Ed Koch Quotes and Sayings - Page 1
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“The art of creation is older than the art of killing.”
-- Ed Koch -
“You punch me, I punch back. I do not believe it's good for one's self-respect to be a punching bag.”
-- Ed Koch -
“I said, to be a New Yorker you have to live here for six months, and if at the end of the six months you find you walk faster, talk faster, think faster, you're a New Yorker.”
-- Ed Koch -
“If you agree with me on 9 out of 12 issues, vote for me. If you agree with me on 12 out of 12 issues, see a psychiatrist.”
-- Ed Koch -
“You don't have to love them. You just have to respect their rights.”
-- Ed Koch -
“I know many writers who first dictate passages, then polish what they have dictated. I speak, then I polish - occasionally I do windows.”
-- Ed Koch -
“I can explain it to you, but I can't comprehend it for you.”
-- Ed Koch -
“Water, water, everywhere, Atlantic and Pacific. But New York City's got them beat, Our aqua is terrific!”
-- Ed Koch -
“The fireworks begin today. Each diploma is a lighted match. Each one of you is a fuse.”
-- Ed Koch -
“Unless they can immediately demonstrate a credible fear of persecution, why shouldn't these people be returned at once to the country from which they embarked - whether it be their home country or a stopover point - at the expense of the airline that brought them? All appeals would then be made from the country to which they have been returned.”
-- Ed Koch -
“Many of the self-described "political refugees" who come here make stopovers in other countries on their way to the U.S., in places where they would be free to have as many children as they want. But they choose to continue on to the U.S. Why? Because it is more economically attractive.”
-- Ed Koch -
“The Chinese describe themselves as political refugees. Many base that claim on China's strict population laws, which allow them to have only one child. But if we accept them as bona fide political refugees for that reason, doesn't it follow that people living in countries where abortion is illegal (such as Ireland and Poland) should also receive political asylum? After all, their country's policy is forcing them to give birth to unwanted children.”
-- Ed Koch -
“Jews have always thought that having someone elevated with his head above the grass was not good for the Jews. I never felt that way. I believe that you have to stand up.”
-- Ed Koch -
“When I came in, the city was on the edge of bankruptcy. I'm proud of what I did. I built the foundation that mayors after me built upon - particularly Bloomberg. But the foundation was essential because if it hadn't occurred, we would have been another Detroit.”
-- Ed Koch -
“There's a nastiness out there that wants to harm me with words. These are my enemies - the ideologues, the populists, the columnists who don't like the fact that I take them on toe-to-toe. What I try to do is tell the truth. It's not the coin of the realm in politics.”
-- Ed Koch -
“Like many others, I'm deeply sympathetic to the huge numbers of people looking to come here today to escape suffering and poverty in their own lands. But as a country, we cannot afford to have a total open-door policy without any restrictions on entry.”
-- Ed Koch -
“...the mayor should not be advancing a policy that encourages [illegal] immigrants to think of New York City as their safe haven.”
-- Ed Koch -
“The very fact that I became mayor in 1977 conveys how you can't figure out what the people will do. Nobody thought I would be elected. When I entered I got four percent of the vote in the first poll, four percent.”
-- Ed Koch -
“...what about the millions of poor in this country who desperately need assistance and services to help bring them out of poverty? Shall they go to the back of the line? and shall those who have made a dramatic illegal entry, who would normally not be entitled to government assistance, or even entry itself, be put at the front?”
-- Ed Koch -
“If they don't want to pay for it, they can stop drinking it.”
-- Ed Koch -
“Have confidence in your decisions. Make them expeditiously, and stay with them as long as you believe you are correct no matter what others say. However, when you conclude you were in error, do not hesitate to announce the error publicly and change course.”
-- Ed Koch -
“Anybody who suggests that I run for governor is no friend of mine. It's a terrible position, and besides, it requires living in Albany, which is small-town life at its worst.”
-- Ed Koch -
“[The UN should remain in New York] because every country needs a cesspool. And the UN is always interesting as a theater of the absurd.”
-- Ed Koch -
“We should sell them to our worst enemies, the Russians and the Cubans.”
-- Ed Koch -
“I don't want to leave Manhattan, even when I'm gone,”
-- Ed Koch -
“I probably have another two or three years. Or I can pass tomorrow, but it doesn't make a difference to me.”
-- Ed Koch -
“Have you ever lived in the suburbs? It's sterile. It's nothing. It's wasting your life, and people do not wish to waste their lives once they've seen New York! This rural American thing - I'm telling you, it's a joke,”
-- Ed Koch -
“The person who is bent on killing you will follow you wherever you are.”
-- Ed Koch
