Jaime Lerner Quotes

• If you provide good alternatives for public transport, you won't have traffic problems.

  Jaime Lerner

  Alternatives, Problem, Traffic

  53 Copy quote

• If you want creativity, take a zero off your budget. If you want sustainability, take off two zeros.

  Jaime Lerner

  Zero, Creativity, Two

  33 Copy quote

• The secret to the city is integration. Every area of the city should combine work, leisure and culture. Separate these functions and parts of the city die.

  Jaime Lerner

  Cities, Secret, Culture

  20 Copy quote

• There is no endeavor more noble than the attempt to achieve a collective dream. When a city accepts as a mandate its quality of life, when it respects the people who live in it, when it respects the environment, when it prepares for future generations, the people share the responsibility for that mandate. This shared cause is the only way to achieve that collective dream.

  Jaime Lerner

  Dream, Responsibility, Cities

  26 Copy quote

• A city grows like an organism. It is a structure of living and working together a mix of functions.

  Jaime Lerner

  Cities, Working Together, Structure

  12 Copy quote

• A lot of people assume that the expensive ideas are the most effective ones, but that is simply not true.

  Jaime Lerner

  Ideas, People, Assuming

  19 Copy quote

• Many cities end up putting off things because they want to understand everything. They don't understand that innovating is about starting. Taking care of a city is a process that you start, and then give the population space to respond.

  Jaime Lerner

  Cities, Space, Giving

  "Quiet revolution". Interview with Tom Phillips, www.theguardian.com. March 26, 2008.

  14 Copy quote

• Cities are not problems. They are solutions.

  Jaime Lerner

  Cities, Problem, Solutions

  "Maverick mayor: 'Eco-architecture not ego-architecture!'". Interview with Zara Bilgrami, www.cnn.com. June 6, 2008.

  11 Copy quote

• The lack of resources is no longer an excuse not to act. The idea that action should only be taken after all the answers and the resources have been found is a sure recipe for paralysis. The planning of a city is a process that allows for corrections; it is supremely arrogant to believe that planning can be done only after every possible variable has been controlled.

  Jaime Lerner

  Believe, Taken, Cities

  12 Copy quote

• The car is the cigarette of the future.

  Jaime Lerner

  Car, Cigarette

  "Billionaire cities: who could buy yours?" by Francesca Perry, www.theguardian.com. June 6, 2014.

  10 Copy quote

• After working in cities for nearly 40 years, I am telling you that every city can improve its quality of life in less than three years, no matter the scale or the financial conditions.

  Jaime Lerner

  Years, Cities, Quality

  "Maverick mayor: 'Eco-architecture not ego-architecture!'". Interview with Zara Bilgrami, www.cnn.com. June 6, 2008.

  10 Copy quote

• I have realized after all these years that a city that has a good quality of life attracts jobs. People don't want to invest in places if there is no quality of life.

  Jaime Lerner

  Jobs, Years, Cities

  "Maverick mayor: 'Eco-architecture not ego-architecture!'". Interview with Zara Bilgrami, www.cnn.com. June 6, 2008.

  5 Copy quote

• There is little in the architecture of a city that is more beautifully designed than a tree.

  Jaime Lerner

  Creativity, Cities, Tree

  7 Copy quote

• A car is like a mother-in-law - if you let it, it will rule your life.

  Jaime Lerner

  Mother, Law, Car

  7 Copy quote

• Creativity starts when you cut a zero from your budget.

  Jaime Lerner

  Zero, Creativity, Cutting

  "Maverick mayor: 'Eco-architecture not ego-architecture!'". Interview with Zara Bilgrami, edition.cnn.com. June 06, 2008.

  9 Copy quote

• I always run into these Ph.D.s. They write and write and write about sustainable development. Then these guys ask me, 'But, how do you do it?' They are scared to death to do anything.

  Jaime Lerner

  Running, Writing, Guy

  8 Copy quote

• I always try to say, 'If you want to help the environment, try to do just two things. One, use less of your car. Second, separate your garbage.'

  Jaime Lerner

  Two, Car, Trying

  8 Copy quote

• There is no endeavor more noble than the attempt to achieve a collective dream.

  Jaime Lerner

  Dream, Climate, Noble

  8 Copy quote

• We have to change from 'ego-architecture' to 'eco-architecture.'

  Jaime Lerner

  Ego, Architecture, Eco

  "Maverick mayor: 'Eco-architecture not ego-architecture!'". Interview with Zara Bilgrami, www.cnn.com. June 6, 2008.

  4 Copy quote

• Every city in the world can be improved in less than three years.

  Jaime Lerner

  Years, Cities, Three

  4 Copy quote

• Curitiba is not a paradise. We have all the problems that most Latin American cities have. We have slums. We have the same difficulties, but the big difference is the respect given by people due to the quality of the services which are provided.

  Jaime Lerner

  Latin, Cities, Differences

  "Maverick mayor: 'Eco-architecture not ego-architecture!'". Interview with Zara Bilgrami, www.cnn.com. June 6, 2008.

  4 Copy quote

• Every city has to deal with the problem of cars and public transport.

  Jaime Lerner

  Cities, Car, Problem

  7 Copy quote

• We can’t have landfills forever and we can’t ask others to accept our trash.

  Jaime Lerner

  Forever, Accepting, Landfills

  "Curitiba: An Environmental Showcase". Interview with Roberta Brandes Gratz, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 6, 2013.

  14 Copy quote

• A city is like a family portrait - you don't tear it up if you don't like your uncle's nose.

  Jaime Lerner

  Uncles, Cities, Tears

  5 Copy quote

• The city is not the problem; the city is the solution.

  Jaime Lerner

  Cities, Problem, Solutions

  5 Copy quote

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