Mario Cuomo

Nobody has ever gotten a bigger push than Bill Clinton gave to Obama.

— Mario Cuomo

If I want to run for president, you'll be able to tell.

— Mario Cuomo

There's something about rhetorical violence that is ugly and worrying.

— Mario Cuomo

I told them that my grandfather had died in the Great Crash of 1929 - a stockbroker jumped out of a window…

— Mario Cuomo

A judge can manipulate the law. A smart lawyer can keep a killer out of jail.

— Mario Cuomo

The truth is that beginning in the 1970s, the heart of our Democratic party, America's strong striving middle class, began drifting away…

— Mario Cuomo

It is not a government's obligation to provide services, but to see that they are provided.

— Mario Cuomo

For me to make lasagna would be a desecration of a great Italian dish. . . . I don't mess with sacred things.

— Mario Cuomo

You want calamities? What about the Ice Age? God made this world, but didn't complete it.

— Mario Cuomo

I love bunt plays. I love the idea of the bunt. I love the idea of the sacrifice. Even the word is…

— Mario Cuomo

Barack Obama is probably one of the brightest in terms of sheer intelligence... also probably the best orator we've ever had as…

— Mario Cuomo

I think it's already apparent that a good part of this Nation understands - if only instinctively - that anything which seems…

— Mario Cuomo

We believe in a government that is characterized by fairness and reasonableness, a reasonableness that goes beyond labels, that doesn't distort or…

— Mario Cuomo

The Republicans believe that the wagon train will not make it to the frontier unless some of the old, some of the…

— Mario Cuomo

I protect my right to be a Catholic by preserving your right to believe as a Jew, a Protestant, or non-believer, or…

— Mario Cuomo

We believe in a government strong enough to use words like "love" and "compassion" and smart enough to convert our noblest aspirations…

— Mario Cuomo

People expect Byzantine, Machiavellian logic from politicians. But the truth is simple. Trial lawyers learn a good rule: 'Don't decide what you…

— Mario Cuomo

The values derived from religious belief will not - and should not - be accepted as part of the public morality unless…

— Mario Cuomo

People like Pete Peterson, the former secretary of commerce and Blackstone and titan of Wall Street, etc., has been writing books for…

— Mario Cuomo

There are some who ask us to believe that if we want the best of times for ourselves, the fit and the…

— Mario Cuomo

I think - something I learned recently looking up the meaning of ideology. If you look in American encyclopedias, it says, you…

— Mario Cuomo

It's a Little Leaguers game that major leaguers play extraordinarily well, a game that excites us throughout adulthood. The crack of the…

— Mario Cuomo

The problems of a retired schoolteacher in Duluth are OUR problems. That the future of the child in Buffalo is OUR future.…

— Mario Cuomo

The American people need no course in philosophy or political science or church history to know that God should not be made…

— Mario Cuomo

Wes Clark is a man of whom you can ask a question, and he will look you directly in the eye, and…

— Mario Cuomo

I watched a small man with thick calluses on both hands work 15 and 16 hours a day. I saw him once…

— Mario Cuomo

There is a respectable body of economic thought that holds that casino gambling is actually economically regressive to a state and a…

— Mario Cuomo

Entertainers and sports figures achieve fame and wealth but find the world empty and dull without the solace and stimulation of drugs.

— Mario Cuomo

I don't ever recall having a political argument with Bob Grant. I've known him a long time. I've always liked him.

— Mario Cuomo

There are only two rules for being successful. One, figure out exactly what you want to do, and two, do it.

— Mario Cuomo

What I didn't do was pick one thing and keep saying it over and over again, so I could have gotten credit…

— Mario Cuomo

We believe in only the government we need, but we insist on all the government we need.

— Mario Cuomo

The problem is that you can't impose the church's teachings on all Americans as a matter of law.

— Mario Cuomo

Every minute brings a new opportunity. Every minute brings new growth, new experiences.

— Mario Cuomo

I am a trial lawyer. Matilda says that at dinner on a good day I sound like an affidavit.

— Mario Cuomo

I concentrated on a lot of things, so very few people saw me as an education governor, an infrastructure governor.

— Mario Cuomo

I somehow got this reputation of diddling and dithering. I don't remember dithering at all.

— Mario Cuomo

For too many, the dream of economic mobility has been replaced with a nightmare of economic stagnation.

— Mario Cuomo

I talk and talk and talk, and I haven't taught people in fifty years what my father taught me by example in…

— Mario Cuomo

I was badly mauled by people in New York State for being against the death penalty for 12 years.

— Mario Cuomo