big cities have difficulties in abundance, because they have people in abundance.
Jane JacobsRead
Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Old concepts can be revitalized in modern contexts, while new ideas often build on previous foundations.
This quote by Jane Jacobs reflects the relationship between innovation and tradition. It suggests that while old ideas can find new expression through modern frameworks, new ideas inherently rely on the groundwork laid by previous thoughts, emphasizing the continuity and evolution of knowledge and architecture in society.
Themes
InnovationTraditionArchitectureIdeasChange
In practice
Example use cases
Use this quote in a discussion about urban planning and redevelopment.
More from Jane Jacobs
All quotes βIt may be that we have become so feckless as a people that we no longer care how things do work, but only what kind of quick, easy outer impression they give. If so, there is little hope for our cities or probably for much else in our society. But I do not think this is so.
Jane JacobsRead
Streets and their sidewalks-the main public places of a city-are its most vital organs.
Jane JacobsRead
(The psuedoscience of planning seems almost neurotic in its determination to imitate empiric failure and ignore empiric success.)
Jane JacobsRead
Whenever and wherever societies have flourished and prospered rather than stagnated and decayed, creative and workable cities have been at the core of the phenomenon. Decaying cities, declining economies, and mounting social troubles travel together. The combination is not coincidental.
Jane JacobsRead
This is what a city is, bits and pieces that supplement each other and support each other.
Jane JacobsRead
Similar quotes
As God talked with Arjuna, so will He talk with you. As He lifted up the spirit and consciousness of Arjuna, so will He uplift you. As he granted Arjuna supreme spiritual vision, so will He confer enlightenment on you.
Paramahansa YoganandaRead
No society ever seems to have succumbed to boredom. Man has developed an obvious capacity for surviving the pompous reiteration of the commonplace.
John Kenneth GalbraithRead
They're so cold, these scholars! May lightning strike their food so that their mouths learn how to eat fire!
Friedrich NietzscheRead
When one sense perceives the hidden, the invisible world becomes apparent to the whole.
RumiRead
The more we study the major problems of our time, the more we come to realise that they cannot be understood in isolation. They are systemic problems, which means that they are interconnected and interdependent.
Fritjof CapraRead
Haunted from my early youth by the transitoriness and pathos of life, I was aware that it is not enough to say "I am doing no harm," I ought to be testing myself daily, and asking myself what I am really achieving.
Margot AsquithRead