Gregor Smith

“Such a suspicion of metanarratives was evident in the destruction of the Pruitt-Igoe Project which had promised much, based on modernist stories of emancipation, progress, and reason, and had failed. At a grander level it can be seen in many post-WW2 responses to the failures of science (the atom bomb, the green revolution), Marxist political movements (the Soviet Union, China), or capitalism (the free market, development). Grand claims for "reason" and "rationality" had often led to horrendous consequences.”
― Tim Cresswell, Geographic Thought: A Critical Introduction

“The humanities and social sciences devote most of their energies to explaining exactly how the imagined order is woven into the tapestry of life.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

“To travel from place to place is to travel through time, and in every place the quality of time is different. Here, now it seemed to stretch in all directions. And I felt I understood why the Prophet Muhammad had ordained the observance of prayer five times a day' to act as markers for the faithful to lead them through the desert of eternity.”
― Peregrine Hodson

“In any artistic rendering of the city theme alienation is a constant. Given the anonymity the city provides, it could hardly be otherwise. Artists, especially writers, have recognised this dichotomy, and that cities have always proved a source of freedom by providing anonymity, notwithstanding the estrangement and isolation that goes with it. Indeed, the city's impetus towards modernity is to be found in that narrow zone between loss of community and discovery of self.”
― Robert Drewe, The Penguin Book Of The City