I probably have another two or three years. Or I can pass tomorrow, but it doesn't make a difference to me. Ed Koch More Quotes by Ed Koch More Quotes From Ed Koch God gave me a very good hand to play over my 88 years. I have no regrets. Ed Koch regret play years Citizens, thank you for all your birthday wishes. I am 88 years old today and still lucky to live in the greatest city in the world. Ed Koch cities birthday years 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. Ed Koch weight mouths way In action be primitive; in foresight, a strategist. Ed Koch primitive action advice 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. Ed Koch causes way thinking 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 four people firsts 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 want trying enemy 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 detroit proud cities I don't want to leave Manhattan, even when I'm gone. Ed Koch manhattan gone want 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 new-york wish people The person who is bent on killing you will follow you wherever you are. Ed Koch bent killing persons 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 errors long believe If they don't want to pay for it, they can stop drinking it. Ed Koch drinking want pay 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 home country people 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 self country children 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 law country children 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 land doors country ...the mayor should not be advancing a policy that encourages [illegal] immigrants to think of New York City as their safe haven. Ed Koch safe-haven new-york thinking 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. Ed Koch rainbow humorous america The mere process of growing old together will make the slightest acquaintance seem a bosom friend. Ed Koch friend will process together
