Ah Paris, the wonderful city of love, art, and culture. With its winding cobblestone streets, beautiful parks, and iconic monuments, it’s no wonder why so many travelers visit Paris year after year. Remember the many stories, novels, movies, and of course, quotes about this beautiful city!
To help you get in the Parisian spirit, here are 133 inspiring Paris quotes to ignite your wanderlust and make you want to explore the City of Light.
Famous Quotes About Paris
From classic films to modern blockbusters, some of the most cherished quotes about Paris have graced our screens. Here are some of the most famous Paris quotes to ignite your wanderlust!
1. Secrets travel fast in Paris. (Napoleon Bonaparte)
2. We’ll always have Paris. (Humphrey Bogart, Casablanca)
3. Paris is a divine section of eternity. (E. E. Cummings)
4. A walk about Paris will provide lessons in history, beauty, and in the point of life. (Thomas Jefferson)
5. I cannot tell you what an immense impression Paris made upon me. It is the most extraordinary place in the world. (Charles Dickens)
6. When good Americans die, they go to Paris. (Oscar Wilde)
7. To be a Parisian is not about being born in Paris; it is about being reborn there. (Sacha Guitry)
8. Whoever does not visit Paris regularly will never be elegant. (Honoré de Balzac)
9. To know Paris is to know a great deal. (Henry Miller)
10. There are only two places in the world where we can live happy: at home and in Paris. (Ernest Hemingway)
11. Paris is always a good idea. (Audrey Hepburn, Sabrina)
12. The chief danger about Paris is that it is such a strong stimulant. (T. S. Eliot)
13. Breathe Paris in. It nourishes the soul. (Victor Hugo)
14. Paris is not a city; it’s a world. (King Francis I)
15. She wanted to die, but she also wanted to live in Paris. (Gustave Flaubert)
16. London is a riddle. Paris is an explanation. (G. K. Chesterson)
17. The objects of which Paris folks are fond– literature, art, medicine, and adultery. (Mark Twain
18. I’m not a complicated girl, she laughed, I just want to run away with you, rob a bank, fall in love and eat ice creams in Paris. (Michael Faudet)
19. When Paris sneezes, Europe catches a cold. (Klemens von Metternich)
20. You’ll have to fall in love at least once in your life, or Paris has failed to rub off on you. (E.A. Bucchianeri)
21. There is but one Paris and however hard living may be here, and if it became worse and harder even – the French air clears up the brain and does good – a world of good. (Vincent Van Gogh)
22. It’s true, you never forget your first love, and, for me, that will always be Paris. (Caitriona Balfe)
23. If you have ever walked in Paris, you will see that Paris will ever walk in your memories! (Mehmet Murat Ildan)
24. Just add three letters to Paris, and you have paradise. (Jules Renard)
25. I guess it shows that you just never know where life will take you. You search for answers. You wonder what it all means. You stumble, and you soar. And, if you’re lucky, you make it to Paris for a while. (Amy Thomas)
26. There should be a name for the syndrome that occurs when you’re in Paris, and you already miss it. (Rosecrans Baldwin)
27. Paris, I believe, is a man in his twenties in love with an older woman. (John Berger)
28. A bad day in Paris is still a good day anywhere else. (unknown)
29. They left me. My parents actually left me! IN FRANCE! (Stephanie Perkins, Anna, and the French Kiss)
Short Quotes About Paris
Want a short and Paris-inspired quote as your next Instagram caption or Facebook post? Check out these short yet meaningful one-liners about Paris.
30. Walking Paris is often described as reading, as though the city itself were a huge anthology of tales. It exerts a magnetic attraction over its citizens and its visitors, for it has always been the capital of refugees and exiles as well as of France. (Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust)
31. Paris is well worth a Mass (King Henry IV)
32. America is my country, and Paris is my hometown. (Gertrude Stein)
33. Paris – There you can be whatever you want to be. Totally yourself. (Langston Hughes)
34. An artist has no home in Europe except in Paris. (Friedrich Nietzsche)
35. But Paris after midnight… is magic. (Midnight in Paris)
36. Paris was where the twentieth century was. (Gertrude Stein)
37. Let’s go to Paris. Take me there and never look back. (Lana Del Rey)
38. To study in Paris is to be born in Paris! (Victor Hugo)
39. Lunch kills half of Paris, supper the other half. (Charles de Montesquieu)
40. When in doubt, go to Paris. (Asia Argento)
41. Paris is so delicious they should call it the City of Bites. \ (Audrey Hepburn)
42. I fly to Paris and discover how to make love to God. (Ann Voskamp)
43. Paris was a museum displaying exactly itself. (Jeffrey Eugenides)
44. Every girl needs Paris. (Eve Chase, The Wildling Sister)
45. It’s Paris, everyone’s serious about dinner. (Mindy, Emily in Paris)
46. If you’re going to be sad, you might as well be sad in Paris. (Gossip Girl)
47. Paris holds the key to your heart. (Anastasia)
Love Quotes – Paris Edition
It is no secret that many lovers would visit Paris and proclaim their love. Where else is the most romantic place on Earth? Here are some of the best quotes celebrating love and all its beauty.
48. Paris is a city for lovers, and also a city to fall in love with. (Unknown)
49. To walk hand-in-hand along the Seine, to watch the nightly lights display shimmering on the Eiffel Tower – Paris brings out the romantic in everyone. (Unknown)
50. That was the moment I fell in love with Paris and the moment that I felt that Paris had fallen in love with me. (Paris, Je T’Aime)
51. I think they’ve taken all of those down now and installed plastic shielding rather than the chain link. But our little smiley-faced love lock lived in Paris for a while! (Unknown)
52. On our first visit to Paris, my husband surprised me by bringing along a lock in our luggage. We added it to one of the ‘locks of love’ bridges. (Unknown)
53. Paris is unquestionably a city for lovers, and it has been a privilege and a delight to discover so many of its wonders by his side. (Mary Mcauliffe)
54. Paris loves lovers. (Silk Stockings)
55. Even the pigeons are dancing, kissing, going in circles, mounting each other. Paris is the city of love, even for the birds. (Samantha Schutz, I Don’t Want to Be Crazy)
Dreaming of Paris Quotes
Dreaming about your next trip to Paris? Then these quotes are sure to inspire you to take that journey. Whether it’s a romantic getaway or simply an opportunity to explore all of the beauty and culture that Paris has to offer, these quotes will remind you of why traveling to Paris is worth it.
56. Paris exists to remind you that all your dreams are real. (Audrey Hepburn, Sabrina)
57. Paris… is loath to surrender itself to people who are in a hurry; it belongs to the dreams, to those capable of amusing themselves in its streets without regard to time when urged business requires their presence elsewhere. (Julien Green)
58. I think Paris smells, and not just sweet but melancholy and curious, sometimes sad but always enticing and seductive. She’s a city for all the senses, for artists and writers and musicians and dreamers, for fantasies, for long walks and wine and lovers and yes, for mysteries. (M.J. Rose
59. Everyone dreams of living in Paris. (Natalie Portman)
60. The shopping, the food, the views! Paris is a city that entrances us all—and I’m no exception. ( Michael Kors)
61. Even the majestic trees that graced and sheltered her streets were attuned to her–and the waters of the Seine, contained and beautiful as they wound through her heart; so that the earth on that spot, so shaped by blood and consciousness, had ceased to be the earth and had become Paris. (Anne Rice)
62. You can’t escape the past in Paris, and yet what’s so wonderful about it is that the past and present intermingle so intangibly that it doesn’t seem to burden. (Allen Ginsberg)
63. In Paris, they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language. (Mark Twain)
64. I’ve seen you, beauty, and you belong to me now, whoever you are waiting for and if I never see you again, I thought. You belong to me and all Paris belongs to me and I belong to this notebook and this pencil. (Ernest Hemingway)
65. I had forgotten how gently time passes in Paris. As lively as the city is, there’s a stillness to it, a peace that lures you in. In Paris, with a glass of wine in your hand, you can just be. (Kristin Hannah)
66. When spring comes to Paris the humblest mortal alive must feel that he dwells in paradise. ( Henry Miller)
Nostalgic Quotes About Paris
Even if you’ve never been there, Paris is a city that stirs the soul. No matter how many years have passed since your last visit, memories will still linger, and these quotes help to capture the essence of why this city is so special.
67. If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast. (Ernest Hemingway)
68. Though you may leave Paris, Paris never really leaves you. (Janice Macleod)
69. Though I often looked for one, I finally had to admit that there could be no cure for Paris. (Paula McLain)
70. Of course, I think of the past and of Paris, what else is there to remember? -Djuna Barnes
71. There should be a name for the syndrome that occurs when you’re in Paris and you already miss it. (Rosecrans Baldwin)
72. Paris holds the key to your heart. (Anastasia)
73. Everyone remembers their first taste of Paris. This will be his. (Kristin Hannah)
74. What you don’t know about Paris, is that when you live there, over time, an invisible thread forms around your heart, and so when you leave, it always tugs you back. (Robert Black)
Beauty of Paris Quotes
Mesmerizing, enticing, and captivating—Paris has an unparalleled beauty that’s hard to put into words. These quotes offer a glimpse of what makes the city extra special.
75. I can never tire of speaking of the bridges of Paris. By day and by night have I paused on them to gaze at their views; the word not being too comprehensive for the crowds and groupings of objects that are visible from their arches. (James Fenimore Cooper)
76. When you see some sun, Paris is the most beautiful city in the world. It brings tears to your eyes. (Lee Radziwill)
77. I can never decide whether Paris is more beautiful by day or by night. (Midnight in Paris)
78. Paris is so very beautiful that it satisfies something in you that is always hungry in America. (Ernest Hemingway)
79. I love Paris for the million reasons that everybody loves the city. It’s an incredibly romantic and beautiful place. (Alan Furst)
80. That Paris exists and anyone could choose to live anywhere else in the world will always be a mystery to me. (Marion Cotillard, Midnight in Paris)
81. The Seine. I have painted it all my life, at all hours of the day, at all times of the year, from Paris to the sea…Argenteuil, Poissy, Vétheuil, Giverny, Rouen, Le Havre. (Claude Monet)
82. Flowers never look so lovely as they do in Paris in the market there. (Agatha Christie)
83. I do not believe there is another city on earth so beautiful as Paris nor another people with such an appreciation of the beautiful as the French… (Edward Hopper)
84. Paris is the most beautiful city in the world. It brings tears to your eyes. (Lee Radziwill)
85. A final reminder. Whenever you are in Paris at twilight in the early summer, return to the Seine and watch the evening sky close slowly on the last strand of daylight fading quietly, like a sigh. (Kate Simon)
Art In Paris
Paris is also home to some of the world’s greatest pieces of art and architecture, as these quotes show.
86. Paris is a place where, for me, just walking down a street that I’ve never been down before is like going to a movie or something. Just wandering the city is entertainment. (Wes Anderson)
87. Paris is the only city in the world where starving to death is still considered an art. (Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Shadow of the Wind)
89. People wonder why so many writers come to live in Paris. I’ve been living ten years in Paris, and the answer seems simple to me: because it’s the best place to pick ideas. Just like Italy, Spain, or Iran are the best places to pick saffron. If you want to pick opium poppies, you go to Burma or South-East Asia. And if you want to pick novel ideas, you go to Paris. (Roman Payne)
90. In Paris, everybody wants to be an actor; nobody is content to be a spectator. (Jean Cocteau)
Paris Quotes About Louvre and Eiffel Tower
Anyone who talks about Paris knows the Eiffel Tower, so it’s unsurprising that this iconic structure makes its way into many quotes.
91. France is beautiful. I stood at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower today and looked up at it. There are very few times in my life I’ve felt so small. (Leisa Rayven)
92. You should definitely visit the Louvre, a world-famous art museum where you can view, at close range, the backs of thousands of other tourists trying to see the Mona Lisa. (Dave Barry)
93. Keep good company – that is, go to the Louvre. (Paul Cezanne)
94. I refer of course to the soaring wonder of the age known as the Eiffel Tower. Never in history has a structure been more technologically advanced, materially obsolescent, and gloriously pointless all at the same time. (Bill Bryson
95. The Louvre is the book in which we learn to read. (Paul Cezanne)
96. It took me twenty years to discover painting: twenty years looking at nature, and above all, going to the Louvre. (Pierre-Auguste Renoir
97. I ought to be jealous of the tower. She is more famous than I am. (Gustave Eiffel)
98. Don’t be carried off your feet by anything because it is modern – the latest thing. Go to the Louvre often and spend a good deal of time before the Rembrandts, the Delacroixs. (Sherwood Anderson)
99. Every time I look at the Eiffel Tower, it completely blows my mind. (Brian Fallon)
100. The Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower. They’re monumental. They’re straight out of Page 52 in your school history book. (Billy Crystal)
101. I like The Eiffel Tower because it looks like steel and lace. (Natalie Lloyd)
Inspiring Paris Quotes
Lots of people get inspiration from Paris, be it ordinary travelers, writers, and even celebrities. Here are some of the best.
102. It is the French way of saying, ‘I am looking at the world through rose-coloured glasses.(Audrey Hepburn)
103. It took me some years to clear my head of what Paris wanted me to admire about it, and to notice what I preferred instead. Not power-ridden monuments, but individual buildings which tell a quieter story: the artist’s studio, or the Belle Epoque house built by a forgotten financier for a just-remembered courtesan. (Julian Barnes)
104. The best of America drifts to Paris. The American in Paris is the best American. It is more fun for an intelligent person to live in an intelligent country. France has the only two things toward which we drift as we grow older – intelligence and good manners. (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
105. Yet with these April sunsets, that somehow recall My buried life, and Paris in the spring, I feel immeasurably at peace, and find the world to be wonderful and youthful after all. (T.S. Eliot)
106. He who contemplates the depths of Paris is seized with vertigo. Nothing is more fantastic. Nothing is more tragic. Nothing is more sublime. (Victor Hugo)
107. I’d love to be a tabletop in Paris, where food is art and life combined in one, where people gather and talk for hours. I want lovers to meet over me. I’d want to be covered in drops of candle wax and breadcrumbs and rings from the bottom of wine glasses. I would never be lonely, and I would always serve a good purpose. (Maureen Johnson)
Living The Parisian Life Quotes
Ever wonder what it’s like living in one of the most famous cities in the world? These quotes will give you a little insight:
108. Paris at dawn is one of those rare cities where you get the impression that something worthwhile could actually happen to you. (Pierre Assouline)
109. I know so much is going to happen here, but I just don’t know how. It feels like Paris is full of so many adventures just waiting to be had. (Rachel Kapelke-Dale)
110. Paris is a city where time is best to spend doing nothing. (Erich Maria Remarque
111. Paris at night is a street show of a hundred moments you might have lived. (Courtney Maum)
112. In Paris, I really do like to try and do nothing… but that’s impossible. (Christian Louboutin)
113. Paris. … There you can be whatever you want to be. Totally yourself. (Langston Hughes)
114. Paris is a world meant for the walker alone, for only the pace of strolling can take in all the rich (if muted) detail. (Edmund White)
115. In Paris, our lives are one masked ball. (Gaston Leroux)
Funny Paris Quotes
What’s the best way to end a list of Paris quotes? With some humor, of course!
161. I have been in Paris for almost a week and I have not heard anyone say calories, or cholesterol, or even arterial plaque. The French do not season their food with regret. (Mary-Lou Weisman)
117. The first thing that strikes a visitor to Paris is a taxi. (Fred Allen)
118. For a painter, the Mecca of the world, for study, for inspiration and for a living is here on this star called Paris. Just look at it, no wonder so many artists have come here and called it home. Brother, if you can’t paint in Paris, you’d better give up and marry the boss’s daughter. (Alan Jay Lerner
119. To err is human. To loaf is Parisian. (Victor Hugo)
120. I always wish the hotels were like they are in movies and TV shows, where if you’re in Paris, right outside your window is the Eiffel Tower. (Gilbert Gottfried) True, you can sit outside in Paris and drink little cups of coffee. But why this is more stylish than sitting inside and drinking large glasses of whiskey I don’t know. (P.J. O’Rourke)
121. It’s Paris. You don’t come here for the weather. (Adrian Leeds)
122. I’ve been lucky enough to win an Oscar, write a best-seller – my other dream would be to have a painting in the Louvre. The only way that’s going to happen is if I paint a dirty one on the wall of the gentlemen’s lavatory. (David Niven)
123. It seemed that in Paris you could discuss classic literature or architecture or great music with everyone from the garbage collector to the mayor. (Julia Child)
124. It is a good thing to go to Paris for a few days if you have had a lot of trouble, and that is my advice to everyone except Parisians. (Muriel Spark)
125. Pardon my French (Unknown)
Paris Quotes in French and Italian
The best Paris quotes are not only written in the universal language. Of course, some of them have been written in French and Italian as well! To end our list, here are a couple of them:
126. A Paris, vois-tu, il vaudrait mieux n’avoir pas de lit que pas d’habit. (In Paris, it is better to have no bed than no clothes.) Maupassant
127. Le vrai parisien n’aime pas Paris, mais il ne peut vivre ailleurs. (A true Parisian does not love Paris, but can not live elsewhere.) Alphonse Karr
128. Paris n’a pas été bâti en un jour. (Paris wasn’t built in one day.) French proverb
129. La vie, c’est Paris ! Paris, c’est la vie! (Life is Paris! Paris is life!) Marie Bashkirtseff
130. Tout commence à Paris. (Everything starts in Paris.) Nancy Spai
131. Solo Parigi è degna di Roma, solo Roma è degna di Parigi (Only Paris is worthy of Rome; only Rome is worthy of Paris) (The motto of the exclusive sister cities of Paris and Rome
132. Paris, je t’aime. (Paris, I love you.) Unknown
133. Paris est à proprement dire toute la France. (Paris is actually France.) Heinrich Heine
And there you have it! Up to 133 of the best Paris quotes. With every quote, you can appreciate the beauty and energy of one of the world’s most iconic cities. Remember, no matter what kind of traveler you are – whether it’s for business or pleasure – take some time to explore the streets and breathe in all that Paris has to offer.
