Ed Koch Quotes

73 quotes in 1041 categories

• ...the mayor should not be advancing a policy that encourages [illegal] immigrants to think of New York City as their safe haven.
• 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…
• ...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…
• 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…
• 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…
• 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…
• If they don't want to pay for it, they can stop drinking it.
• 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.…
• Be different-if you don't have the facts and knowledge required, simply listen. When word gets around that you can listen when others tend to talk,…
• The person who is bent on killing you will follow you wherever you are.
• The art of creation is older than the art of killing.
• I can explain it to you, but I can't comprehend it for you.
• 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…
• I probably have another two or three years. Or I can pass tomorrow, but it doesn't make a difference to me.
• I don't want to leave Manhattan, even when I'm gone,
• I'm not an author, but before I became mayor, I wasn't a mayor.
• The most guileful amongst the reporters are those who appear friendly and smile and seem to be supportive. They are the ones who will seek…
• I happen to believe that there is nothing wrong with homosexuality. It’s whatever God made you. It happens that I’m heterosexual, but I don’t care…
• I don’t believe that in our society that we should have guns,
• I was drafted into the Army when I was 19 and came out at age 22. Most people that I knew didn't think they'd come…

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