Boston Quotes: Celebrating the Spirit of Beantown

"In Boston serpents whistle at the cold"

"I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University"

William F. Buckley, Jr., Journalist

"When I go abroad I always sail from Boston because it is such a pleasant place to get away from"

Oliver Herford, Author

"So my father grew up in an orphanage in Boston. He was then adopted by an elderly childless couple from Maine, who gave him the name of Mitchell. He moved to Maine, and there he met my mother and was married"

George J. Mitchell, Politician

"My father was the orphaned son of immigrants to the United States from Ireland. My father never knew his parents. His mother died - we're not sure - either at or shortly after his birth, and he and all of his siblings were placed in orphanages in the Boston area"

George J. Mitchell, Politician

"There isn't much discussion of ruling class in America even in Boston, probably one of the most class-conscious cities in the country?"

Iris Chang, Historian

"The frozen ocean... of Boston life"

Julia Ward Howe, Activist

"One of my first jobs was at the Boston Globe. I worked in the sports department six months a year. When I was ready to graduate, the sports editor gave me a job as a schoolboy sports writer"

Will McDonough, Writer

"When I started at the Globe 40 years ago, there were seven newspapers in Boston and now there are only two. There were only three or four television stations in Boston and now there are a dozen"

Will McDonough, Writer

"The fans were so psyched that someone was doing a movie about a Boston fan that they were giving their all"

Jimmy Fallon, Comedian

"Probably the biggest thing that surprises people is that I am obsessed with hockey. I grew up in the Boston area so I am obsessed with hockey since I was a little kid"

Rob Zombie, Musician

"The word survivor suggests someone who has emerged alive from a plane crash or a natural disaster. But the word can also refer to the loved ones of murder victims, and this was the sense in which it was used at a four-day conference in early June at Boston College"

Godfried Danneels, Clergyman

"Paul Farmer has helped to build amazing health care system in one of the poorest areas of Haiti. He founded Partners in Health, which serves the destitute and the sick in many parts of the world from Haiti to Boston and from Russia to Peru"

Tracy Kidder, Author

"And it was from Boston that one in every six American families began their journey into the land of the free"

Thomas Menino, Politician

"Let's use the energy of this historic year to propel us toward our shared vision of a greater Boston"

Thomas Menino, Politician

"And that's the mistake that was made with Steel Pier. Roger was caught between a rock and hard place. It would have cost a couple of million dollars more to take it to Boston or someplace first. So we opened about a month too early"

Gregory Harrison, Actor

"I have just returned from Boston. It is the only thing to do if you find yourself up there"

Fred Allen, Comedian

"I guess God made Boston on a wet Sunday"

Raymond Chandler, Writer

"I was also the romantic lead in The Boston Strangler - I was the only one that lived to tell the story - so I called myself the romantic lead"

Sally Kellerman, Actress

"There's a lot of history in Boston and a lot of history, obviously, in New York with all the championships"

Rafael Palmeiro, Athlete

"I felt like my pregnancy was a sacred moment for me. I stayed in Boston and I didn't work apart from the contracts I have, and then I only let them use my face"

Gisele Bundchen, Model

"Boston is an oasis in the desert, a place where the larger proportion of people are loving, rational and happy"

Julia Ward Howe, Activist

"At a Boston signing, someone from the audience asked why I was so obsessed with furniture in my books. The question rattled around in my head. I had no idea that I was obsessed with furniture"

Jonathan Carroll, Author

"Since I do not believe that there should be different recommendations for people living in the Bronx and people living in Manhattan, I am uncomfortable making different recommendations for my patients in Boston and in Haiti"

Paul Farmer, Educator

"I am in Boston right now, in fact, to do work at the New England Historical Genealogical Library, where I'm trying to finish up tracing my lineage back to the seventeenth century"

Rick Moody, Novelist

"Boston is known for its innovation"

Thomas Menino, Politician

"Boston is the engine of the state's economy"

Thomas Menino, Politician

"I was born in Boston, Massachusetts on May 16, 1923, the only child of Joel and Sylvia Miller"

Merton Miller, Economist

"A few years ago no hotel or restaurant in Boston refused Negro guests; now several hotels, restaurants, and especially confectionary stores, will not serve Negroes, even the best of them"

Ray Stannard Baker, Journalist

"Boston is safe. And we're going to keep it safe"

Thomas Menino, Politician

"2004 was a great year for Boston! The Patriots won the Super Bowl! Boston hosted its first national political convention! And - the Red Sox won the World Series!"

Thomas Menino, Politician

"Here's what I see all across this great city - people working together to make Boston a better place to live and to raise children, to grow and pursue dreams"

Thomas Menino, Politician

"Currently, Boston has only nine percent of the state's population - but we provide more than 16 percent of the jobs and 19 percent of the state's revenues"

Thomas Menino, Politician

"I brought together experts from health care, business, academic institutions, and the community to develop a comprehensive blueprint for eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in health care in the City of Boston"

Thomas Menino, Politician

"We don't have a full black community in Boston. Our people are scattered. There's a middle class where I live in Highland Park but it's not like a piece of Washington or Chicago"

Henry Hampton, Activist

"I guarantee you, if you could give me 10 points in all those seventh games against the Boston Celtics, instead of Bill Russell having 11 rings, I could've at least had nine or eight"

Wilt Chamberlain, Athlete

"I asked my parents for permission to study in America and they were so sure that I wouldn't get in and get a scholarship that they encouraged me to try. So I applied to Yale and got an excellent scholarship. I then worked for the Boston Consulting Group for six and half years"

Indra Nooyi, Businessman

"I resent the fact that people in places like Boston, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco believe that they should be able to tell us how to live our lives, operate our businesses, and what to do with the land that we love and cherish"

Wilford Brimley, Actor

"I watched Gretzky, I watched Lemieux. Maybe it's the time when you're playing, but for a kid coming into the league, you play the Boston Bruins and you just watched Bobby Orr"

Marcel Dionne, Athlete

"When I was to come to Washington the first time as Music Director of the Boston Symphony, Mrs. Johnson phoned us to find out if they could give us a party and who we would like to meet"

Erich Leinsdorf, Celebrity

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