San Francisco Quotes: Capturing the City by the Bay Charm

San Francisco is not only a city but a feeling, a dream, and a state of mind all in one foggy and magical package. Browsing these San Francisco quotes, you will either think about visiting the city in the future, be nostalgic about previous trips, or need a spark of inspiration.

I have also gathered some of the most unforgettable, touching, and all-around perfect quotations to sum up what makes this fantastic city so great. Whether its the Golden Gate Bridge, Lombard Street, and also Alcatraz to the Fisherman’s Wharf, one will swoon afresh in love with San Francisco again with these words!

Famous Quotes About San Francisco

“The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.”

— Mark Twain, American writer and humorist

“San Francisco has only one drawback – ’tis hard to leave.”

— Rudyard Kipling, English journalist and novelist

“I left my heart in San Francisco.”

— Tony Bennett, American singer

“One day, if I go to heaven… I’ll look around and say, ‘It ain’t bad, but it ain’t San Francisco.’”

— Herb Caen, American journalist

Quotes about San Francisco

“I’m just mad for San Francisco. It is like London and Paris stacked on top of each other.”

— Twiggy, English model, actress, and singer

“Los Angeles? That’s just a big parking lot where you buy a hamburger for the trip to San Francisco.”

— John Lennon, British musician and member of The Beatles

Quote about San Franciscans being proud of their city. 

“I love San Francisco. I have a lot of memories there.”

— Rosalynn Carter, former first lady of the United States

“San Francisco is perhaps the most European of all American cities.”

— Cecil Beaton, English fashion and portrait photographer

“San Franciscans are very proud of their city, and they should be. It’s the most beautiful place in the world.”

— Robert Redford, American actor and director

Quote about leaving San Francisco. 

“San Francisco is poetry. Even the hills rhyme.”

— Pat Montandon, American author and socialite

“Every man should be allowed to love two cities – his own and San Francisco.”

— Gene Fowler, American journalist and author

“I am a Bay Area guy, no question.”

— Huey Lewis, American singer and songwriter

“East is East, and West is San Francisco.”

— O. Henry (William Sydney Porter), American short story writer

Quotes About San Francisco Weather

“The morning, like all San Francisco mornings, promised spring. In California, the seasons come daily.”

— Elizabeth Stark, author

A bridge with a quote that says “I prefer a wet San Francisco to a dry Manhattan.” 

“San Francisco’s climate is nature’s way of saying ‘let’s keep things interesting.’”

— Armistead Maupin, writer

San Francisco Weather Quotes

“In San Francisco, the weather is a symphony, and the fog its most mysterious movement.”

— Eric Maisel, author

“The cool, grey city of love.”

— George Sterling, American poet, referring to San Francisco

San Francisco Captions for Instagram

  • A blend of fog and fun
  • A city of fog and fabulousness
  • Already counting the minutes until I’m back in San Francisco
  • An un-fog-ettable day!
  • And the sun shines on the bay
  • Bay Area beauty
  • Being “pier” pressured into loving San Francisco
  • Bridging the gap at the Golden Gate
  • Cable cars, seals, and a big golden bridge — what more could a girl ask for?
  • Catch me in a cable car
  • Chasing sunsets in the City by the Bay
  • Chillin’ on the best coast
  • City lights on a summer night
  • Crusin’ through Cali
  • Dear San Francisco, I will never get over you
  • Down by the Bay
  • Even the seagulls are foodies in San Francisco
  • Every street a new heartbeat
  • Every time I visit San Francisco, I fall in love a little more
  • Everyone has a favorite hill in San Francisco
  • Everyone needs a little San Francisco in their life
  • Fog city
  • Foggy mornings and cable car warnings
  • Follow your heart, especially if it takes you to San Francisco
  • From Alcatraz to Alamo Square
  • Golden hues for the Golden Gate

Quotes About San Francisco Culture and History

“San Francisco is 49 square miles surrounded by reality.”

— Paul Kantner, American musician and member of Jefferson Airplane

“San Francisco is a city where people are never more abroad than when they are at home.”

— Benjamin F. Taylor, poet

“In San Francisco, you can’t throw a stick without hitting a museum or hitting someone who’s trying to start a museum.”

— Paul Kantner, musician

“San Francisco is a city of startling events, political, musical, literary, and social.”

— Herb Caen, American journalist

“If free speech and individuality are American characteristics, there is no place more American than San Francisco.”

— Desi Del Valle, actor and performer

“You can go one block to the next in San Francisco and get a completely different opinion of what the issue is.”

— Don Johnson, American actor

“I always see about six scuffles a night when I come to San Francisco. That’s one of the town’s charms.”

— Errol Flynn, Australian-American actor

“In all my travels I have never seen the hospitality of San Francisco equalled anywhere in the world.” 

— Conrad Hilton, American hotelier

Quotes About the Golden Gate Bridge

“The Golden Gate Bridge is a testament to modern ingenuity and a symbol for the city of San Francisco.”

— Kevin Starr, American historian

“The view of the Golden Gate Bridge… is more captivating than, I’m sorry, the Statue of Liberty.”

— Janet Napolitano, American politician

“The Golden Gate Bridge is one of the most beautiful monuments to all the dreams of the 20th century.”

— Vincent Scully, American art historian

“To this gate I give my hand, to this bridge I give my name.”

— Joseph Strauss, chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge

“I just wanted you to know that this bridge was built by the people of the world, for the people of the world.”

— Irving Morrow, American architect

“The Golden Gate Bridge’s daily greeting: a blink of the light.”

— Pico Iyer, British novelist

Quotes About Cable Cars

“The San Francisco cable car system is the world’s last manually operated cable car system.”

— San Francisco Municipal Railway

“You can’t control a cable car, and you can’t really control life.”

— Maya Angelou, American poet and civil rights activist

“The cable car is as much a part of San Francisco as the Golden Gate Bridge or a foggy summer.”

— Gavin Newsom, American politician and Governor of California

A quote about the clang of the cable car bell marking the rhythm of San Francisco’s streets. 

“The clang of the cable car bell marks the rhythm of San Francisco’s streets.”

— Danielle Steel, American novelist, on the iconic sound of cable cars

Other Quotes About San Francisco

“The waterfront is a wild, exciting place. The air is filled with the smell of the sea and the sound of foghorns.”

— Herb Caen, American journalist

“The bay looks serene and beautiful from the hills of San Francisco. It’s a view that never gets old.”

— Danielle Steel, American novelist

“There may not be a heaven, but there is a San Francisco.”

— Ashleigh Brilliant, English-born American author and cartoonist

“Money lives in New York. Power sits in Washington. Freedom sips cappuccino in a sidewalk café in San Francisco.”

— Joe Flower, author

San Francisco Quotes 

“In San Francisco, everything looks like a postcard.”

— A. J. Jacobs, American journalist and author

“I don’t think San Francisco needs defending. I never meet anyone who doesn’t love the place, Americans or others.”

— Doris Lessing, British novelist

“San Francisco is a complex town that lets you be yourself, that accepts you even if your family doesn’t.”

— Jack Boulware, journalist

“San Francisco, city of dreaming spires.” 

— Eddie Izzard, British comedian and actor

San Francisco Caption: Every street is a new heartbeat. 

  • I fell in love. His name is San Francisco.
  • I “Haight” it when I have to leave San Francisco
  • I left my heart in San Francisco
  • If you’re here long enough, you won’t even notice the fog.
  • In a Golden Gate state of mind
  • In a relationship…with San Francisco
  • In a San Francisco state of mind
  • In my San Francisco era
  • Is this trip golden, or what?
  • I’ve never met anyone who hates San Francisco
San Francisco Weather Caption
  • Let me introduce you to the Painted Ladies
  • Lost my heart in San Francisco, but found a burrito
  • My kind of city
  • No complaints about this view
  • No one does drag better than San Francisco
  • Oh, how I’ve mist you, Golden Gate Bridge
  • On a roll in San Francisco
  • On cloud wine

San Francisco: Effortlessly gorgeous

  • San Francisco: Everyone’s favorite city
  • San Francisco is my happy place
  • San Francisco never disappoints
  • San Francisco nights just feel different
  • San Francisco: The city of a thousand views
  • San Francisco, the city of golden dreams
  • San Francisco: The Golden Gate City
  • San Francisco: Where the sun paints the city gold
  • Stay golden, San Francisco!
  • This trip is golden, baby!
  • Visiting the Bay with my bae
  • West Coast, best coast
  • What I like best about San Francisco is everything

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Conclusion

The San Francisco quotes give us the reason why this city is so dear to our hearts and our imagination. Whether we talk about the mornings that are kissed by the fog or the unbeatable beautiful sunsets over the Pacific or the noise of cable cars, or the friendliness of its diverse neighborhoods, San Francisco remains an inspiration to writers, dreamers, as well as visitors worldwide.

These quotations enshrine not only the words of a city that has survived earthquakes and change, but give testament to that which has always been there as a ray of hope and possibility! You can post such quotes on your social media accounts, recite in a wedding toast, and so on, or merely keep them nearby whenever you want to remind yourself about the magic of San Francisco.

Planning your San Francisco adventure now is the best thing to do and you shall also be sure to come up with your own sweet quotes along the way. 

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