The quote I love the best about Paris is Ernest Hemingway’s:
If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.
His quote captures everything about Paris in just that one sentence, for indeed it is a movable feast for all the senses and as he says, if you are lucky enough to live in Paris as a young person (I was) then it remains with you, as a part of you, no matter where you are!
Another Hemingway quote that I love:
Il n’y a que deux endroits au monde où l’on puisse vivre heureux: chez soi et à Paris.
(There are only two places in the world where we can live happy: at home and in Paris.)
Though I often looked for one, I finally had to admit that there could be no cure for Paris.
From The Paris Wife
(A novel about Hemingway’s first wife, Hadley.)
Everything ends this way in France - everything. Weddings, christenings, duels, burials, swindlings, diplomatic affairs -everything is a pretext for a good dinner.
Jean Anouilh
Here are some more famous and not so famous quotes that I like about Paris.
J’ai deux amours…..Mon pays et Paris.
(I have two loves…..my country and Paris.)
I like Frenchmen very much, because even when they insult you they do it so nicely.
Josephine Baker
America is my country and Paris is my hometown.
Gertrude Stein
In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language.
Mark Twain
An artist has no home in Europe except in Paris.
Friedrich Nietzsche
My best efforts were some modern things that looked like very lousy Matisses. Thank God I had the sense to realize they were lousy, and leave Paris.
Norman Rockwell
In Paris everybody wants to be an actor; nobody is content to be a spectator.
Jean Cocteau
In America only the successful writer is important, in France all writers are important, in England no writer is important, and in Australia you have to explain what a writer is.
Geoffrey Cottrell
The first thing that strikes a visitor to Paris is a taxi.
Fred Allen
In Paris, one is always reminded of being a foreigner. If you park your car wrong, it is not the fact that it’s on the sidewalk that matters, but the fact that you speak with an accent.
Roman Polanski
A red traffic light for a driver in London is imperative; in Paris - it’s suggestive; in Rome - it’s decorative.
Something I’ve always said.
Boy those French, they have a different word for everything.
Steve Martin
France is the only country where the money falls apart and you can’t tear the toilet paper.
Billy Wilder
(Actually, Wilder’s quote was true back in the day! When I first came to Paris 40 years ago this year [2011] I use to write home on the toilet paper because it was so “sturdy”!!!)
Every city has a sex and an age which have nothing to do with demography. Rome is feminine. So is Odessa. London is a teenager, an urchin, and this hasn’t changed since the time of Dickens. Paris, I believe, is a man in his twenties in love with an older woman.
John Berger
I thought of Paris as a beauty spot on the face of the earth, and of London as a big freckle.
When we arrived in London, my sadness at leaving Paris was turned into despair. After my long stay in the French capital, huge, ponderous, massive London seemed to me as ugly a thing as man could contrive to make.
James Weldon Johnson
It’s true that the French have a certain obsession with sex, but it’s a particularly adult obsession. France is the thriftiest of all nations; to a Frenchman sex provides the most economical way to have fun. The French are a logical race.
Anita Loos
I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris and I have enjoyed it.
Pres. John F. Kennedy
L’Americain de Paris, c’est ce que l’Amerique a fait de mieux.
The best of America drifts to Paris. The American in Paris is the best American. It is more fun for an intelligent person to live in an intelligent country. France has the only two things toward which we drift as we grow older—intelligence and good manners.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Whoever does not visit Paris regularly will never really be elegant.
Honoré de Balzac
I love Paris in the summer, when it sizzles.
Cole Porter
I’d like to see Paris before I die. Philadelphia will do.
Mae West
This is what you do on your very first day in Paris. You get yourself, not a drizzle, but some honest-to-goodness rain, and you find yourself someone really nice and drive her through the Bois de Boulogne in a taxi. The rain’s very important. That’s when Paris smells its sweetest. It’s the damp chestnut trees.
Audrey Hepburn as Sabrina
Maya Muses: In the spirit of Josephine Baker and Gertrude Stein I add my own quote:
My Allegiance is to my country, but my heart belongs to Paris.
And in the spirit of Ernest Hemingway, my own quotes are:
Paris was one big party! When I left, no matter where I was or where I went, when I thought of Paris, I had the impression that the party was still going on and I was the only one without an invitation.
One experiences life differently with each passing decade and although it’s wonderful to live in Paris at any moment in your life; nothing compares to living in Paris when one is young!
Photo Credits: Flickr, Google Images, and Rita Crane
All Rights Reserved
18 responses so far ↓
1 meredith aka skylar // Jan 22, 2009 at 1:55 am
Wow!!! I remember when I spent a month in Paris… back in 1998… I would walk down the block to the local baker and get my baguette, fougasse ou patisseries….. Un pur délice!!!!
2 Lynn // Jan 22, 2009 at 5:54 am
Meredith, I think everyone who has ever spent time in Paris keeps those memories in their hearts as though it were yesterday! There’s just something magical about Paris.
3 Mia // Jan 22, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Well then,I will experience Paris for the first time,at the age 58,but I’m young at heart,so I think I will enjoy it!
Maybe my first visit there will be to see you?Who knows?
I fell in love with Madrid,maybe I do the same with Paris?
4 Lynn // Jan 22, 2009 at 6:16 pm
It’s a date! I loved many of the places I lived in: Madrid, Copenhagen, Rome, Amsterdam, etc., but none compare to Paris!
I was talking to a friend recently about the time I spent in Mexico City and how much I loved it there. I always said I would return one day to live there for a year. (I think to really know a place, you need to spend all four seasons there.)
5 Maya Johnson // Sep 11, 2009 at 1:21 am
I am in Paris right now working on a very interesting project. I Googled “Paris Hemingway” and there you are! So enjoyed your blog. Please email me if you get the opportunity. Maya
6 Lynn // Sep 12, 2009 at 4:16 am
Thanks Maya! What could be better than being in Paris and working on an interesting project?! By the way, I love your name! (Lol.)
7 Jennifer // Dec 12, 2009 at 1:16 am
Such a delight to read a blog dedicated to the greatest city I have ever had the pleasure of visiting! I first experienced Paris when I was 17 (3 years ago) and went for the second time this past summer. I fell in love with it the moment I escaped the maze of Chatelet les Halles and set foot on the infamous cobble stone streets. I cannot wait to return to Paris to soak up more of the culture, the history, the fashion, the language, the food, the wine. For now, Toronto will have to do. xx
8 Lynn // Dec 12, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Jennifer, I see that Paris has seduced you like so many other people!!! You’re one of the lucky ones, however, who has discovered many of her charms at a young age! I was lucky too!
If you have to wait awhile before returning…..Toronto is not a bad place to have to wait! It’s a great city!
9 Jennifer // Dec 13, 2009 at 4:24 pm
I agree, I love Toronto! I just don’t seem to be content unless I’m wandering the streets of some unfamiliar city. I just read your “about me” section and we have some things in common. I also have a strong love for travelling, perhaps because I have always done so since early childhood. This past summer my friend and I backpacked through France and Italy, where we spent many nights sleeping in train stations and student hostels. I loved the unpredictability, so liberating!
10 Lynn // Dec 14, 2009 at 3:23 am
So true!…..And the wonderful people you meet along the way, not to mention all the sights and sounds that are a feast for your soul!
Thanks Jennifer, you bring back many fond memories of great times in Italy as well! I wish you as many wonderful journeys through your travels as I have had and many, many more!
11 susan // May 24, 2011 at 6:33 am
Came across this blog searching quotes about Paris for my blog, DesignDestinations.org. Wow. This is great. I love your blog and just signed on to rss feed. I think we are kindred spirits.
Just got home from a week in Paris and can’t wait to go back.
12 Lynn // May 24, 2011 at 5:12 pm
Thanks so much, Susan! I popped over to your blog and it’s great! As I said, I’m sure you’ll be back in Paris soon and I look forward to reading more!
13 Ange // Jun 3, 2011 at 6:45 am
PARIS…. first visited at 14 returned at 38 to truly appreciate it after living in belfast brisbane and a few places in between, i am in brisbane australia and planning to return again to paris with my husband and 2 children, just before my 40th. Paris makes me feel alive it awoke all my senses at once the sights the tastes the smells the sounds, an amazing place
14 Lynn // Jun 4, 2011 at 9:13 am
Ange, Paris does cast a spell like a femme fatale and before you know it you have fallen madly in love with her because, as you said, she awakens all your senses at once!!! I’m sure you and your family will have a wonderful time here….how could you not?!!!
15 Marissa // Jun 8, 2011 at 4:04 am
Im from Mexico and I’ve been in paris last month, i visited the eiffel tower, euro disney, louvre museum, notre dame, and so much more in just 3 days!! I totally love it!! Im 15, im young, and i wish i could go again some day.. its too pretty for me. Also London, and Italy are nice, but nothing compares to my lovely Paris.
16 Lynn // Jun 8, 2011 at 7:28 pm
Ahh Marissa, I see that Paris has seduced you as well! I’m sure you will come back again, just don’t wait too long! As I’ve said, Paris is wonderful at any age, but nothing compares to living here when one is young!
(Still, no rush, you have a long way to go before becoming old!!! LOL!)
17 Jane // Feb 2, 2012 at 3:46 pm
hello i love paris
18 Lynn // Feb 3, 2012 at 2:05 am
Oh, Jane, welcome to the club!!!
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