--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: What I like about cities is that…" description: "\"What I like about cities is that everything is king size, the beauty and the ugliness.\" — Joseph Brodsky" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/dbe/joseph-brodsky-1225_beauty_what-i-like-about-cities-is-that-everyth_1698009.png" --- # What I like about cities is that everything is king size… ![“What I like about cities is that everything is king size, the beauty and the ugliness.” quote by Joseph Brodsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/dbe/joseph-brodsky-1225_beauty_what-i-like-about-cities-is-that-everyth_1698009.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/dbe/joseph-brodsky-1225_beauty_what-i-like-about-cities-is-that-everyth_1698009.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/dbe/joseph-brodsky-1225_beauty_what-i-like-about-cities-is-that-everyth_1698009.png) > “What I like about cities is that everything is king size, the beauty and the ugliness.” [Joseph Brodsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-brodsky/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Cities amplify both beauty and ugliness, reflecting humanity's dual nature. **In simple terms:** Cities show beauty and ugliness. Key Takeaway Recognize duality in urban life. Themes urban life beauty ugliness duality Mood contemplative melancholic Type poetic philosophical When to use this quote - urban planning - art criticism - social commentary Key Concepts scale contrast human experience environment Questions to Reflect On - How does city life affect your mood? - What beauty do you find in urban flaws? A Different Perspective Focusing on extremes may overlook everyday subtleties. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Beauty](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/beauty/) [Beauty Ugliness](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/beauty-ugliness-393443/) [Cities](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/cities/) [Cities King](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/cities-king-1121214/) [Like Cities](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/like-cities-378523/) [Size](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/size/) [Size Beauty](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/size-beauty-1121215/) [Ugliness](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ugliness/) ## Related quotes > [“It is not the size of a flower, but the size of its beauty. ~Matshona Dhliwayo”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/matshona-dhliwayo/it-is-not-the-size-of-a-flower-but-the-size-of-its-beauty-matshona/) [Matshona Dhliwayo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/matshona-dhliwayo/) > [I meet you. I remember you. Who are you? You’re destroying me. You’re good for me. How could I know this city was tailor-made…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marguerite-duras/i-meet-you-i-remember-you-who-are-you-you-re-destroying-me-you-re/) [Marguerite Duras](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marguerite-duras/) > [Beauty and ugliness are only possible in the light. Common sense also survives in the dark. So do crassness, ignorance, dumbness!...](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mariana-fulger/beauty-and-ugliness-are-only-possible-in-the-light-common-sense-also/) [Mariana Fulger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mariana-fulger/) > [The idea of beauty which man creates for himself imprints itself on his whole attire, crumples or stiffens his dress, rounds off or squares…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-baudelaire/the-idea-of-beauty-which-man-creates-for-himself-imprints-itself-on/) [Charles Baudelaire](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-baudelaire/) > [My life has been my inspiration through all its beauty and ugliness.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/chanda-kaushik/my-life-has-been-my-inspiration-through-all-its-beauty-and-ugliness/) [Chanda Kaushik](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/chanda-kaushik/) > [It is curious that nearly all the great fortunes are made by turning beautiful things into ugly ones. Making beauty out of ugliness is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/e-nesbit/it-is-curious-that-nearly-all-the-great-fortunes-are-made-by-turning/) [E. 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You have to love both.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sandra-harner/there-s-beauty-and-there-s-ugliness-you-have-to-love-both/) [Sandra Harner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sandra-harner/) > [“Truth is Bitter & It's the Real Beauty in Ugliness.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gollapalli-nithin-kumar/truth-is-bitter-it-s-the-real-beauty-in-ugliness/) [Gollapalli Nithin Kumar](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gollapalli-nithin-kumar/) > [“You have to look past the beauty to see the ugliness.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nath-jones/you-have-to-look-past-the-beauty-to-see-the-ugliness/) [Nath Jones](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nath-jones/) > [Men and women make their own beauty or their own ugliness. Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton speaks in one of his novels of a man…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-smith/men-and-women-make-their-own-beauty-or-their-own-ugliness-sir-edward/) [Alexander Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexander-smith/) ## More by Joseph Brodsky > [As long as the state permits itself to interfere in the affairs of literature, literature has the right to interfere with the affairs of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-brodsky/as-long-as-the-state-permits-itself-to-interfere-in-the-affairs-of/) [Joseph Brodsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-brodsky/) > [For some odd reason, the expression 'death of a poet' always sounds somewhat more concrete than 'life of a poet.'](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-brodsky/for-some-odd-reason-the-expression-death-of-a-poet-always-sounds/) [Joseph Brodsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-brodsky/) > [A poet is a combination of an instrument and a human being in one person, with the former gradually taking over the latter. The…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-brodsky/a-poet-is-a-combination-of-an-instrument-and-a-human-being-in-one/) [Joseph Brodsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-brodsky/) > [On the whole, love comes with the speed of light; separation, with that of sound.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-brodsky/on-the-whole-love-comes-with-the-speed-of-light-separation-with-that/) [Joseph Brodsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-brodsky/) > [“In the business of writing, what one accumulates is not experience but uncertainties.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-brodsky/in-the-business-of-writing-what-one-accumulates-is-not-experience-but/) [Joseph Brodsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-brodsky/) > [I haven't shifted language. I'm writing in English because I like it. 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To a part of speech”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-brodsky/what-gets-left-of-a-man-amounts-to-a-part-to-his-spoken-part-to-a/) [Joseph Brodsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-brodsky/) > [“secrecy is a hotbed of vanity”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-brodsky/secrecy-is-a-hotbed-of-vanity/) [Joseph Brodsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-brodsky/) > [“The instinctive preference was to read rather than to act. No wonder our actual lives were more or less a shambles”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-brodsky/the-instinctive-preference-was-to-read-rather-than-to-act-no-wonder/) [Joseph Brodsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-brodsky/) > [Americans have been tremendously fortunate in poetry, regarding both the quantity and quality of poetry produced. Unfortunately, it remains in schools and universities; it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-brodsky/americans-have-been-tremendously-fortunate-in-poetry-regarding-both/) [Joseph Brodsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-brodsky/) > [Life—the way it really is—is a battle not between good and bad, but between bad and worse](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-brodsky/life-the-way-it-really-is-is-a-battle-not-between-good-and-bad-but/) [Joseph Brodsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-brodsky/) > [Poems, novels - these things belong to the nation, to the culture, and the people.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-brodsky/poems-novels-these-things-belong-to-the-nation-to-the-culture-and-the/) [Joseph Brodsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-brodsky/) > [“If there is any substitute for love, it is memory.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-brodsky/if-there-is-any-substitute-for-love-it-is-memory/) [Joseph Brodsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-brodsky/) [Explore all 264 Joseph Brodsky quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-brodsky/) ## More Beauty quotes > [We do not want nowadays temples of worship and outward rites and ceremonies. What we really want is an Asram. We want a place…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rabindranath-tagore/we-do-not-want-nowadays-temples-of-worship-and-outward-rites-and/) [Rabindranath Tagore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rabindranath-tagore/) > [How could anybody confuse truth with beauty, I thought as I looked at him. Truth came with sunken eyes, bony or scarred, decayed. 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Young](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-c-young/) > [There are various orders of beauty, causing men to make fools of themselves in various styles.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/there-are-various-orders-of-beauty-causing-men-to-make-fools-of/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [To me, the beauty of a quilt or a dress lies within the stitches and the thought of the person who made them. When…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/natalie/to-me-the-beauty-of-a-quilt-or-a-dress-lies-within-the-stitches-and/) [Natalie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/natalie/) > [“do not misunderstand person by beauty You really do not know its real or Mask on dirty thoughts”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mohammed-zaki-ansari/do-not-misunderstand-person-by-beauty-you-really-do-not-know-its-real/) [Mohammed Zaki Ansari](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mohammed-zaki-ansari/) > [“I already love in you your beauty, but I am only beginning to love in you that which is eternal and ever precious –…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/leo-tolstoy/i-already-love-in-you-your-beauty-but-i-am-only-beginning-to-love-in/) [Leo Tolstoy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/leo-tolstoy/) > [The more perfect the sight is the more delightful the beautiful object. The more perfect the appetite, the sweeter the food. The more musical…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-baxter/the-more-perfect-the-sight-is-the-more-delightful-the-beautiful/) [Richard Baxter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-baxter/) > [Call her beautiful a million times and she won't believe you. Call her ugly once, and she will never forget it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tumblr/call-her-beautiful-a-million-times-and-she-won-t-believe-you-call-her/) [Tumblr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tumblr/) > [Time can but make her beauty over again.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-butler-yeats/time-can-but-make-her-beauty-over-again/) [William Butler Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-butler-yeats/) > [ The social \[media channel\] isn't about beauty contests and popularity contests. They're a distortion, a caricature of the real thing. 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