Inspirational quotes turn NIMBY

“Some people see the world as it is and ask why. I see the world as it could be and ask where will they all park.” — Robert F. Kennedy/George Bernard Shaw

“Never underestimate that a small group of people can hold up a liquor license. Sometimes, it’s the only thing that can.” — Margaret Mead

“The only thing we have to fear is density itself.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt

“The only constant is change. Unless you get a small group of neighbors together to stop it.” — Heraclitus

“Be the obstruction you wish to see in the world.” — Mahatma Gandhi

“If they have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; now, argue they violate zoning.” — Henry David Thoreau

“Life has no smooth road for any of us; but at least it has no overhead wires.” — William C. Doane

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door, but only as long as it’s not visible from the street.” — Milton Berle

“If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him and preserve your property values.” — Lin Chi

“The only medicine for suffering, crime, and all the other woes of mankind, is a parking minimum.” — Thomas Huxley

“Ask not what your community can do for you; ask what your community can not do for anyone else.” — John F. Kennedy

“Whenever God closes a door, he keeps out undesirable elements that bring down the property values.” — Maria, in The Sound of Music

“Good fences make good neighbors as long as they’re no taller than 7 ft and made of period-correct materials.” — Robert Frost, based on a proverb

“Inaction may not always bring happiness … but there is no happiness without inaction.” — Benjamin Disraeli

“If I have seen a little further, it is because of the height limit and absence of overhead wires.” — Isaac Newton

“It is by acts, and not by ideas, that people ensure the bar down the street cannot have a patio.” — Anatole France

“Let he who would move the world, first complete an environmental impact assessment and a 90-day public comment period.” — Socrates

“Give a man a fish and you feed him a day. Move the food kitchen off your block and it’s not your problem anymore.” — Proverb

“Better to light one small candle than to allow one small solar installation.” — Proverb

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I don’t want a stop sign. That would make all the difference.” — Robert Frost

“It takes a village to raise a child, but only if all of the structures are of a neutral palette.” — Proverb, popularized by Hillary Rodham Clinton

“Home is where the heart is, unless you don’t have a permit for it.” — Proverb

“How many roads must a developer walk down, before they accept the amenities package?” — Bob Dylan

“We shall fight in parking lots, we shall fight in empty fields and on wide streets, we shall never surrender.” — Winston Churchill

”“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of condos.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I’ve been to the mountaintop. Because it blocked my view and it never should been approved in the first place.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

“A man’s home is his castle, and his neighbor’s home is his moat.” — Proverb

“For what do we live, but to make sport by subjecting our neighbors to endless discretionary review for minor additions?” — Jane Austen

“The best laid plans take 40 years to complete.” — Robert Burns

“We have nothing to fear, but fear itself, and main street turning into another Adams Morgan.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt

“All the world’s a stage … and you better have a zoning variance or it’s coming down.” — William Shakespeare

“If you would build something, you must first be something. But really, it’s better just to not build anything.” — Goethe

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win, then they build nothing.” — Mahatma Gandhi

“If we are together, nothing is possible.” — Winston Churchill

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you—unless they covet a sidewalk—then hit them with an injunction.” — Proverb

“If they can dream it, you can stop it.” — Walt Disney

“Never tell me the sky is the limit when the zoning code clearly imposes a stricter limit.” — Paul Brandt

“A house divided (into multiple units) cannot stand.” — Abraham Lincoln

“Teach your children well, so they don’t live in off-campus group houses and throw loud parties while I’m trying to sleep.” — Graham Nash

“A chicken in every pot, NOT in every backyard!” — Herbert Hoover

“Scuttle no small plans. They have no magic to stir single issue individuals into a group of people against everything.” — Daniel Burnham