300 Perfect New York Quotes + New York Instagram Captions
Ahhh, the city of lights! Looking for the best New York quotes and New York Instagram captions to describe that unforgettable feeling of NYC? This list is comprised of the ultimate quotes on New York City, New York puns, and catchy captions for New York life.
The first half of this post will cover the best New York City quotes, whether you are looking for NYC quotes to inspire wanderlust, or New York sayings from famous NYCers, or just some funny quotes about New York City, you can find them here.
The second half of this post will cover perfect little tidbits for your next NYC photo on Instagram or any social media platform, really. Whether you are looking for simple captions New York City style, New York captions from famous people, short and catchy New York City captions, popular New York Insta captions from books and songs, or NYC Instagram captions from shows like Sex and the City and Gossip Girl, look no further.
I’ve also tucked some seasonal New York Instagram captions in there, we’re talkin’ Home Alone people!
Alright, now it’s time to scroll down, copy and paste your favourite New York quotes or Instagram captions for New York and voila! Instant Instagram success (don’t forget to add hashtags).
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE:
NYC Puns for Instagram
Brooklyn Bridge Captions for Instagram
Central Park Instagram Captions
Road Trip Quotes + Long Drive Captions for Instagram
Sunset Quotes + Captions for Instagram
Sunshine Quotes + Captions for Instagram
Smiling Captions + Quotes for Instagram
Nature Captions for Instagram
Hiking Captions for Instagram
*This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link. Please see my full disclosure for further information.
Best New York Quotes
These are my absolute favourite quotes on New York I could find in books, poems, shows, movies, and the entire internet. I’ve comprised this list of quotes about New York City to inspire your next Instagram post and get your audience dreaming about the Big Apple. Copy and paste any of these impactful quotes on New York City or catchy quotes about New York for your next post.
- “New York is not a city – it’s a world.” — Iman
2. “Somewhere between living and dreaming there’s New York.” – Unknown
3. “I love New York because within its borders you can travel the world.” – Dennis Gonzalez
4. “Once you have lived in New York and made it your home, no place else is good enough.” – John Steinbeck
5. “New York is not a place. It is a feeling…” – Unknown
6. “I love New York. It’s a little bit of the whole world. In New York, the whole world comes to you.” – Billy Graham
7. “One can’t paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt.” – Georgia O’Keefe
8. “If a man can live in Manhattan, he can live anywhere.” – Arthur C. Clarke
9. “You haven’t lived until you died in New York.” – Alexander Woollcott
10. “New York City, the land of opportunity.” – Harry, Home Alone 2
11. “Make your mark in New York and you are a made [wo]man.” – Mark Twain
12. “It couldn’t have happened anywhere but in little old New York.” – O. Henry
13. “New York is the only real city-city.” – Truman Capote
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Short Quotes on New York
Who needs to spend a ridiculous amount of time scouring the internet for the perfect short New York quotes? Yeah, definitely not you. Don’t waste another second on trying to find the best New York quotes short style, this list has you covered. Check out this list of ultimate short quotes about New York and, in my opinion, pretty memorable NYC short quotes.
14. “New York City is a tourist trap I don’t mind being in.” – Unknown
15. “Give me the streets of Manhattan!” – Walt Whitman
16. “The glamour of it all! New York! America!” – Charlie Chaplin
17. “New York had all the iridescence of the beginning of the world.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
18. “New York, New York. A city so nice they named it twice.” – Unknown
19. “New York!” he said. “That’s not a place, it’s a dream.” – Ralph Ellison
20. “Things always change and New York teaches you that.” – Richard Hell
21. “If you follow your heart just right, it will take you to New York City.” – Unknown
22. “I never feel as fully awake as when I’m in NY.” – John Jeremiah Sullivan
23. “New York is a diamond iceberg floating in river water.” – Truman Capote
24. “Skyscraper National Park.” – Kurt Vonnegut
25. “So many lights you’d think we were living in a constellation.” – Jodi Lynn Anderson
26. “Practically everybody in New York has half a mind to write a book — and does.” – Groucho Marx
27. “For me, New York is comfortable, not strange.” – Karl Lagerfeld
28. “I’m just a little apple in the Big Apple.” – Unknown
29. “I wake up every morning and say to myself, ‘Well, I’m still in New York. Thank you, God.” – Ed Koch
Famous New Yorker Quotes
These famous New York celebrities really say it best when describing their home city. The list below of well-known New York quotes, and frankly the best New York famous quotes on the planet, has you covered. Your audience will get a kick out of these famous quotes about New York and living in the Big Apple. There’s even a pretty awesome Fran Lebowitz quotes New York visitors will love.
30. “Most cities are nouns. New York’s a verb.” – John F. Kennedy
31. “If Louis was right, and you only get one great love, New York may just be mine. And I can’t have nobody talking nonsense about my boyfriend.” — Carrie Bradshaw
32. “When you leave New York, you are astonished at how clean the rest of the world is. Clean is not enough.” — Fran Lebowitz
33. “There is no question that there is an unseen world. The problem is, how far is it from midtown and how late is it open?” – Woody Allen
34. “New York was a city where you could be frozen to death in the midst of a busy street and nobody would notice.” – Bob Dylan
35. “There’s something so romantic about being broke in New York. You gotta do it. You have to live there once without any money, and then you have to live there when you have money. Let me tell you, of the two, the latter is far better.” – Amy Poehler
36. “I go to Paris, I go to London, I go to Rome, and I always say, “There’s no place like New York. It’s the most exciting city in the world now. That’s the way it is. That’s it.” – Robert De Niro
37. “A middle finger is more New York than a corporate ambush. I bleed for my hometown.” – Lady Gaga
More Quotes on New York from Famous NYCers
I basically couldn’t fit all these famous New York quotes into one section, so I’ve added another delectable list of famous quotes New York has inspired. If the ones above aren’t quite your cup of tea, these popular quotes for New York and New York quotes famous people have said, should do the trick.
38. “There is no place like it, no place with an atom of its glory, pride, and exultancy. It lays its hand upon a man’s bowels; he grows drunk with ecstasy; he grows young and full of glory, he feels that he can never die.” – Walt Whitman
29. “I can’t with any conscience argue for New York with anyone. It’s like Calcutta. But I love the city in an emotional, irrational way, like loving your mother or your father even though they’re a drunk or a thief. I’ve loved the city my whole life — to me, it’s like a great woman.” – Woody Allen
40. “Every true New Yorker believes with all his heart that when a New Yorker is tired of New York, he is tired of life.” – Robert Moses
41. “I was a girly-girl until I moved to New York. Then I got really into the androgynous look of the early-’90s club scene. I had really short hair and started blurring the line a bit. But for me, grade school was about Benetton, Esprit, and Guess jeans.” – Chloë Sevigny
42. “In New York, the sky is bluer, and the grass is greener, and the girls are prettier, and the steaks are thicker, and the buildings are higher, and the streets are wider, and the air is finer than the sky, or the grass, or the girls, or the steaks, or the air of any place else in the world.” – Edna Ferber
43. “This is the city of dreamers and time and again it’s the place where the greatest dream of all, the American dream, has been tested and has triumphed.” – Michael Bloomberg
New York Sayings from Famous People
These are specifically from famous people that don’t live in NYC but have a love of the Big Apple. These well-known New York City sayings and impactful sayings about New York are bound to get your audience stopping their scroll. This is not to say you need to be famous to have popular NYC sayings, but it doesn’t hurt ;). Copy and paste any of these famous sayings about New York City and bob’s your uncle.
44. “New York has romanced me unlike anywhere else.” – Blake Lively
45. “If I’d lived in Roman times, I’d have lived in Rome. Where else? Today America is the Roman Empire and New York is Rome itself.” – John Lennon
46. “In terms of theater, there’s not a more supportive theater community than in New York. It’s really kind of a real thrill to go there. I mean, don’t forget, I’m a boy from the suburbs of Sydney, so getting to New York is a huge, huge thrill.” – Hugh Jackman
47. “I didn’t know the city at all, but I was so happy to be in New York I cried. I was so excited.” – Greta Gerwig
48. “New York has a thousand universes in it that don’t always connect but we do all walk the same streets, hear the same sirens, ride the same subways, see the same headlines in the Post, read the same writings on the walls. That shared landscape gets inside of all of us and, in some small way, unites us, makes us think we know each other even when we don’t.” – Jay-Z
49. “I regret profoundly that I was not an American and not born in Greenwich Village. It might be dying, and there might be a lot of dirt in the air you breathe, but this is where it’s happening.” – John Lennon
50. “London is satisfied, Paris is resigned, but New York is always hopeful. Always it believes that something good is about to come off, and it must hurry to meet it.” — Dorothy Parker
New York City Quotes to Inspire your Next Visit
Most of the time, you will have an audience that hasn’t been to NYC or is dying to go back. These NYC quotes for Instagram will inspire their next trip! Nothing like the vibrancy and boldness of New York City to develop some epic New York quotes for Instagram. Whether you are a fan of Times Square or Central Park (yes, I have quotes about Central Park, too!), you can find NYC famous quotes about them but also New York travel quotes that don’t include the real touristy places.
51. “One belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years.” – Tom Wolfe
52. “New York…This is the place songs are written about, movies are set and literature explores. This is the hip-hop spot, the heart of bebop, punk and soul. The synonym of rock and roll. This is five cities in one: the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island, home to every color, culture, fashion and flavor you can think of.” – NYCvisits.com
53. “It’s pretty cliched, but Times Square is just incredible. You really feel like you’re in the capital of the world.” — Timothy F. Cahill
54. “New York is really the place to be; to go to New York, you’re going to the centre of the world, the lion’s den.” – Zubin Mehta
55. “I get out of the taxi and it’s probably the only city which in reality looks better than on the postcards: New York.” – Milos Forman
56. “I look out the window and I see the lights and the skyline and the people on the street rushing around looking for action, love, and the world’s greatest chocolate chip cookie, and my heart does a little dance.”— Nora Ephron
57. “So many lights you’d think we were living in a constellation.” – Jodi Lynn Anderson
58. “I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York’s skyline.” — Ayn Rand
59. “The only credential the city asked was the boldness to dream. For those who did, it unlocked its gates and its treasures, not caring who they were or where they came from.” – Moss Hart
60. “My advice for aspiring writers is to go to New York. And if you can’t go to New York, go to the place that represents New York to you, where the standards for writing are high, there are other people who share your dreams, and where you can talk, talk, talk about your interests. Writing books begins in talking about it, like most human projects, and in being close to those who have already done what you propose to do.” – Walter Kirn
61. “New York…This is knishes, kebabs, pizza, pâté, satay and all the best the rest of the world has to offer. This is where the ball drops and curtains rise. This is Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, beyond Broadway. This is people-watching, celebrity sightings, and sample sale prices on the cutting edge of style… This is all of the above, all at the same time. This is New York City.” – NYCVisit.com
Inspirational New York City Quotes
For anyone looking to visit New York City, or can’t wait to feel that unforgettable big city feeling, these quotes about NYC are for them. This list of inspirational New York City quotes and musical NYC quotes are great for an upbeat and uplifting Instagram post. Plus, what are quotes about NY without the addition of Hamilton?
62. “The city was radiant and I felt untouchable.” – Stephanie Danler
63. “I … still had the sense, so peculiar to New York, that something extraordinary would happen any minute, any day, any month.” – Joan Didion
64. “Look around, look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now! History is happening in Manhattan and we just happen to be in the greatest city in the world!” – Hamilton Cast, ‘The Schuyler Sisters’
65. “NY 101. It’ll rob you and cheat you. It’ll take your friends and turn them on you. It’ll kick your ass and break your heart. But then it’ll pick you up again, make you feel so totally alive and untouchable. It’s the center of the world, it’s the best place in the world, and once it’s in your heart it’ll never leave you.” – Ryan Kelly
66. “The wanderer in Manhattan must go forth with a certain innocence because New York is best seen with innocent eyes.” – Pete Hamill
67. “More than anything else New York is a city of superlatives, a place where the best, the brightest, the biggest is the norm.” – Marilyn J. Appleberg
68. “In New York the opportunities for learning, and acquiring a culture that shall not come out of the ruins, but belong to life, are probably greater than anywhere else in the world.” – Thomas Wolfe
Catchy NYC Quotes
Looking for some catchy New York quotes Instagram followers will love? Look no further. This medley of New York Instagram quotes has some pretty memorable sayings. There are some NYC skyline quotes and famous New York sayings. I particularly like the ones by Myrna Loy and Le Corbusier!
69. “There is something in the New York air that makes sleep useless.” — Simone de Beauvoir
70. “The only people who can afford to be artists in New York are rich.” – Sophie Frances
71. “There is more sophistication and less sense in New York than anywhere else on the globe.” – Elbert Hubbard
72. “The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding.” — John Updike
73. “A bad day in New York City is still better than a good day anywhere else.” – Unknown
74. “This is no ordinary city, this city of ours. This is the land of skyscrapers and yellow cabs: the capital of everything. “ – NYCvisits.com
75. “A hundred times have I thought New York is a catastrophe, and fifty times: It is a beautiful catastrophe.” – Le Corbusier
76. “The skyline of New York is a monument of a splendor that no pyramids or palaces will ever equal or approach.” – Ayn Rand
77. “Coming to New York from the muted mistiness of London, as I regularly do, is like travelling from a monochrome antique shop to a technicolor bazaar.” – Kenneth Tynan
78. “The state bird of New York is the Jaywalk.” – Archie Bulger
79. “Something’s always happening here. If you’re bored in New York, it’s your own fault.” – Myrna Loy
80. “Everybody ought to have a Lower East Side in their life.” – Irving Berlin
Funny Quotes about New York
I mean, who better to give you funny New York quotes than famous people like Liz Lemon and David Letterman? In addition to them, you can find Funny New York captions for Instagram and funny NYC quotes from some other prominent peeps. Copy and paste one of these New York quotes funny style for your next post.
81. “The Bronx? No Thonx!” – Ogden Nash
82. “Traffic signals in New York are just rough guidelines.” – David Letterman
83. “New York is the only city in the world where you can get run down on the sidewalk by a pedestrian.” – Russell Baker
84. “You can try to change New York, but it’s like Jay-Z says: Concrete bunghole where dreams are made up. There’s nothing you can do.” – Liz Lemon
85. “New York now leads the world’s great cities in the number of people around whom you shouldn’t make a sudden move.” – David Letterman
86. “When it’s 100 degrees in New York, it’s 72 in Los Angeles. When it’s 30 degrees in New York, in Los Angeles it’s still 72. However, there are 6 million interesting people in New York, and only 72 in Los Angeles.” ― Neil Simon
More Funny New York Quotes
If you didn’t get enough funny quotes about New York above, well here’s some more. Quotes New York inspires are easily drawn from daily life and these comedians and famous people draw humour from the Big Apple. I particularly like the New York funny quotes from Johnny Carson and Lewis Black. Check out these funny quotes about New York City for your next social media photo.
87. “Someone asked me for directions, so you can call me a real New Yorker.” – Unknown
88. “On a New York subway you get fined for spitting, but you can throw up for nothing.” – Lewis Grizzard
89. “Manhattan is an accumulation of possible disasters that never happen.” – Edward I. Koch
90. “Anytime four New Yorkers get into a cab together without arguing, a bank robbery has just taken place.” – Johnny Carson
91. “A person who speaks good English in New York sounds like a foreigner.” – Jackie Mason
92. “The flag of New York City should be someone with four bags opening a door with their shoulder.” – Alex Baze
93. “Cities have sexes: London is a man, Paris a woman, and New York a well-adjusted transsexual.” – Angela Carter
94. “I love New York City. The reason I live in New York City is because it’s the loudest city on the planet Earth. It’s so loud I never have to listen to any of the shit that’s going on in my own head.” – Lewis Black
95. “Of course, in Los Angeles, everything is based on driving, even the killings. In New York, most people don’t have cars, so if you want to kill a person, you have to take the subway to their house. And sometimes on the way, the train is delayed and you get impatient, so you have to kill someone on the subway. That’s why there are so many subway murders; no one has a car.” – George Carlin
Romantic New York Quotes Love Style
I say romantic here because these New York love quotes are truly about the love people have for the city itself. New York City love quotes can be super cheesy, or really heartfelt, so browse this list of New York quotes love has inspired, you may even find missing New York quotes in there.
96. “I fell in love. His name is New York.” – Unknown
97. “People never forget two things, their first love and their first day in New York City.” – Unknown
98. “If London is a watercolour, New York is an oil painting.” ― Peter Shaffer
99. “New York was no mere city. It was instead an infinitely romantic notion.” – Joan Didion
100. “I love New York on summer afternoons when everyone’s away.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
101. “Quite simply, I was in love with New York. I do not mean ‘love’ in any colloquial way, I mean that I was in love with the city, the way you love the first person who ever touches you and you never love anyone quite that way again.” – Joan Didion
102. “I don’t like cities. But I like New York. Other places make me feel like a dork.” — Madonna
103. “New York is a work of art in and of itself. It’s a masterpiece that shouldn’t make sense, yet somehow, it does.” – Jacqueline E. Smith
104. “To be young and in love in New York City…” – Lauv
105. “Being in New York is like falling in love. Over and over again, every minute.” – Rachel Berry
106. “Turn on every light in new york city I’d still be blind if you weren’t with me.” – Unknown
107. “That’s my favorite place in the world, so far, that I’ve seen. I haven’t travelled much, but I don’t think I’ll find anything to replace Brooklyn.” – Marilyn Monroe
Impactful New York Quotes
These impactful New York City phrases will have your audience jonesing to experience the Big Apple. Whether you are looking for New York city quotes for Instagram that are about NYC landscape, or NYC Quotes Instagram will love about living in NYC, you can find them here. These NY sayings quotes are powerful and describe the epic feeling of NYC.
108. “If you want to become a real New Yorker, there’s only one rule: You have to believe New York is, has been, and always will be the greatest city on earth. The center of the universe.” – Ellen R. Shapiro
109. “When I was younger, I had wanted to be at the very center of all the action in New York, but I slowly came to realize that there is no one center. The center is everywhere – wherever people are living out their lives. It’s a city with a million centers.” – Elizabeth Gilbert
110. “New York, you are an Egypt! But an Egypt turned inside out. For she erected pyramids of slavery to death, and you erect pyramids of democracy with the vertical organ-pipes of your skyscrapers all meeting at the point of infinity of liberty!” – Salvador Dalí
111. “No urban night is like the night [in New York]… Squares after squares of flame, set up and cut into the aether. Here is our poetry, for we have pulled down the stars to our will.” – Ezra Pound
112. “If you’re greedy for life, that’s what New York City is all about. If you’re trying to get as much as you can every day, this city is the place to be.” – Pam Nelson
113. “New York provides not only a continuing excitation but also a spectacle that is continuing.” – E.B. white
114. “One’s life and passion may be elsewhere, but New York is where you prove if what you think in theory makes sense in life.” – Miuccia Prada
115. “If there were a god of New York, it would be the Greek’s Hermes, the Roman’s Mercury. He embodies New York qualities: the quick exchange, the fastness of language and style, craftiness, the mixing of people and crossing of borders, imagination.” – James Hillman
116. “Cut off as I am, it is inevitable that I should sometimes feel like a shadow walking in a shadowy world. When this happens I ask to be taken to New York City. Always I return home weary but I have the comforting certainty that mankind is real flesh and I myself am not a dream.” – Helen Keller
117. “As for New York City, it is a place apart. There is not its match in any other country in the world.” – Pearl S. Buck
118. “I love that about New York: You just dress the way you want to dress and feel really comfortable because nobody is judging. You can just be yourself, and it’s perfectly normal.” – Henrik Lundqvist
Life in New York City Quotes from Famous People
The busy streets, the car horns, the buzz, there’s nothing like New York City. This list of New York quote ideas and quotes about big cities attempt to capture that feeling. Copy and paste any of these NY quotes and famous New Yorker quotes and voila!
119. “I love New York, even though it isn’t mine, the way something has to be, a tree or a street or a house, something, anyway, that belongs to me because I belong to it.” ― Truman Capote
120. “Being a New Yorker grounds you in every way. Before you walk out of the house, you can dress in the nicest clothes and be whoever you think you are, but when you’re on those streets, you’re just in the school of fish.” — Awkafina
121. “My favorite thing about New York is the people because I think they’re misunderstood. I don’t think people realize how kind New York people are.” — Bill Murray
122. “When I first moved to New York and I was totally broke, sometimes I would buy Vogue instead of dinner. I felt it fed me more.” – Carrie Bradshaw
123. “When I’m in New York, I just want to walk down the street and feel this thing, like I’m in a movie.” – Ryan Adams
124. “Curtains forcing their will against the wind, children sleep, exchanging dreams with seraphim. The city drags itself awake on subway straps; and I, an alarm, awake as a rumor of war, lie stretching into dawn, unasked and unheeded.” – Maya Angelou
125. “At night… the streets become rhythmical perspectives of glowing dotted lines, reflections hung upon them in the streets as the wistaria hangs its violet racemes on its trellis. The buildings are shimmering verticality, a gossamer veil, a festive scene-prop hanging there against the black sky to dazzle, entertain, amaze.” – Frank Lloyd Wright
New York City Quotes about Life in the Big Apple
New York City life quotes, New York sayings and phrases about New York life can be found here. I especially love the New York saying from Charles Whibley. What’s your favourite?
126. “I have always lived in the myth of New York more than in its reality. It is what enabled me to live there for so long, loving the idea of something more than the thing itself.” – Ling Ma
127. “New York is the meeting place of the peoples, the only city where you can hardly find a typical American.” – Djuna Barnes
128. “What, indeed, is a New Yorker? Is he Jew or Irish? Is he English or German? Is he Russian or Polish? He may be something of all these, and yet he is wholly none of them. Something has been added to him which he had not had before. he is endowed with a briskness and an invention often alien to his blood. He is quicker in his movement, less trammelled in his judgement… The change he undergoes is unmistakable, New York, indeed, resembles a magic cauldron. Those who are cast into it are born again.” – Charles Whibley
129. “I love New York. You can pop out of the Underworld in Central Park, hail a taxi, head down Fifth Avenue with a giant hellhound loping behind you, and nobody even looks at you funny.” – Rick Riordan
130. “While America will always, I think, feel foreign to me, New York City is my home. This is where I can construct my own identity freely and reject labels imposed on me.” – Raquel Cepeda
131. “The city is like poetry; it compresses all life, all races and breeds, into a small island and adds music and the accompaniment of internal engines.” – E.B. White
132. “In Rome I am weighted down by a lack of momentum, the inertia of a spent civilization. In New York I feel plugged into a strong alternating current of hope and despair.” – Ted Morgan
133. “I believe in New Yorkers. Whether they’ve ever questioned the dream in which they live, I wouldn’t know, because I won’t ever dare ask that question.” – Dylan Thomas
134. “By comparison with other less hectic days, the city is uncomfortable and inconvenient; but New Yorkers temperamentally do not crave comfort and convenience—if they did they would live elsewhere.” – E.B. White
135. “The whole of New York is rebuilt about once in ten years.” – Philip Hone
136. “Living in California adds ten years to a man’s life. And those extra ten years I’d like to spent in New York.” – Harry Ruby
137. “Sometimes to walk in shaded parts of Manhattan is to be inserted into a Magritte: the street is night while the sky is day.” – Joseph O’Neill
Seasonal New York Quotes for Instagram
Oh, the streets of New York in fall or winter? How magical! There’s nothing like New York Christmas quotes from Home Alone to put you in the spirit or autumn in New York quotes that describe the beautiful colours. The best New York quotes for the seasons are below, so copy and paste any of these NYC quotes short and sweet for your next fall or winter post.
138. “Merry Christmas, you filthy animal.” – Home Alone 2
139. “There is no more beautiful place to be at Christmas than New York City.” – Mike Roth
140. “Who wants to spend Christmas in a tropical climate anyway?” – Home Alone 2
141. “People in this city are frozen to death by Happy Holidays.” – Unknown
142. “It’s autumn in New York. The colours are changing – yellow, the browns, the greens, the oranges. And that’s just the tap water.” – David Letterman
143. “It was one of those perfect New York October afternoons when the explosion of oranges and yellows against the bright blue sky makes you feel like your life is passing through your fingers, that you’ve felt this autumn-feeling before and you’ll probably get to feel it again, but one day you won’t anymore because you’ll be dead.” – Sarah Dunn
144. “There is a time of year in New York when even before the first leaf falls, you feel the seasons click.” – Unknown
145. “Autumn in New York, why does it seem so inviting?” — Vernon Duke
NYC Quotes for Instagram from Song Lyrics
Over the years famous singers have attempted to describe that indescribable feeling of NYC. This list of famous sayings about New York from songs and NYC sayings and quotes from music are super catchy. Throw one of these New York vibes quotes into your next post. I’ve even added a Dumbo Brooklyn quotes in there. Oh, a Brooklyn Bridge quote.
146. “I want to wake up in a city that never sleeps.” – Frank Sinatra
147. “I’m in a New York state of mind.” — Billy Joel
148. “New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of, there’s nothin’ you can’t do now you’re in New York.” – Jay-Z and Alicia Keys
149. “Welcome to New York. It’s been waiting for you.” – Taylor Swift
150. “I want to be a part of it, New York, New York.” — Frank Sinatra
151. “New York City’s the place where they said, ‘Hey babe, Take a walk on the wild side.’” – Lou Reed
152. “Times Square can’t shine as bright as you.” — Plain White T’s
153. “These streets will make you feel brand new. Big lights will inspire you. Let’s hear it for New York.” – Jay Z. feat. Alicia Keys
154. “Spread love, it’s the Brooklyn way…” – The Notorious B.I.G.
155. “New York City, please go easy on me tonight. New York City, please go easy on this heart of mine.” – The Chainsmokers
New York Quotes from Books
Famous New York quotes from movies and books can be found here. Books like Fountainhead and The Great Gatsby have some pretty awesome New York City of dreams quotes. I put a couple of New York City quotes short in there for convenience, but the quotes about Queens NY are pretty awesome, too.
156. “New York is made up of millions of different people, and they all come here looking for something.” – Lindsey Kelk, I Heart New York (2009)
157. “This isn’t a fairy tale. It’s New York City.” – Alex Flinn, Beastly (2007)
158. “The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)
159. “Hell isn’t fire and brimstone. It’s New York City.” – Karina Halle, Veiled (2016)
160. “I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York’s skyline. Particularly when one can’t see the details. Just the shapes. The shapes and the thought that made them.” – Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead (1943)
161. “So I went to New York City to be born again. It was and remains easy for most Americans to go somewhere else and start anew. I wasn’t like my parents. I didn’t have any supposedly sacred piece of land or shoals of friends to leave behind. Nowhere has the number zero been of more philosophical value than in the United States…. and when the [train] plunged into a tunnel under New York City, with its lining of pipes and wires, I was out of the womb and into the birth canal.” – Kurt Vonnegut in Bluebeard (1987)
162. “The only credential the city asked was the boldness to dream. For those who did, it unlocked its gates and its treasures, not caring who they were or where they came from.” – Moss Hart, Act One (1959)
163. “She leaned back in her chair, watching the sunrise as if it were a private performance intended just for her. And for a moment it felt that way: as if the sun was showing off for her benefit, reminding her how wonderful it was to be young and alive and in New York.” – Katharine McGee, The Towering Sky (2018)
More New York Quotes from Books
This list of New York quotes from books and literary quotes on New York are popular for a reason. The last couple of quotes about New York state describe New Yorkers perfectly. I think these would make great New York movie quotes, too.
164. “New York City is where specks of dust aspire randomly with all their cunning to become grains of sand.” – David B. Lentz, The Fine Art of Grace (2016)
165. “New York City, city of exaggerations. Place of Herculean ascensions and perilous falls.” – Kurt Wenzel, Lit Life (2001)
166. “New York is an ugly city, a dirty city. Its climate is a scandal, its politics are used to frighten children, its traffic is madness, its competition is murderous. But there is one thing about it – once you have lived in New York and it has become your home, no place else is good enough.” – John Steinbeck, America and Americans (1966)
167. “The last time anybody made a list of the top hundred character attributes of New Yorkers, common sense snuck in at number 79.” – Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless (1992)
168. “People go to LA to “find themselves,” [but] they come to New York to become someone new.” – Lindsey Kelk, I Heart New York (2016)
169. “[New York]… It was never built for the comfort and happiness of its citizens, but to astonish the world.” – Susan Ertz, Anger in the Sky (1943)
170. “New York City is the place where people come to invent, reinvent, or find the room they need to be who they wish to be.” – Siri Hustvedt, A Plea for Eros (2005)
171. “By comparison with other less hectic days, the city is uncomfortable and inconvenient; but New Yorkers temperamentally do not crave comfort and convenience – if they did they would live elsewhere.” – E. B. White, Here Is New York (1949)
172. “You can do what you like, sir, but I’ll tell you this. New York is the true capital of America. Every New Yorker knows it, and by God, we always shall.” – Edward Rutherfurd, New York (2009)
Gritty New York City Quotes
Not everyone loves NYC, or they hate to love it. This list of NYC quotes in English, NYC subway quotes, escape from New York quotes and I miss New York quotes (not really!) are a bit more gritty and artsy, if that type of thing floats your boat.
173. “The only real advantage of New York is that all its inhabitants ascend to heaven right after their deaths, having served their full term in hell right on Manhattan Island.” – Barnard Bulletin
174. “New York is a sucked orange.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
175. “New York is an ugly city, a dirty city. Its climate is a scandal, its politics are used to frighten children, its traffic is madness, its competition is murderous.” – Unknown
176. “Whoever is born in New York is ill-equipped to deal with any other city: all other cities seem, at best, a mistake, and, at worst, a fraud. No other city is so spitefully incoherent.” — James Baldwin
177. “New York – that unnatural city where everyone is an exile, none more so than the American.” – Charlotte Perkins Gilman
178. “New York is appalling, fantastically charmless and elaborately dire.” – Henry James
179. “When you leave New York you ain’t going anywhere.” – Jimmy Breslin
180. “Manhattan is an accumulation of possible disasters that never happen.” – Ed Koch
181. “It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story.” – Agatha Christie
182. “New York is a place where the rich walk, the poor drive Cadillac’s, and the beggars die of malnutrition with thousands of dollars hidden in their mattresses.” – Duke Ellington
Gossip Girl Quotes on New York
Gosh, who hasn’t heard of the famous show Gossip Girl? Well, these famous New York City quotes come from the popular TV series and man, these Gossip Girl New York quotes are sassy and pointed. True to the show’s nature these Gossip Girl Instagram captions and New York quotes Gossip Girl ignited are perf for your next post.
183. “Once men have tasted caviar, it baffles me how they settle for catfish.” – Blair Waldorf
184. “Whoever said money doesn’t buy happiness didn’t know where to shop.” – Blair Waldorf
185. “You can’t make people love you, but you can make them fear you.” – Blair Waldorf
186. “Haven’t you heard? I’m the crazy bitch around here.” – Blair Waldorf
187. “If you really want something, you don’t stop for anyone or anything until you get it.” – Blair Waldorf
188. “Here’s my advice. Have a little faith, and if that doesn’t work, have a lot of mimosas.” – Blair Waldorf
189. “Destiny is for losers. It’s just a stupid excuse to wait for things to happen instead of making them happen.” – Blair Waldorf
190. “Don’t let people tell you who you are. You tell them.” – Serena van der Woodsen
191. “I’d ask you how you are, but I don’t really care.” – Serena van der Woodsen
192. “Earn the spotlight on your own merits. You’ll feel better.” – Serena van der Woodsen
193. “People like me don’t write books. They’re written about.” – Chuck Bass
194. “Gossip Girl here, your one and only source into the scandalous lives of Manhattan’s elite.” – Gossip Girl
195. “Some might call this a fustercluck. But on the Upper East Side, we call it Sunday afternoon.” – Gossip Girl
196. “One thing about being on the top of the world? It gives you a long, long way to fall.” – Gossip Girl
Sex and the City New York City Quotes
Last, but most definitely not least, is this list of sparky Sex and the City quotes about New York life. Carrie Bradshaw New York quotes are a perfect way to get your audience tapping like on your post. I mean, what girl doesn’t love New York girl quotes (they secretly want to be one!). Copy and paste one of these Sex and the City quotes on NYC and call it day.
197. “The most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself. And if you find someone to love you you love, well, that’s just fabulous.” – Carrie Bradshaw
198. “They say nothing lasts forever; dreams change, trends come and go, but friendships never go out of style.” – Carrie Bradshaw
199. “I’m looking for love. Real love. Ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can’t-live-without-each-other love.” – Carrie Bradshaw
200. “Maybe the past is like an anchor holding us back. Maybe, you have to let go of who you were to become who you will be.” – Carrie Bradshaw
201. “Welcome to the age of un-innocence. No one has breakfast at Tiffany’s and no one has affairs to remember.” – Carrie Bradshaw
202. “I will never be the woman with the perfect hair, who can wear white and not spill on it.” – Carrie Bradshaw
203. “Beauty is fleeting, but a rent-controlled apartment overlooking the park is forever.” – Carrie Bradshaw
204. “In New York, they say, you’re always looking for a job, a boyfriend or an apartment.” – Carrie Bradshaw
205. “After he left, I cried for a week. And then I realized I do have faith. Faith in myself. Faith that I would one day meet someone who would be sure that I was the one.” – Carrie Bradshaw
206. “I like my money right where I can see it…hanging in my closet.” – Carrie Bradshaw
207. “Men, in their 40’s are like the New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle; tricky, complicated and you’re never really sure you’ve got the right answer.” – Carrie Bradshaw
208. “Maybe some women aren’t meant to be tamed. Maybe they need to run free until they find someone just as wild to run with.” – Carrie Bradshaw
Best New York Instagram Captions
Coming up with the perfect New York Instagram captions can be touch, but this list of captions for New York has you covered. They are short sweet and catchy, everything you are looking for in the perfect captions New York inspires. Captions for New York pictures have to compliment the feeling of the Big Apple, and these captions for pictures in New York are pretty dang perfect for that.
209. New York State of Mind.
210. New York is not a city, it’s a world.
211. Taking a bite out of the Big Apple.
212. Sleepless nights and city lights.
213. New York is always a good idea.
214. New York – The City of dreams.
215. Somewhere between living and dreaming, there’s New York.
216. New York is calling and I must go.
217. New York is always in my mind.
218. Hello, New York. You’re looking gorgeous today!
219. I’d rather be in New York.
220. Good morning, New York City!
Famous Captions New York Style
These famous New York captions and basically the best captions for New York City on the ‘net are super recognizable and will go over well with your audience. My favourite New York city captions for Instagram usually include something about the nightlife. Copy and paste any of these New York Insta captions and voila!
221. Late nights, bright lights. Big City.
222. Welcome to the concrete jungle.
223. The city that never sleeps…
224. Give me such shows – give me the streets of Manhattan.
225. A New York minute.
226. I heart New York.
227. New York: concrete jungle where dreams are made of.
Short Captions for New York City
Short and sweet is usually what you come to these types of posts for, so these short NYC Instagram captions and New York Instagram caption ideas are perfect for you. I’ve included some short NYC captions about the Big Apple and Instagram captions for New York that express love for the city. Check out this short list of Instagram captions NYC style.
228. I’m just a little apple in the Big Apple.
229. Wanderlust and city dust.
230. Forever a NYC girl.
231. NYC is calling us.
232. I came. I ate. I conquered.
233. I love New York.
Funny New York Captions for Instagram
Oh man, do some of these Insta captions for New York make me chuckle. Whether you are looking for witty New York City Instagram captions, New York City IG captions that are a little pun-ny or just straight-up funny New York captions that will make your audience smile, you can find them here. Throw one of these funny NYC captions in your next post and you’re set.
234. London is a mystery, NYC is an explanation.
235. Times Square is so bright, I need to wear shades.
236. Someone tell Gossip Girl I’m here right now.
237. New York, thanks for everything bagels.
238. New York City is a tourist trap I don’t mind being in.
239. A bad day in New York City is still better than a good day anywhere else.
Pun-ny New York Instagram Captions
Okay, well the list of New York captions for Instagram are totally funny, these New York puns are where it’s at if you don’t mind a bit of cheesiness. I particularly like the captions about New York that include Central Park captions and Times Square. These pun-ny New York captions Instagram will love are just the ticket.
240. First Time-rs Square.
241. A trip to NYC can be very taxi-ng on your wallet.
242. Stop Yankee-ng my chain.
243. After sightseeing all day, I’m Central Park-ing myself down for the rest of the night.
244. I’m so happy we MET.
245. MOMA money, mo’ problems.
246. Finally made it to the Statue of Liberty. It’s a-boat time!
247. The views from the Empire State Building couldn’t be any NYCer.
248. I’d really lake to live by Central Park.
249. Central Park always perks me up.
250. More like Empire Great Building, am I right?
251. Times Square heals all wounds.
252. Seeing Greene.
More New York Puns
Yup, there are more New York City puns where that came from! If you didn’t find the perfect New York captions for Insta above, these NYC captions Instagram will just die over have you covered. Cheers to making your audience chuckle with one of these NYC captions funny style!
253. The views from up here couldn’t be any NYCer.
254. We’re all out of Stock.
255. That’s some bull.
256. Arch you glad you’re in New York?
257. Queens for a day.
258. Don’t harbor any ill will towards me. It’s New York after all.
259. Spill the Liber-tea.
260. Living the High Line.
261. I don’t think you’re Dumbo.
262. The street art in New York is very ad-mural-able.
263. In winter, New York makes a great frost impression.
264. In winter, NYC is the city of tights.
265. Winter in NYC is snow joke.
Inspirational New York City Captions
Bright lights, big cities. Ahh, the vibration of the Big Apple is undeniable. This list of New York captions IG will love describe that feeling to perfection. Whether you are looking for cute New York captions, inspiring captions for New York City pictures or New York skyline captions, they are below. Copy/paste any of these Instagram captions about New York and bob’s your uncle.
266. New York, New Me.
267. If a man can live in Manhattan, he can live anywhere.
268. Let the city set you free.
269. Happiness is…. holding tickets that say New York!
270. I want to live as many lives as there are in New York City.
271. I went to New York to be born again.
272. You’re going to make it happen. It’s New York.
273. Hustle like a New Yorker.
274. Sky’s the limit in New York.
275. Let’s pack our bags and move to New York.
276. The city is measured not by its length and width, but by the width of its vision and the height of its dreams.
Catchy New York Insta Captions
These days it can be hard to grab your audience’s attention, but these catchy captions for NYC and Instagram captions New York has inspired are perfect additions to your next post. I particularly like New York photo captions that are short and sweet or cute captions for New York City that inspire wanderlust. Check this list of catchy Insta captions about New York
277. Once upon a time in New York.
278. Enjoying every New York minute.
279. I came, I ate, I conquered.
280. Keep calm and go to New York.
281. New York. It puts a spell on you.
282. The people who say Las Vegas never sleeps must never have visited New York.
283. New York City is my goal.
Powerful NYC Instagram Captions
The best New York captions ignite a flame in our souls. This shortlist of captions for New York City are positive and impactful for your community. ‘Anything is possible. This is New York’ is one of my favourite captions about NYC. Any of these would make great New York picture captions.
284. Anything is possible. This is New York.
285. You can leave New York, but it will never leave you.
286. New York is a 24-hour city. It never stops.
287. This is the only city with spectacular flair.
288. New York. A different kind of escape.
289. I think I was made to live in New York City.
290. New York City is not settled, it’s constantly changing and taking the world with it.
Romantic Instagram Captions for New York
Everyone falls in love with NYC in one way or another. If you haven’t yet, one of these NYC photo captions will have you booking your next flight for the bright lights. Good New York captions like number 290 are perfect for your next NYC post. Whether you need simple short New York captions, clever New York captions, or solid and good captions for New York, they are here for you.
291. I fell in love. His name is New York.
292. My heart burns for the city lights.
293. New York, you stole my heart.
294. Dear New York, I’ll never get over you.
295. I left my heart in New York City.
296. Meet me in New York.
297. All you need is love and skylines.
298. I’m having an affair with New York.
299. Left my heart in Central Park.
300. Keep calm and love NYC!
Final Thoughts on the Best New York Quotes + New York Instagram Captions
Gosh, that was an extensive list of the best New York quotes and New York Instagram captions that the ‘net has to offer. I hope you were able to find the perfect quotes on New York or captions for New York for your next social media post. I’ve attempted to cover everything from famous New York City quotes and New York captions to lesser-known captions New York City has to offer.
If you have any other examples of great NYC quotes or New York captions feel free to drop them in the comments below. I especially appreciate funny quotes about New York, New York puns and some impactful New York Instagram caption ideas.
