Article image

13 Musings on Small-Town Living

Despite the spotlight often placed on major cities, the United States — like just about every country around the world — is a nation made largely of small towns. These towns are often depicted as either wholesome and welcoming or dull and full of busybodies. Both perspectives can certainly be true — and each has its advantages and disadvantages.

With their tight-knit communities and slower pace of life, small towns offer a distinct sense of belonging, familiarity, and support. Their proximity to nature can also be advantageous, potentially helping to foster an appreciation for the outdoors and the environment.

Of course, small towns can have their downsides, too. There may be fewer opportunities for professional development or a lack of wide-ranging cultural experiences and diverse perspectives. The people who call small towns home — not unlike those who call cities home — may wrestle with the pros and cons. But ultimately, as demonstrated in these quotes, many find inspiration in the more leisurely small-town way of life.

One of the pleasant things about small town life is that everyone, whether rich or poor, liked or disliked, has some kind of a role and place in the community.
Edward Abbey

Share Quote

The art of living in a small town is one of the most difficult to acquire.
Doris Lessing

Share Quote

For any American who had the great and priceless privilege of being raised in a small town, there remain always with him nostalgic memories of those days. And the older he grows the more he senses what he owed to the simple honesty, the neighborliness, the integrity that he saw all around him, in those days.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

Share Quote

We tend to believe life is different in small towns, and frankly, it is different. The pace of life is slower, there's little traffic, people tend to know their neighbors; each town has its distinct idiosyncrasies and charms.
Nicholas Sparks

Share Quote

In small towns people scent the wind with noses of uncommon keenness.
Stephen King

Share Quote

It takes a small town to keep you humble.
Bess Streeter Aldrich

Share Quote

Small towns make up for their lack of people by having everyone be more interesting.
Doris “Granny D” Haddock

Share Quote

There's no job too big to benefit from a small town person's perspective, I discovered, just as there's no town too small for thinking big.
Unita Blackwell

Share Quote

Small towns are best for spending Christmas, I think. They catch the mood quicker and change and come alive under its spell.
Truman Capote

Share Quote

People in small towns, much more than in cities, share a destiny.
Richard Russo

Share Quote

When small towns find they cannot harm the strangest of their members, when eccentrics show resilience, they are eventually embraced and even cherished.
Louise Erdrich

Share Quote

The bad thing about living in a small town was that everything became a personal issue. The good thing about living in a small town was that everything became a personal issue. During times of trouble, the support system was massive.
Linda Howard

Share Quote

Human nature cannot be studied in cities except at a disadvantage — a village is the place.
Mark Twain

Share Quote

Featured image credit: Kanate/ Shutterstock

Author image
About the Author
Nicole Villeneuve
Nicole is a writer, thrift store lover, and group-chat meme spammer based in Ontario, Canada.
Play more header background
Play more icon
Daily Question
Who said, "The way to make people trustworthy is to trust them"?

More Inspiration

happiness theme icon

Admire as much as you can, most people don't admire enough.

separator icon
Vincent van Gogh
motivation theme icon

Within you there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time.

separator icon
Hermann Hesse
hope theme icon

Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.

separator icon
Fred Rogers
love theme icon

A genuinely happy person is one who has rendered others happy.

separator icon
Daisaku Ikeda
wisdom theme icon

The great tragedy of life is not that men perish, but that they cease to love.

separator icon
William Somerset Maugham
happiness theme icon

If it is true for you, it is true for someone else, and you are no longer alone.

separator icon
Colson Whitehead
motivation theme icon

Resilience — the ability to brush off pain.

separator icon
Kristen Roupenian
hope theme icon

It's more difficult to be simple, and it's easier to be more complicated.

separator icon
Black Francis
love theme icon

The quality of your life depends quite a bit on the quality of attention you project out onto the world.

separator icon
David Brooks
wisdom theme icon

Art is a language which anneals individuals to each other through experiences that are uniquely human.

separator icon
Ann Lauterbach
happiness theme icon

You must not try to make love definite. It is the divine accident of life.

separator icon
Sherwood Anderson