Bicycle Quotes.......Keep Adding Them If You Choose

AusTexMurf · 2013-06-30 21:47:22

“Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.” – H.G. Wells

“Think of bicycles as rideable art that can just about save the world.” – Grant Petersen

“For instance, the bicycle is the most efficient machine ever created: Converting calories into gas, a bicycle gets the equivalent of three thousand miles per gallon.” - Bill Strickland, The Quotable Cyclist

“The bicycle is just as good company as most husbands and, when it gets old and shabby, a woman can dispose of it and get a new one without shocking the entire community.” - Ann Strong

“Melancholy is incompatible with bicycling.” - James E. Starrs

“Life is like riding a bicycle – in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving.” - Albert Einstein

“Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride.” – John F. Kennedy

“When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking.” – Arthur Conan Doyle

“Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel…the picture of free, untrammelled womanhood.” – Susan B. Anthony

“Bicycling is a big part of the future. It has to be. There’s something wrong with a society that drives a car to workout in a gym.” – Bill Nye the Science Guy

NadiaB · 2013-07-02 11:08:03

Thanks for posting these Larry. I hope you don't mind, but I used one of them as the Bicycle Quote of the Day for our Facebook page ;)

...facebook.com/CityOfAustinBicycleProgram

AusTexMurf · 2013-07-02 15:13:47

Right on.
Here are a few others.

One of the most important days of my life was when I learned to ride a bicycle.
~Michael Palin

If I can bicycle, I bicycle.
~David Attenborough

I thought of that while riding my bicycle.
~ Einstein, in reference to the Theory of Relativity

I feel that I am entitled to my share of lightheartedness and there is nothing wrong with enjoying one's self simply, like a boy.
~ Leo Tolstoy, In response to criticism for learning to ride a bicycle at age 67

The bicycle is a curious vehicle. Its passenger is its engine.
~John Howard

Life is like a ten speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use.
~ Charles M. Schulz

It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.
~ Ernest Hemingway

The journey of life is like a man riding a bicycle. We know he got on the bicycle and started to move. We know that at some point he will stop and get off. We know that if he stops moving and does not get off he will fall off.
~ William G. Golding, Nobel Laureate, author of "The lord of the flies."

Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia.
~ H.G. Wells

"Bicycles are almost as good as guitars for meeting girls"
~ Bob Weir, Grateful Dead

As a kid I had a dream - I wanted to own my own bicycle. When I got the bike I must have been the happiest boy in Liverpool, maybe the world. I lived for that bike. Most kids left their bike in the backyard at night. Not me. I insisted on taking mine indoors and the first night I even kept it in my bed.
~ John Lennon

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments. Here was a machine of precision and balance for the convenience of man. And (unlike subsequent inventions for man's convenience) the more he used it, the fitter his body became. Here, for once, was a product of man's brain that was entirely beneficial to those who used it, and of no harm or irritation to others. Progress should have stopped when man invented the bicycle.
~ Elizabeth West

Government must help to eliminate cars so that bicycles can help to eliminate government.
~ Advocacy slogan in Holland

One Less Car
~ Richard Rosenthal, Advocacy slogan for Transportation Alternatives, NYC, 1981

Honk if you love bikes!
~ Critical Mass, San Francisco

I dream on two wheels
~ Adventure Cycling Association

Exhibit B: Another photograph. What's missing from this picture? It's just me WITHOUT MY BIKE!
~ Pee Wee Herman, Pee-wee's Big Adventure the movie

Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle.
~ Helen Keller, deaf and blind political activist. 1880–1968

Next to a leisurely walk I enjoy a spin on my tandem bicycle. It is splendid to feel the wind blowing in my face and the springy motion of my iron steed. The rapid rush through the air gives me a delicious sense of strength and buoyancy, and the exercise makes my pulse dance and my heart sing.
~ Helen Keller, deaf and blind political activist

I began to feel that myself plus the bicycle equaled myself plus the world, upon whose spinning wheel we must all learn to ride, or fall into the sluiceways of oblivion and despair. That which made me succeed with the bicycle was precisely what had gained me a measure of success in life -- it was the hardihood of spirit that led me to begin, the persistence of will that held me to my task, and the patience that was willing to begin again when the last stroke had failed. And so I found high moral uses in the bicycle and can commend it as a teacher without pulpit or creed. She who succeeds in gaining the mastery of the bicycle will gain the mastery of life.
~ Frances E. Willard, How I Learned To Ride The Bicycle. 1895

I finally concluded that all failure was from a wobbling will rather than a wobbling wheel.
~ Frances E. Willard

Get a bicycle. You will certainly not regret it, if you live.
~ Mark Twain, Taming the Bicycle. 1884

It never gets easier, you just go faster.
~ Greg LeMond

I have always struggled to achieve excellence. One thing that cycling has taught me is that if you can achieve something without a struggle it's not going to be satisfying.
~ Greg LeMond

When my legs hurt, I say: "Shut up legs! Do what I tell you to do!"
~ Jens Voigt

It would not be at all strange if history came to the conclusion that the perfection of the bicycle was the greatest incident of the nineteenth century.
~ Anonymous

I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my bike
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride it where I like
~ Queen Bicycle Race, Fat Bottomed Girls

The bicycle, the bicycle surely, should always be the vehicle of novelists and poets.
~ Christopher Morley, American author 1890-1957

A bicycle does get you there and more.... And there is always the thin edge of danger to keep you alert and comfortably apprehensive. Dogs become dogs again and snap at your raincoat; potholes become personal. And getting there is all the fun.
~ Bill Emerson, On Bicycling, Saturday Evening Post, 1967

Bicycles are the indicator species of a community, like shellfish in a bay.
~ P. Martin Scott

Whoever invented the bicycle deserves the thanks of humanity.
~ Lord Charles Beresford

It is the unknown around the corner that turns my wheels.
~ Heinz Stucke, Bicycle touring for 50 years and still going

The cyclist creates everything from almost nothing, becoming the most energy-efficient of all... animals and machines and, as such, has a [genuine] ability to challenge the entire value system of a society.... The bicycle may be too cheap, too available, too healthy, too independent and too equitable for its own good. In an age of excess it is minimal and has the subversive potential to make people happy in an economy fuelled by consumer discontent.
~ Jim McGurn

Pray Every Day And Listen. ~ Rev. Johannes Myors, The Pedaling Preacher

Chris · 2013-07-02 23:26:41

Wow, great list! Gotta add one more -- from Anne Frank, writing in her diary, December 24, 1943:

"I long to ride a bike, dance, whistle, look at the world, feel young and know that I'm free."

MichaelBluejay · 2013-07-03 11:11:21

(Discussion about how many miles per gallon a bicyclist actually gets has been moved here.)

AusTexMurf · 2013-07-16 09:03:37

My two favorite things in life are libraries and bicycles. They both move people forward without wasting anything.
The perfect day: Riding a bike to the library.—Peter Golkin

AusTexMurf · 2013-10-14 20:42:35

Could be worse, you could be in a car.
-- Yehuda Moon

AusTexMurf · 2013-10-31 08:54:01

Michael,
Would it be possible to make this thread a sticky ?
Thanks and best,
Larry

Edit:

Thanks, Michael.

Last edited by AusTexMurf (2013-11-01 16:37:57)

MichaelBluejay · 2013-10-31 12:29:08

Your command is my wish.

longhorn93 · 2013-11-05 14:20:05

I apologize that some have previously been posted. Still some of my favorites.

Shut up legs. ~ Jens Voigt

As long as I breathe, I attack. ~ Bernard Hinault

If you brake, you don't win. ~ Mario Cipollini

Don’t buy upgrades, ride up grades. – Eddy Mercx

It doesn’t get any easier, you just get faster. – Greg Lemond

The one I close all my emails with(definitely posted here):

Life is like riding a bicycle. In order to keep you balance, you must keep moving. ~ Albert Einstein

http://www.google.com/imgres?client=fir … =83&ty=105

AusTexMurf · 2013-11-06 08:59:50

Thanks for contributing.
I had forgotten this one,

Don’t buy upgrades, ride up grades. – Eddy Mercx

Love it.
Keep adding them as you see fit, folks.

cycling74 · 2014-01-06 16:11:17

Here's one from today. Jerry Seinfeld was doing an AMA on reddit and was asked the question, "What, above all other things, is the neatest most fascinating and cool thing you get to do on a daily basis?" Here's his answer:

"WOW. First of all, GREAT question.
That I get to do on a daily basis? Probably walk to work. I think that's about the coolest thing that there is. Or take my bike. If you can walk to work or take your bike on a daily basis, I think that's just about the coolest thing that there is. Every morning I listen to the traffic on the radio, and they talk about how they are jammed and I just laugh. I love traffic. I love traffic reports because I'm not in any of them."

-Jerry Seinfeld
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1 … er/ceitm0j

Last edited by cycling74 (2014-01-06 16:11:52)

Jack · 2014-01-17 12:10:10

It is the self-conceited individual who thinks people are cattle and run upon them tooting a horn. Make every machine stop and wait until the road is clear. Give precedent to people who are walking. The streets belong to the people and not to any one class. We have an equal right, in fact, more right than the automobile.’ ~ St. Louisan editorial, 1922

longhorn93 · 2014-01-27 00:52:14

“Ever bike? Now that's something that makes life worth living!" —Jack London

AusTexMurf · 2016-10-17 14:35:47

The potential $$$ pocketed by the developers of this proposal(private development of property at its confluence with Bergstrom Spur rail ROW to airport and Bike Route 31) is not important to us. It is the problem. Why our communities have been robbed.

"...besieged by thieves and robbers and beggars with all sorts of plans and pleas for possession of some coveted treasure of water, timber, pasture, rights of way, etc. Nothing dollarable is safe, however guarded...."
John Muir

Last edited by AusTexMurf (2016-12-07 23:46:24)

AusTexMurf · 2016-10-20 10:42:48

People have always lived on streets. They have been the places where children first learned about the world, where neighbors met, the social centers of towns and cities. DONALD APPLEYARD

Whenever a street is widened, a few more [cars] are able to trickle in, with the net result that they and not the general public are benefited. Congestion has not been relieved, nor will it be by any such public improvement until adequate restrictive measures are adopted. A 1926 NYC TRAFFIC COMMISSION REPORT

Urban transport is a political and not a technical issue. The technical aspects are very simple. The difficult decisions relate to who is going to benefit from the models adopted. ENRIQUE PEÑALOSA

It is difficult to design a space that will not attract people. What is remarkable is how often this has been accomplished. WILLIAM H. WHYTE

I believe very strongly that the cities that pay attention—really pay attention —to quality of life will be the cities that thrive in the 21st century. RICHARD M. DALEY

It’s really wonderful to wake up in a city where everyday you realize that today the city is a little bit better than yesterday. JAN GEHL

The importance of pedestrian public spaces cannot be measured, but most other important things in life cannot be measured either…pedestrian places are essential to a city’s happiness. ENRIQUE PEÑALOSA

If we can develop and design streets so that they are wonderful, fulfilling places to be— community-building places, attractive for all people—then we will have successfully designed about one-third of the city directly and will have had an immense impact on the rest. ALAN JACOBS

AusTexMurf · 2016-10-30 23:17:21

"Adding more traffic lanes to address congestion is like trying to cure obesity by loosening your belt." - Lewis Mumford, 1955

AusTexMurf · 2016-11-18 13:45:48

"When man first set woman on two wheels with a pair of pedals, did he know, I wonder, that he had rent the veil of the harem in twain? A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Typewriter Girl, 1899.

"Every so often a bird gets up and flies some place it's drawn to. I don't suppose it could tell you why, but it does it anyway." Ian Hibell, 1934-2008