14 Quotes by Catie Marron

(One difference between old-style autocrats, such as Caesar, Louis XIV, or Napoleon, and their totalitarian successors is the replacement of the marble statue in the middle of the square with an embalmed corpse.) [George Packer, "History: Influence on Humanity"].

The protestors feel that the elections have been hijacked and the choices are between two corrupt parties—that when the power structure no longer represents the people, the vote is no longer a tool for change [Jehane Noujaim, "Tahrir Square, Cairo: Lost and Found in the Square"].

Feeling in the middle of things, at the place to and from which streets flow, where people come not to escape the city but to be inside it: This us usually what defines a successful square. It is a space around which the rest of a neighborhood or town or city tends to be organized [Michael Kimmelman, "Culture: Power of the Place"].

The square is a treasure precisely because it doesn't masquerade as an outdoor museum. It's a living place, jammed with people, changeable, democratic, urbane. [Michael Kimmelman, "Culture: Power of the Place"].

Is there a civic purpose for city squares where people are already free? Hannah Arendt described freedom not as individual free will but in terms of acting and associating with others. This kind of freedom requires public space. In What Is Freedom?, Arendt likened politics to the performing arts, for "both need a publicly organized space for their 'work,' and both depend upon others for the performance itself" [George Packer, "History: Influence on Humanity"].