"There is no Edinburgh emigrant, far or near, from China to Peru, but he or she carries some lively pictures of the mind, some sunset behind the Castle cliffs, some snow scene, some maze of city lamps, indelible in the memory and delightful to study in the intervals of toil."
- Robert Louis Stevenson, Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes ... See MoreSee Less

"The city is built
To music, therefore never built at all,
And therefore built for ever."
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Gareth and Lynette ... See MoreSee Less

"The city lay behind him, lighted here and there, and starry worlds were hidden by the masonry of spire and roof that hardly made out any shapes against the sky."
- Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son ... See MoreSee Less

"The dream crossed twilight between birth and dying."
- T.S. Eliot, Ash Wednesday ... See MoreSee Less

"The rays of the gas-lamps, feeble at first in their struggle with the dying day, had now at length gained ascendancy, and threw over every thing a fitful and garish lustre."
- Edgar Allan Poe, The Man of the Crowd ... See MoreSee Less

"Where, if not from the Impressionists, do we get those wonderful brown fogs that come creeping down our streets, blurring the gas-lamps and changing the houses into monstrous shadows?"
- Oscar Wilde, The Decay of Lying ... See MoreSee Less

"Therefore, when we build, let us think that we build for ever. Let it not be for present delight, nor for present use alone; let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for"
- John Ruskin, The Seven Lamps of Architecture ... See MoreSee Less

"The Old Town occupies a sloping ridge or tail of diluvial matter, protected, in some subsidence of the waters, by the Castle cliffs which fortify it to the west."
- Robert Louis Stevenson, Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes ... See MoreSee Less

"As bronze may be much beautified by lying in the dark damp soil, so men who fade in dust of warfare fade fairer, and sorrow blooms their soul."
- Wilfred Owen, As Bronze May Be Much Beautified ... See MoreSee Less

"The road was wet with rain, black and shiny like oilskin. The reflection of the street lamps wallowed like yellow jelly-fish."
- Mervyn Peake, Weird Shadows From Beyond ... See MoreSee Less

"The yellow glare from the shop-windows streamed out into the steamy, vaporous air, and threw a murky, shifting radiance across the crowded thoroughfare."
- Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four ... See MoreSee Less

"Anywhere, anywhere, as long as it be out of this world!"
- Charles Baudelaire, Paris Spleen ... See MoreSee Less

"To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour."
- William Blake, Auguries of Innocence. ... See MoreSee Less

"As soon as I enter the door of a tavern, I experience oblivion of care, and a freedom from solicitude."
- Samuel Johnson ... See MoreSee Less

"The higher we soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly."
- Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra ... See MoreSee Less