I came to London. It had become the center of my world and I had worked hard to come to it. And I was lost.

V. S. Naipaul (1932-2018)

I like the spirit of this great London which I feel around me. Who but a coward would pass his whole life in hamlets; and for ever abandon his faculties to the eating rust of obscurity?

Charlotte Brontë (1815-1856), Villette

London is a roost for every bird.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), Lothair

I hope to see London once ‘ere I die.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Henry IV, Part 2

By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show.

Samuel Johnson (1740-1795), As quoted by James Boswell in The Life of Samuel Johnson