"The interpersonal relationships of people in big cities are characterized by a markedly greater emphasis on the use of the eyes than on that of the ears. This can be attributed chiefly to the institution of public conveyances. Before buses, railroads and streetcars became fully established during the nineteenth century people were never put in a position of having to stare at one another for minutes or hours on end without exchanging a word" -

- George Simmel,
quoted in Walter Benjamin's, "On Some Motifs in Baudelaire"