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Daily Inspiration Quote by John Mason Brown

"How prophetic L'Enfant was when he laid out Washington as a city that goes around in circles!"

About this Quote

Prophecy is usually reserved for grand ideals; John Mason Brown wields it like a letter opener. By calling Pierre L'Enfant "prophetic", Brown pretends to admire the visionary who designed Washington, D.C. - then twists the compliment into an indictment: the nation's capital doesn’t merely have circles; it behaves circularly. The city plan becomes a punchline about political habit.

The line works because it exploits the mismatch between form and function. L'Enfant's baroque geometry - radiating avenues, rotaries, grand sightlines - was meant to stage a young republic as rational, orderly, and forward-looking. Brown turns that symbolism inside out. Circles stop being emblems of harmony and become evidence of institutional stasis: committees that re-litigate the same arguments, administrations that rename old policies, moral panics that reset on schedule. Even the tourist experience - looping monuments, repeating talking points - becomes part of the gag.

As a critic, Brown is playing to an audience fluent in Washington as both place and metaphor. Mid-century America saw the federal government swelling in size and permanence; skepticism about bureaucracy was becoming a cultural reflex. The joke lands because it borrows the authority of urban design (this is literally true) to validate a political intuition (this is emotionally true). It's not a broad anti-government rant; it's a precise jab at a capital that can monumentalize progress while endlessly rerouting it. The wit is architectural: a beautiful layout that doubles as a diagnosis.

Quote Details

TopicWitty One-Liners
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APA Style (7th ed.)
Brown, John Mason. (2026, January 15). How prophetic L'Enfant was when he laid out Washington as a city that goes around in circles! FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/how-prophetic-lenfant-was-when-he-laid-out-170876/

Chicago Style
Brown, John Mason. "How prophetic L'Enfant was when he laid out Washington as a city that goes around in circles!" FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/how-prophetic-lenfant-was-when-he-laid-out-170876/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"How prophetic L'Enfant was when he laid out Washington as a city that goes around in circles!" FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/how-prophetic-lenfant-was-when-he-laid-out-170876/. Accessed 7 Feb. 2026.

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How prophetic LEnfant was when he laid out Washington in circles
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About the Author

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John Mason Brown (July 3, 1900 - 1969) was a Critic from USA.

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