Cities never flourish alone. They have to be trading with other cities.

To seek "causes" of poverty in this way is to enter an intellectual dead end because poverty has no causes. Only prosperity has causes.

Being human is itself difficult, and therefore all kinds of settlements (except dream cities) have problems. Big cities have difficulties in abundance, because they have people in abundance.

observation of realities has never, to put it mildly, been one of the strengths of economic development theory.

All through organized history, if you wanted prosperity you had to have cities. Cities are places that attract new people with new ideas.

People who think of themselves as exiles, I find, can never really put their lives together, really.

I think that intelligent people to a great extent are captives of their time or place.