Ed Koch Quotes
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I changed the city of New York. I gave people back their morale.
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People get tired of you. So they decided to throw me out. And so help me God, as the numbers were coming in, I said to myself, 'I'm free at last.'
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If I were running against Chuck Schumer. I would take every one of his Sunday press releases - and there are 52 for as many years as he's been there - and I would ask, 'How many of the things he said he was proposing became law?' I doubt many.
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If you don't like the President, it costs you 90 bucks to fly to Washington to picket. If you don't like the governor, it costs you 60 bucks to fly to Albany to picket. If you don't like me - 90 cents.
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To learn something new every day is still exciting!
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Stereotypes lose their power when the world is found to be more complex than the stereotype would suggest. When we learn that individuals do not fit the group stereotype, then it begins to fall apart.
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I have a social life. But I don't discuss it.
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I think that every Saturday, we ought to say, 'My father's a Jew, my mother was a Jew, and I'm a Jew,' with great pride.
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I'm sure that people who elected me, some of them thought I was gay, some of them thought I wasn't gay, and most of them didn't care.
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I'm confident President Obama will continue his unambiguous commitment to the Jewish state in his second term.
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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.
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There's enormous energy required to carry grudges - enormous energy! And I'm getting too old to expend my energy that way, cause I think every person has a limited amount of energy. So I have given up all grudges.
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God gave me a very good hand to play over my 88 years. I have no regrets.
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I never doubted that I would be a good mayor. I never did.
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When I was first elected I got 50% of the vote in '77 in the general election. In '81 I got 75%. In '85, I got 78%. No mayor has ever gotten that high a vote. So it was not an issue. Except for people who were very hostile to me. They thought they would injure me.
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If I traveled to the end of the rainbow as Dame Fortune did intend, Murphy would be there to tell me the pot's at the other end.
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You don't have to love them. You just have to respect their rights.
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The knife of corruption endangered the life of New York City. The scalpel of the law is making us well again.
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I think I have a very good reputation amongst the gay population and among the whole country because I stood up on the issue of gay rights. It is not easy to stand up on that issue when you are single and male in New York City. I did it anyway.
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The person who is bent on killing you will follow you wherever you are.
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You want me to tell me the truth or do you want me to stroke you?
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The best way to lose weight is to close your mouth - something very difficult for a politician. Or watch your food - just watch it, don't eat it.
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You punch me, I punch back. I do not believe it's good for one's self-respect to be a punching bag.
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If you listen to Giuliani, it's like nobody did anything to improve the city except him. I'm not part of the history. Bloomberg's not part of the history. It's like, he did it. He's the only one. That's why he's a little crazy.