Did you know Ernest Hemingway was a huge Madrid fan? Yes, the American writer spent a lot of time in Madrid. He was known to love Paris and he lived in Cuba, but Madrid was the center of his world. He adored bullfights, the nightlife in Madrid and loved spending time in Madrid’s countless cafés. Hemingway was a regular in Madrid’s oldest restaurant Sobrino de Botín (which also happens to be the oldest restaurant in the world) and in Madrid’s famous sherry bar La Venencia. He liked Spain so much, that several of his novels take place in Spain. So yes, I found it very interesting to find many quotes about Madrid coming from Ernest Hemingway. Apart from that, it is fascinating to find out what famous people were saying about Madrid, from hundreds of years ago to our generation. This blog post includes quotes about Madrid from famous actors like Penelope Cruz or George Clooney. But I made sure to add some Spanish proverbs as well. And believe me, the Spanish have some really creative proverbs.
But if you are only here to find quotes about Madrid for your Instagram caption, don’t worry, I got you as well ;)
(By the way, I made sure to translate the quotes if they come from a Spanish person.)
Other Madrid blog posts you should check out:
Self-guided walking tour of Madrid
Visiting Madrid and want to explore the city by yourself? With this self-guided walking tour of Madrid, you get to see the most important places in Madrid in one afternoon. Written by a local (aka me!).
A list of more than 100 cheap or completely free things you can do in Madrid
It is totally possible to travel to Madrid on a budget. And to prove that I created this list with more than 100 free or ridiculously cheap things to do in Madrid. Your wallet is going to thank me.
25 museums in Madrid you can visit for free
This is a list of all free museums in Madrid. You might already know that Madrid offers some amazing world-class art museums, and yes you can visit them for free. P.S. The royal palace is on this list, too!
A four-day itinerary for Madrid
This itinerary gives you recommendations about how to spend 4 days in Madrid. The perfect time to see the most important monuments and attractions of the city. I am sure you will love it!
Planning to visit Madrid? Make sure to do a free walking tour
If you are checking out this page chances are high you currently are in Madrid or are planning to come here soon. If I can recommend something, then it’s the following: Make sure to do a free walking tour around Madrid. These tours are guided by locals who have been living in Madrid their whole lives and know every part about it. The walking tour of Madrid is definitely one of my favorite walking tours that I ever did. And I have heard from so many people that they loved it as well!
How do free walking tours work? These walking tours do not come with an official price. But, the local guides depend on your tips. You will spend a couple of hours walking through Madrid while your guide tells you everything about Madrid’s history and beautiful monuments. At the end of the tour, you can leave your guide a tip. And how much you want to tip is really up to you. It depends on what’s within your budget and how much you liked the tour. But I can already tell you, you will love it!
Let’s start: 32 quotes about Madrid to spice up your Instagram caption
De Madrid al Cielo
English: From Madrid to Heaven
Spanish proverb
Where does the saying “From Madrid to heaven” come from? And what does it actually mean? “De Madrid al Cielo” means that once you see Madrid, heaven is the next best thing. The only thing that maybe comes remotely close to Madrid. Well, regardless of whether you agree or not, this saying is here to stay. It is a very popular Spanish saying and you might hear it once or twice during your stay.
“Madrid is a strange place anyway. I do not believe anyone likes it much when he first goes there. It has none of the looks that you expect of Spain. …Yet when you get to know it, it is the most Spanish of all cities, the best to live in, the finest people, month in and month out the finest climate. …It is in Madrid only that you get the essence. The essence, when it is the essence, can be in a plain glass bottle and you need no fancy labels. …But when you can have the Prado at the same time with El Escorial two hours to the north and Toledo to the south, a fine road to Avila and a fine road to Segovia, which is no distance from La Granja, it makes you feel very badly, all question of immortality aside, to know that you will have to die and never see it again.”
Ernest Hemingway
“ I have never been to a city, where there is less reason to go to bed, and If I did go to bed, to sleep “
Ernest hemingway about madrid
Madrid: nueve meses de invierno y tres de infierno.
Madrid: nine months of winter and three months of hell.
SPANISH PROVERB
I love thee as I love Madrid.
Ernest Hemingway
“The first painting that I realised I liked was “The Garden of Earthly Delights” by Hieronymus Bosch, when I was six years old, at the Prado in Madrid. I still find myself returning there every time I am in the city.”
Carolina Herrera (fashion designer)
“Madrid is a very good lover, but as a boyfriend he’s the worst, he cheats on you as soon as you get distracted.”
“Madrid es un amante buenísimo, pero como novio es lo peor, te engaña en cuanto te despistas.”
Use Lahoz (Spanish writer)
“Damn city, it’s not your finest hour and you’re still beautiful. I have to confess that I missed you. I grab the guitar and sing for you. It’s good to be home. I’m going back to Madrid”
“Maldita ciudad, no es tu mejor momento y aún estás hermosa. He de confesarte que te eché de menos. Agarro la guitarra y canto para ti. Qué bueno estar en casa. Vuelvo a Madrid”
Ismael Serrano (Spanish Singer)
“Puedes dejar Madrid, pero ella nunca te dejará a ti”
“You can leave Madrid, but it will never leave you”
Anonymous
“Cuando estoy en Madrid, simplemente me gusta ver a mis amigos y caminar a través de la ciudad”
“When I’m in Madrid, I just like to see my friends and walk through the city”.
María Valverde (Spanish actress)
“I bought a painting in Madrid during my first visit and many people have told me that it is not the best painting in the world, but it is for me”.
George Clooney
“Me siento más madrileño que el alcalde de Madrid, porque los que han nacido en Madrid no han podido soñarla. Lo bueno es llegar con la boina y la maleta de cartón, y a los cinco minutos ser de Madrid.”
“I feel more madrileño than the mayor of Madrid, because those who were born in Madrid have not been able to dream it. The good thing is to arrive with a beret and a cardboard suitcase, and five minutes later you’re from Madrid.”
Joaquín Sabina (Spanish singer)
“Madrid es para mí un camello derrumbado en el desierto; yo tomé asiento sobre una de sus gibas y oteé los alrededores, pero me sentía incómodamente sentado y el asiento salía muy caro.”
“Madrid is for me a camel collapsed in the desert; I took a seat on one of its humps and looked around, but I felt uncomfortable sitting down and the seat was very expensive.”
Hans christian andersen (danish Writer)
“Con su todo es ahora, con su nada es eterno, con su rap y su chotis, con su okupa y su skin, aunque muera el verano y tenga prisa el invierno la primavera sabe que la espero en Madrid.”
“With its everything is now, with its nothing is eternal, with its rap and its chotis, with its squat and its skin, even if summer dies and winter is in a hurry, spring knows that I’m waiting for it in Madrid.”
Joaquín Sabina (Spanish singer)
We are halfway done! Are you ready for more Madrid quotes?
“Qué raros son tus cuñados, ¿No? -Sí, es que son de Madrid. -Será eso.”
“Your brothers-in-law are strange, aren’t they? -Yes, they’re from Madrid. -That’s why.”
Almudena Grandes
“Madrid es tener un gabán que abriga mucho y con el que se puede ir tranquilo hasta a los entierros con relente. Madrid es no admitir lo gótico. Madrid es la improvisación y la tenacidad. Madrid es quedarse alegre sin dinero y no saber cómo se pudo comprar lo que se tiene en casa.”
“Madrid is having a coat that is very warm and with which you can go calmly even to burials when it’s raining. Madrid is not admitting the Gothic. Madrid is improvisation and tenacity. Madrid is to run out of money and not knowing how you could have bought what you have at home.”
Ramón Gómez de la Serna
Make sure to visit the Royal Palace in Madrid!
The Royal Palace is one of the must-see places in Madrid. Did you know that it is almost twice as big as Buckingham palace? You will be absolutely surprised how huge it is. But you will see its real beauty once you actually go inside: 3,418 rooms (YES, you read that right!) full of Spanish history. And I swear, one room looks more beautiful than the next one you see. My favorite one is the Porcelain room. Make sure to check it out.
Book your ticket here so you can skip the line and save time!
“To go to bed at night in Madrid marks you as a little queer. For a long time your friends will be a little uncomfortable about it. Nobody goes to bed in Madrid until they have killed the night. Appointments with a friend are habitually made for after midnight at the cafe.”
Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon
“Escribir en Madrid es llorar, es buscar voz sin encontrarla, como en una pesadilla abrumadora y violenta.”
“To write in Madrid is to cry, to search for a voice without finding it, as in an overwhelming and violent nightmare.”
Mariano José De Larra (Spanish Writer)
“«Adiós», dije a la humilde choza mía; «adiós, Madrid; adiós tu Prado y fuentes, que manan néctar, llueven ambrosía; adiós, conversaciones suficientes a entretener un pecho cuidadoso y a dos mil desvalidos pretendientes.”
“Goodbye,” I said to the humble hut of mine; “Goodbye, Madrid; goodbye your Meadow and fountains, that gush nectar, rain ambrosia; goodbye, conversations enough to entertain a careful breast and two thousand helpless suitors.
Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish writer
“De Madrid al cielo, y en el cielo, un agujerito para verlo.”
“From Madrid to the sky, and in the sky, a small hole to see it.”
Luis Quiñones de Benavente (Spanish Poet)
“Madrid is full of literature, poetry and music on all four sides, so much so that she is a literary character herself.”
Ernest Hemingway
“Madrid, Madrid, Madrid. Pedazo de la España en que nací. En algo te hizo dios la cuna del requiebro y del chotis.”
“Madrid, Madrid, Madrid. Piece of Spain where I was born. God made you for a reason. The cradle of compliments and the chotis.”
Agustín Lara (Mexican composer)
Madrid, corazón de España, late con pulsos de fiebre. Si ayer la sangre le hervía, hoy con más calor le hierve. Ya nunca podrá dormirse, porque si Madrid se duerme, querrá despertarse un día y el alba no vendrá a verle.
Madrid, the heart of Spain, beats with feverish pulses. If yesterday his blood boiled, today it boils even hotter. He can never fall asleep, because if Madrid falls asleep, he will want to wake up one day and the dawn will not come to see him
Rafael Alberti (Spanish Poet)
“Madrid es no tener nada y tenerlo todo”
“Madrid is to have nothing and to have everything”
RAMÓN GÓMEZ DE LA SERNA (Spanish writer)
“Los primeros días no me pude alejar de la Puerta del Sol: allí me quedaba horas y horas, y me divertía tanto que me hubiera gustado pasar el día entero. Es una plaza digna de su fama; no tanto por su grandeza y su belleza cuanto, por la gente, por la vida y por la variedad del espectáculo que presenta a todas horas del día. No es una plaza como las demás: reúne a un tiempo las cualidades de un salón, un paseo, un teatro, una academia, un jardín, una plaza de armas y un mercado.”
“The first few days I could not tear myself away from the Puerta del Sol: I stayed there for hour and hours, and enjoyed myself so much that I would have liked to spend the whole day there. It is a square worthy of its fame, not so much for its grandeur and beauty as for the people, the life and the variety of the spectacle it presents at all hours of the day. It is not a square like any other: It combines the qualities of a salon, a promenade, a theatre, an academy, a garden, a parade ground and a market.”
Edmondo de Amicis (Italian writer)
“ Porque Madrid, en realidad, no es nada especial. No tiene un gran río, ni a penas rascacielos, ni canales, ni lagos, ni gloriosas ruinas, ni mar. A Madrid le faltan muchas cosas pero tiene la gente por las calles, el rincón inesperado, la variedad, el contraste, la animación constante y sus costumbres. Vale la pena levantarse temprano- por una sola vez- para vivir un día de vida de Madrid. ”
“Because, Madrid, in reality, is nothing special. It does not have a great river, and hardly any skyscrapers. No channels, no lakes. Neither glorious ruins, nor sea. Madrid lacks a lot of things. But it has people in the streets. The unexpected corner. The variety. The contrast. The constant animation. And its customs. It is worth getting up early – for once – to live one day of the life of Madrid.”
Miguel Mihura (Spanish Writer)
I love Spanish cities, particularly Barcelona, Madrid and Palma, which has the most amazing cathedral that I once went to for a wedding.
Louise Nurding (english singer)
Madrid is what I call home, but also the States.
Penelope Cruz (spanish actress)
“Si alguna vez un pintor ha forjado un milagro ilusorio con brocha y pigmento, ese pintor fue Velázquez con Las Meninas, en el Prado de Madrid”
“If ever a painter forged an illusory miracle with brush and pigment, that painter was Velázquez with Las Meninas, in the Prado in Madrid”.
Joaquín Sorolla (Spanish painter)
“Viajar se ha vuelto tan rápido que uno puede cenar en Nueva York y tener la indigestión en Madrid.”
“Travel has become so fast that you can dine in New York and get indigestion in Madrid.”
Sheila Ostrander (Author)
“Madrid es una excusa para contar historias.”
“Madrid is an excuse to tell stories.”
Francisco umbral
“Madrid, grande de España te han nombrado. A mí más me gustabas cuando chico: que ahora, con presunción de nuevo rico, me pareces más pobre que agrandado”
“Madrid, great of Spain you have been named. I liked you better when you were a boy: now, with your nouveau riche presumption, you seem to me to be poorer than big”.
José Bergamín (Spanish Writer)
And those were 32 quotes about Madrid! Let me know which one was your favorite! I was very surprised to even find quotes from Hans Christian Andersen. Crazy how many fans Madrid gained through time. I loved writing this blog post and discovering all these Spanish writers, poets, and other stars talking about Madrid. And again, Ernest Hemingway really speaks beautifully about Madrid. Makes me want to buy one of his novels that take place in Madrid :)
