Thor Heyerdahl Quotes

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

They paved paradise and put up a parkin lot With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swingin' hot spot Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you got till it's gone

I like to call it 'the national automobile slum.' You can call it suburban sprawl. I think it's appropriate to call it the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world.

[Urbanization] is the inevitable outcome of the processes of growth and the processes of modernization.

I wrote 'Big Yellow Taxi' on my first trip to Hawaii. I took a taxi to the hotel and when I woke up the next morning, I threw back the curtains and saw these beautiful green mountains in the distance. Then, I looked down and there was a parking lot as far as the eye could see, and it broke my heart this blight on paradise. That's when I sat down and wrote the song.

Urbanization has relied on land conversion and land financing, which is causing urban sprawl and, on occasion, ghost towns and waste.

If people destroy something replaceable made by mankind, they are called vandals; if they destroy something irreplaceable made by God, they are called developers.

Once we started to urbanize, we put ourselves on this treadmill. We traded away stability for growth. And growth requires change.

One thought that occurs to me is that men will continue to withdraw from nature in order to create an environment that will suit them better.

I would see my hometown, Los Angeles, change. Green space and orange groves gave way to cement, freeways flooded with traffic, and air pollution, all in the name of "progress." I felt like I was losing my home. It had a profound effect on me, and I realized just how important nature was to my spirit, my soul, my point of view.

Why is it that the destruction of something created by humans is called vandalism, yet the destruction of something created by God is called development?

The concept of conservation is a far truer sign of civilization than that spoilation of a continent which we once confused with progress.

When we destroy something crated by man we call it vandalism but when we destroy something by nature we call it progress.

As a planning board commissioner, I have to review the applications for development throughout the city, and the bulk of those applications have been for the waterfront. I think the progress the waterfront has made is amazing.

Denver is a city that will be far more defined by its future than its past.

Urbanization is not about simply increasing the number of urban residents or expanding the area of cities. More importantly, it's about a complete change from rural to urban style in terms of industry structure, employment, living environment and social security.

I want to live in a city where the future is being mapped out.

Cities are not problems. They are solutions.

Every time you think of a city, you have to think green, green, green. Every time you see concrete jungle, you must find open spaces. And when you find open spaces, make it so people can get to them.

I think the Netherlands will become one big city at a point. It is inevitable when you live in a country with so many people. You cannot afford to leave nature as it is. Some people believe that the dunes should be left in their original state, but I think it's strange to let things become how they were 500 years ago.

Back then, we could drive a mile from home and there was nothing. Now it's grown in every direction and is populated and modernized. I guess I have mixed feelings about it, but I'm not someone that thinks everything should stop growing.

Urban development in India... will be the biggest sunrise industry that any country has seen in any part of the world.

We are aware only of the empty space in the forest, which only yesterday was filled with trees.

Fifty years ago people were talking about Sydney's sprawl, but nobody does anything about it.

I think ultimately, bringing more nature back into the city is a way to deal with urban sprawl and things like that. If the cities feel a little more natural, people like to live there more rather than moving out and dividing up another piece of land that shouldn't be touched.