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You Have To Take Away Some Of Tax Breaks For The Wealthy, And You Have To Cut Back On Some Entitlements. Because, Unless We Do All Of These Things, It Just Doesn't Work. And What's Good Theater And What's Good Politics Isn't Necessarily Good Economic Policy.

-Michael Bloomberg

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You Have To Take

Michael Bloomberg

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You Have To Take Away Some Of Tax Breaks For The Wealthy, And You Have To Cut Back On Some Entitlements. Because, Unless We Do All Of These Things, It Just Doesn't Work. And What's Good Theater And What's Good Politics Isn't Necessarily Good Economic Policy.

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We Have An Energy Policy - We're Transferring Our Wealth To Overseas To A Bunch Of Countries That Don't Have The Same Values As Us. In Some Cases, They're Using Our Money To Finance Terrorism Against Us.

Nobody Wants A Job Where They Don't Have Authority To Go Along With The Responsibility. Quite The Contrary. The More Authority You Give People, The Better People You Can Attract, And The Harder They're Going To Work, And The More Loyal They Are Going To Be.

We Need People From All Around The World. We Need Entrepreneurs, We Need Students That We're Educating In Our Schools That We Then Throw Out And We Should Make Sure They Can Stay Here. If We Don't Have The New Flux Of Immigrants, Nobody's Going To Create The Jobs For The Americans Who Are Currently Out Of Work.

Nobody's Going To Elect Me President Of The United States.

The Main Claim To Fame, I Think, Of Bernie Sanders - Who I've Never Met; I'm Sure He's A Pleasant Guy - [is That] He's Certainly Not Stupid.

The Mistake That Was Made In The '70s Is We Stopped Policing The Streets, We Stopped Cleaning The Streets, We Stopped Cleaning The Graffiti Off Buildings, We Stopped Supporting Our Cultural Institutions And Building Parks And Schools And All Those Kinds Of Things.

The System [in U.s.] Is Designed For A Two-party System. And Those Two Parties Have An Interest In Keeping Third Parties Out. There's Too Much Of The Structure That Works In The Two-party Way. They Will Keep The Third Party Out.

Ironically, It Is Exactly Because We Are A City That Embraces Freedom, That Welcomes Everyone And Encourages Their Dreams, That New York Remains On The Front Lines In The War On Terror.

We're [new York] The World's Second Home, The Place Where Every Religion Is Practiced And Every Culture Is Celebrated.

Throughout Our History Each And Every Generation Has Expanded Upon The Freedoms Won By Their Parents And Grandparents. Each And Every Generation Has Removed Some Of The Barriers To Full Participation In The American Dream. And The Next Great Barrier Standing Before Our Generation Is The Prohibition On Marriage For Same-sex Couples

The Public Is Mad, Frustrated, But What The Public Wants Is Progress.

The Cold Harsh Reality Is That We Have To Balance The Budget.

When I Care About Something, I Care About Something. I Think I Have An Obligation As An American To - And As A Citizen, As - As A Human Being, To Help Others. Smoking Is Going To Kill A Billion People This Century. I've Put Six Hundred Million Dollars From My Own Money Into Trying To Stop The Tobacco Companies From Getting Kids To Smoke And Convincing Adults That It's Not In Their Health.

If A Hurricane Strikes, We Can Blame The President For Not Being There; We Can Blame Congress And Fema; We Can Blame The State Governments; But In The End, It's The Mayors And The Local City Governments That Have To Be Prepared For Emergencies And Be Prepared To Act.

After Hard Work, The Biggest Determinant Is Being In The Right Place At The Right Time.

You Bet I Did And I Enjoyed It.

Now, You Might Say – “but Why Should We Pay People For Doing What They’re Supposed To Do?” It’s A Fair Question – But Think Of It This Way: Every Other Anti-poverty Program That’s Been Tried Has Failed To Get The National Poverty Rate Below 11 Percent... Why Shouldn’t We Experiment With A Program Built Around The One Strategy That Has Proven Time And Again To Work Wonders – Capitalism?

The People Who Are Worried About Privacy Have A Legitimate Worry. But We Live In A Complex World Where You're Going To Have To Have A Level Of Security Greater Than You Did Back In The Olden Days, If You Will. And Our Laws And Our Interpretation Of The Constitution, I Think, Have To Change.

I Thought Jeb Bush Would Have Made A Good President. He Was On The Board Of My Foundation. He's Very Conservative, Much Too Conservative For Me.

You're Entitled To Your Own Opinions, But Not Your Own Facts.

Go Walk The Streets Of Beijing. It's Pretty Hard To Argue It Isn't A Modern City. Now, If You Go Outside [of Beijing], In The Rural Areas, That's True. But Rural America, You Can Say The Same Thing, In Appalachia There's An Awful Lot Of Poverty And Lack Of Education.

Look At The Streets! The People Have Smiles On Their Faces, They're Hustling And Bustling And Going Places, They're Well-dressed, There's Lots Of Construction Going On. It's Kind Of Hard To Feel Sorry For An Economy Like This.

America Is Built Around This Premise That You Can Do It, And There Are An Awful Lot Of People Who Are Unlikely To Have Done It Who Did.

And I Think The More Money You Put In People's Hands, The More They Will Spend. And If They Don't Spend It, They Invest It. And Investing It Is Another Way Of Creating Jobs. It Puts Money Into Mutual Funds Or Other Kinds Of Banks That Can Go Out And Make Loans, And We Need To Do That.

I Make No Secret Of The Fact That I Was Not A Big Hillary Clinton Supporter, But I Thought In The Two-way Race Between Her And Donald Trump, That She Should Have Been The President. But Trump Promised A Lot Of Things. And Now He's Six Months In And Hasn't Passed A Piece Of Legislation Yet. Now, I Personally Have Said We Should Help Him. I Didn't Vote For Him. I Didn't Think He Was The Right Person. But Once We Have An Election And He Gets Elected, Then We Have A Responsibility As Citizens To Help Him.

You Know, Russia Today Is, What, 200 Million People? In Land Mass, It's Probably 50 Times The Size [of Japan], In Natural Resources A Hundred Times The Size! Russia's Not Doing All That Badly. The Public There - Not Everybody - But They Have Things That The West Offered, [that] Were Only Available In The West A Long Time Ago.

What We Shouldn't Do Is Let People Who Want To Come Here Make The Decision Themselves. America Should Be In Control Of Its Own Borders.

The Politics Of Partisanship And The Resulting Inaction And Excuses Have Paralyzed Decision-making, Primarily At The Federal Level, And The Big Issues Of The Day Are Not Being Addressed, Leaving Our Future In Jeopardy.

Politicians Generally Respond To Who Is Going To Help Them Get Elected And Re-elected.

And I Keep Saying, Whether You Like The President Or Not, Everybody Has To Pull Together And Help The President Because, As The President Goes, So Goes The Country, As The Country Goes, So Goes Your Job, Your Ability To Feed Your Family, Your Government.

[hillary Clinton] Is Going To Decide War, Peace, And Health, Education, Livelihood For My Kids. I Want The Best Person.

Health Education

We Have To Get Control Of Our Borders. You Can Only Do That If You Make Companies Obey The Law And Not Hire Undocumented Or Illegals. They Can Only Do That Is If They Have A Social Security Card That Has Biometrics So They Know Whether The Person Is Legal Or Not.

Any Friend Of Fossil Is A Friend Of Mine... We’ve Got To Do Everything We Can To Get People Out Of Their Automobiles And Into Mass Transit.

If You Want To Know How To Solve Society's Problems, You Start Out With Better Public Education.

Public Education

I'm Worried About The World Because Of Nuclear Proliferation.

We Haven't Had A World War In A Long Time. We Do Have Mass Movements Of People Out Of Syria And North Africa. But, Fundamentally, If You Take Japan, You're Complaining That The Economy Isn't Booming, They'd Like To Have Slightly Higher Inflation.

Cities With Clean Air Gain An Economic Advantage, Because Where People Want To Live And Work, Businesses Want To Invest.

Our Goal Here In New York Is To Ensure That Every Child Who Graduates High School Is Ready To Start A Career Or Start College And To Dramatically Increase The Number Of Students That Graduate From College.

Others May Doubt Us. They May Criticize Us. They May Try To Deny Us What Is Rightfully Ours. But They Will Fail. And I Promise You, As Long As I Am Mayor, I Will Never Back Away From Fighting Any Opponent - Or Confronting Any Obstacle - That Would Prevent Our People From Achieving All Of Their Dreams In Our New York.

Nobody Should Ever Mistake And Think That Our Country [usa] Is Weakened, Or That Authority Is Diffuse And Unspecified, And That We Are Vulnerable.

Fifty Percent Of The World's Population Lives In Cities. In A Couple Of Decades, 70 Percent Of The World's Population Will Be Living In Cities. Cities Are Where The Problem Is. Cities Are Where The Solution Is, Where Creativity Exists To Address The Challenges And Where They Have Most Impact. This Is Why, In 2005, The C40 Was Founded, An Organization Of Cities That Address Climate Change. It Started With 18 Cities; Now It's 91. Cities Simply Are The Key To Saving The Planet.

We're America, And We Have To Stop Worrying About What Happens Overseas, And To Be Optimistic, Even Though Nobody Should Think We're Not Going To Have Some Difficult Times.

This Is The City Of Dreamers And Time And Again It's The Place Where The Greatest Dream Of All, The American Dream, Has Been Tested And Has Triumphed.

Native American

I Have My Own Army In The Nypd, Which Is The Seventh Biggest Army In The World. I Have My Own State Department, Much To Foggy Bottom's Annoyance. We Have The United Nations In New York, And So We Have An Entree Into The Diplomatic World That Washington Does Not Have.

If It Wasn't For O'flanagan's Pub On Manhattan's Upper East Side, I Don't Know Where I Would Have Spent My Friday Nights As A Young Man.

If People Are Not Smoking, They'll Probably Be Drinking More.

One's A Dog-eat-dog World, And The Other One's Just The Opposite.

We've Continued Progress In The Six Months Since Trump Got Elected, And The Good Thing About What We're Doing Is That Success Begets Success. As We Bring Down Greenhouse Gases, For Example, We've Closed Half Of The Coal-fired Power Plants In The Country In Recent Years. There's More Impetus To Try To Close The Other Half Because You Can See That It Is Working. So, You Know, I Had Hoped That Trump Would Not Do That, And It Doesn't Make Any Sense To Me, But Regardless, It Is Not As Cataclysmic As It Could Be.

No Place Epitomizes The American Experience And The American Spirit More Than New York City.

We All Know That Election Reform Takes Time. That's Because Those Who Have Benefited From The System Are The Ones Who Fight Hardest To Preserve It. So If We're Going To Succeed, We Need An Independent Coalition Of Citizens Who Believe In Reform, Who Believe That Our Election Laws Should Treat Every Voter Equally, Who Believe That Low Levels Of Competition And Participation Are Not Healthy For Democracy. The Independence Party Is Helping To Build That Coalition And I Am Happy To Join You In Doing So.

We May Not Always Agree With Every One Of Our Neighbors. That's Life. And It's Part Of Living In Such A Diverse And Dense City. But We Also Recognize That Part Of Being A New Yorker Is Living With Your Neighbors In Mutual Respect And Tolerance. It Was Exactly That Spirit Of Openness And Acceptance That Was Attacked On 9/11, 2001.

Yes, They Broke The Law, But We Can't Deport Them. Let's Get Over This Pointing Fingers And Do Something About That, Whether It - They Have To Pay A Fine, Learn To Speak English, The History, You Can Do That. And Then You Have To Give Visas For The Skills We Need.

I Gave A Speech At The Democratic National Convention In 2016 And Warned Of Trump. America Has Survived For Almost 250 Years With Its Imperfect Democracy, But, You Know, Maybe It's A Better Democracy Than Elsewhere. And I Am Sure American Democracy Will Survive.

Working Collectively And Collaboratively Is The Difference Between Mediocrity By Yourself Or Success As A Team. You Have To Share The Pain And The Responsibility And If You Do Then You Will Also Share In The Rewards.

Don't Be Afraid To Assert Yourself, Have Confidence In Your Abilities And Don't Let The Bastards Get You Down.

My Father, A Bookkeeper Who Never Earned More Than $11,000 A Year In His Life, Sat There, Writing Out A $25 Check To The Naacp. When I Asked Him Why, He Said Discrimination Against Anyone Is Discrimination Against Us All. And I Never Forgot That. Indeed, His Philanthropy Was A Gift, Not Just To That Organization, But To Me.

Life Is Too Short To Spend Your Time Avoiding Failure.

Life Is Too Short

Surround Yourself With Good People

Surround Yourself With Positive People

Design Does Matter. And Not Necessarily In A Way That People Realize. A Lot Of What You Do, People Take For Granted - That A Park Has Always Been Here, That A Bicycle Lane Has Always Been There, That The Street Is Safe Or Clean.

If I Remember, Russia, 20 Or 30 Years Ago, You'd Get Shot Trying To Leave. Today, Russian Tourists Are All Over The World. You Have Russian Oligarchs With Big Yachts All Over The World.

Government By Three Men In A Room Has Turned New York State Into A National Symbol Of Governmental Dysfunction. Enough Is Enough!

If You Don't Encounter Setbacks In Your Career, If You Don't Have Doubts And Disappointments , Let Me Tell You, You're Not Dreaming Big Enough.

I Think [winston] Churchill Said It Was " [democracy] The Worst Of All Systems Except For All The Others." And That's Probably True. It's Never Gone Easily.

Well, You Have The Public Not Wanting Any New Spending, You Have The Republicans Not Wanting Any New Taxes, You Have The Democrats Not Wanting Any New Spending Cuts, You Have The Markets Not Wanting Any New Borrowing, And You Have The Economists Wanting All Of The Above. And That Leads To Paralysis.

Mayors Are Very Different, Because Mayors Can't Be On Both Sides Of Every Issue. Mayors Have To Take An Explicit Stance. Just Go With Your Gut And Say What You Believe, And You'll Be Fine. If You're Not Fine, At Least You'll Like What You See In The Mirror.

I Think It's A Sign That The Establishment Is Going To Have To Change. For Too Long They Never Thought About The Average Person, Because The Average Person Is Not Organized.

The Public Wants Elected Officials Who Have Character. The Public Wants Elected Officials Who Are Willing To Stand Up And Say Things, Even If They Don't Agree With Them.

Is Your Company So Small You Have To Do Everything For Yourself? Wait Until You're So Big That You Can't. That's Worse.

In Science, A Path That Turns Out To Be A Dead End Is Very Useful Because You Don't Devote Resources To Focusing On That; You Go Elsewheres.

You Have To Take Away Some Of Tax Breaks For The Wealthy, And You Have To Cut Back On Some Entitlements. Because, Unless We Do All Of These Things, It Just Doesn't Work. And What's Good Theater And What's Good Politics Isn't Necessarily Good Economic Policy.

Many Of America's And New York's Sons And Daughters Are Around The World Fighting For The Freedoms That The Statue Of Liberty Stands For.

Taxes Are Not Good Things, But If You Want Services, Somebody's Got To Pay For Them So They're A Necessary Evil.

When You Come In To Court As A Plaintiff Or As A Defendant, It Is Terribly Important That You Look Up At The Bench And Feel That That Person Represents You And Will Understand You, That That Person Is Reflective Of Our Community And Of Our Society.

I Was The One Of Those Students Who Made The Top Half Of The Class Possible.

If You Can't Prove It's Not True Then A Certain Number Of People Will Glom On And Say It Is True.

We Cannot Continue. Our Pension Costs And Health Care Costs For Our Employees Are Going To Bankrupt This City.

People Vote Against Their Own Interests That All The Time. But When You Do The Polling In The U.s., It Has Gone From Less Than 50 Percent Who Thought Climate Change Was Real To 70-odd Percent. And If You Listen To The Republicans In Congress, They Used To Say, "oh, Climate Change Doesn't Exist." Then They Switched To "well, It Exists, But It's Not Man-made," To "well, I'm Going To Address The Issue." Why? Because When They Go Home, The Local Constituent Says, "wait A Second. What Are You Talking About? We Just Had A Flood. We Haven't Had Rain In A Long Time." They Can't Get Away From It.

You've Got To Give People A Fair Chance Of Saying What They Believe, And Then You've Got To Decide, "do You Believe 'em?"

We're Paying More For The Privilege Of Getting Sick And Dying Early. Once Again, It Makes No Sense. And Once Again, No One In Washington Is Talking About How To Fix It.

Five Years Have Come, And Five Years Have Gone, And Still We Stand Together As One. We Come Back To This Place To Remember The Heartbreaking Anniversary - And Each Person Who Died Here - Those Known And Unknown To Us, Whose Absence Is Always With Us.

A Lot Can Happen In A Week - Just Read Any Bible, .. On The Seventh Day, Election Day, Unlike The Bible, We Can't Rest.

Fighting Climate Change Isn't Just An Obligation We Owe To Future Generations. It's Also An Opportunity To Improve Public Health - And Drive Economic Growth - In The Here And Now.

Most Gun Dealers Follow The Law And Run Honest Businesses. But The Statistics Show That 1 Percent Of Dealers Sell More Than Half Of All Illegal Guns. Why Isn't The Federal Government Going After Them? Here's One Reason: Unlike Mayors, Members Of Congress Don't Get A Phone Call In The Middle Of The Night When A Cop Is Shot And Killed. They Don't Deliver The Eulogies.

I Know That Many Irish-born New Yorkers Are Caught In The Trap Of Our Federal Immigration Policies. If We Are Going To Continue To Attract The Best And The Brightest - And Ireland Has More Than Its Fair Share - We Need To Inject Some Common Sense Into Our Immigration Laws, And I'm Doing My Best To Make That Case In Washington.

I'm Trying To Change The Culture In New York City; That's Hard Enough!

Trees Will Improve Property Values, Take Pollutants Out Of The Air, Help With Water Runoff.

I Am Heading Straight In. I Have Earned My Place In Heaven. It’s Not Even Close.

I Do Not Think That Anybody Should Get Paid For Lousy Performance. I've Said That For A Long Time. If You Work Hard And You Do Good, You Get Paid Well.

If You Are Honest With Yourself And If You Want To Like What You See In The Mirror, Is You Have To Say What You Really Believe.

I Think That ... None Of [the Candidates In He Third Party] Have The Courage To Do What's Right For The Country. And I Have, Now, Two Grandchildren, Which I Didn't Have Before. I'd Like To Leave Them A Better World.

Despite Its Potential, The Federal Government Has Restricted Funding For Creating New Cell Lines - Putting The Burden Of Any Future Research Squarely On The Shoulders Of The Private Sector. Government's Most Basic Responsibility, However, Is The Health And Welfare Of Its People, So It Has A Duty To Encourage Appropriate Scientific Investigations That Could Possibly Save The Lives Of Millions.

I Don't Know Why You Should Be Proud Of Something. It Doesn't Make You Any Better Or Worse. You Are What You Are.

In 1975, Congress Passed A Law Requiring Fuel Efficiency Standards To Double Over 10 Years, With Incremental Targets That Auto Manufacturers Were Required To Meet. That Was The Responsible Approach, And It Worked. But Since 1985, We've Done Nothing - Even As Technology Has Moved At Light Speed.

The Next Day After I Got Fired, Literally The Next Day, I Started A New Company.

Government Is Dysfunctional.

And If I Were The President, I'd Go Out There And I'd Emphasize The Things I Have Done, And I'd Say, 'some Things Haven't Worked, And I'm Sorry About That, But I Keep Trying.' And I'm - And I Think The President Is A Very Viable Candidate, And You're Going To Have A Real Horse Race Here No Matter Who The Republican Nominee Is.

You Can't Depend On Polls.

Buy What's Deliverable, Not What Could Be.

I'd Be Happy To Provide Advice If Anybody Asked Me No Matter Who The President Is.

People Use So Much More Health Care When They Live Longer.

We Need To Inject Some Old-fashioned American Values And Common-sense, Practical Thinking Into Our Energy Policy.

Last I Looked - And I'm Not A Candidate - But Last Time I Checked Reading About The Constitution, The Electoral College Has Nothing To Do With Parties, Has Absolutely Nothing To Do With Parties. It's Most States Are Winners Take All.

I Think If You Look At People, Whether In Business Or Government, Who Haven't Had Any Moral Compass, Who've Just Changed To Say Whatever They Thought The Popular Thing Was, In The End They're Losers.

Even Though New York Is The Safest Big City In The Nation, There Are Still Far Too Many Illegal Guns On Our Streets. Nearly All Of Them Arrive From Out Of State - And Most Are Sold By A Small Group Of Rogue Gun Dealers Who Refuse To Obey Federal Laws.

I'd Be Derelict In My Duty If I Didn't Go And Continue To Use Every Advantage That I Can To Promote New York's Cause.

Look, We Live In A Very Dangerous World. We Know There Are People Who Want To Take Away Our Freedoms. New Yorkers Probably Know That As Much If Not More Than Anybody Else After The Terrible Tragedy Of 9/11.

Dangerous World

I Believe In Judaism, I Was Raised A Jew, I'm Happy To Be One - Or Proud To Be One.

I Like What I See When I Look In The Mirror. If I Get Sentimental, I Look And Say, "uh. It's A Bad Day. They Beat Up On Me," This, That, And The Other Thing. But Ya Know? We've Spent One Billion Trying To Convince People To Not Smoke. It's Been Phenomenally Successful. We've Probably Saved Millions Of Lives. There Aren't Many People That Have Done That. So, You Know, When I Get To Heaven, I'm Not Sure I'm Gonna Stand For An Interview. I'm Going Right In.

We Have An Expression In New York City Government - "in God We Trust, But For Everyone Else, Bring Data." It's So Easy To Pick Up A Sound Byte And Say, "oh, Yeah, Yeah, I Believe That," Without Really Thinking.

We Should Remember It Wasn't So Long Ago That Confidence In New York Was In Short Supply.

By Speeding The Transition To Cleaner Energy, We Can Improve The Lives Of Billions Of People, While Also Reducing The Risks We Face From A Changing Climate.

Entrepreneurship Is Having An Idea To Do Something Great And Not Entirely Have A Plan On How To Do It But The Drive And Will Power To Make It Work

Entrepreneurship

If You Think Of All The Publicity About The Terrible Tragedy Of Virginia Tech, We Have A Virginia Tech In This Country Every Day. It's Just Spread Across 50 States.

Don't Think That I'm - I'd- I'm Infallible. Will Always Make Mistakes.

Making Mistakes

You Have To Understand, We Have Better Communications And Better Transportation, So People Know What's Available Elsewhere And Can Get A Message Out, And You Can Move Things. And You [can] Say That The Economy Is More Unpredictable.

I Think We Are Not Serious About Attacking The Long-term Debt Problem, And That's One Of The Things That He's Going To Have To Find A Way To Get On The Agenda.

If You Look At Who Starts New Businesses, People That Are Innovative And Risk Takers. When You Look At Immigrants, You Really Have To Be An Innovator And A Risk Taker To Leave Everything You Know In The Old Country And Go To A New Country. People That Come Here In America Come Here To Work.

In Business, When You Fail At Something, When Something Doesn't Work, You Say Okay, We've Learned That That's Not A Path To Go Down.

You Must First Be Willing To Fail — And You Must Have The Courage To Go For It Anyway.

I Know How To Make Decisions And Stand Up To The Criticism Every Day.

What Goes On In Europe Concerns Us Greatly Because, If Europe Comes Apart, The E.u. Comes Apart, Then You're Going To Have Enormous Impact On America, That's A Very Big Trading Partner Of Ours, And People Own Securities Around The World In This Day And Age.

I Cannot For The Life Of Me Understand Why The American Market Keeps Going Up. Our Economy Has Some Real Challenges. The Infrastructure's Falling Apart. We're Destroying Jobs With Technology. We Are Keeping The Best And The Brightest From Around The World From Coming To America To Create New Jobs And Create New Businesses. All Of Those Things Would Give You Pause To Worry About The Future.

Look At All Of The Great Strengths Of America: Entrepreneurialship, Work Ethic, Natural Resources, A Democracy, A Transparency, A Willingness To Be Critical. Around The World, They Look At Us, And They Say, "why Are You Criticizing Yourself? Why Are You People Arguing During The Political Process To Elect A President Or Somebody Else?" That's The Great Strength Of This Country.

Government Caters To Those Screaming The Loudest, Regardless Of What They're Screaming About. In Business, It's Exactly The Opposite! You Invest More In The Most Successful Departments, And Less In Those That Aren't Performing.

Nobody Is Going To Delegate A Lot Of Power To A Secretary That They Can't Control.

We Can Be Certain That Cities Around The World Will Compete For The Jobs That The Next Revival Of The Financial Services Industry Will Bring.

The One Thing Computers Have Done Is Let Us Make Bigger Mistakes. We Have To Be Careful Not To Depend On Our Machines.

Being An Entrepreneur Isn't Really About Starting A Business. It's A Way Of Looking At The World: Seeing Opportunity Where Others See Obstacles, Taking Risks When Others Take Refuge.

What Chance Does A Five-foot-seven Billionaire Jew Who's Divorced Really Have Of Becoming President?

You Are Safer Here Tonight Than You Would Be On The Streets Of Any Other City In The World.

Whatever You May Think Of The Proposed Mosque And Community Center, Lost In The Heat Of The Debate Has Been A Basic Question: Should Government Attempt To Deny Private Citizens The Right To Build A House Of Worship On Private Property Based On Their Particular Religion?

There Are Lots Of Threats To You In The World. There's The Threat Of A Heart Attack For Genetic Reasons. You Can't Sit There And Worry About Everything. Get A Life.

My Personal View Is, Why Don't You Get Out There And Try To Do Something About The Things That You Don't Like, Create The Jobs That We Are Lacking, Rather Than Just Yell And Scream. But If You Want To Yell And Scream, We'll Make Sure You Can Do It.

When I Came Into Office, People Said, 'billionaire? How Do They Live? What Do They Eat? How Do They Sleep?' Today, They See Me On The Subway Coming Uptown. A Couple Of People Say Hi, Some People Smile And Nod. Some People Just Sleep. It's Not An Issue.

These Endless Legal Challenges That Define Elections In New York Are A Joke In This Country, And They Are The Reason Why It Is So Expensive, Or One Of The Reasons, It's So Expensive To Run Here And Why So Many People Decide Not To Run.

I Don't Know Why People Carry Guns. Guns Kill People.

Other Ways Of Looking At The Environmental Or Climate Change Stuff Is To Frame It In The Context That It Is Simultaneously A Public Health Issue. One Out Of Eight Premature Deaths Worldwide Happens Because Of Air Pollution. The Worst Power Plant In America Kills 278 People A Year And Causes 445 Heart Attacks. So, When We Improve Air Quality We Improve Our Lives, And At The Same Time We Improve The Climate As Well. We Must See Climate Policy From This Perspective And Not As An Abstract Threat That May Threaten Our Survival In 100 Years.

China Is Investing In Factories In Eastern Europe, Not Because Their Labor Costs Are Lower, But Because They Want To Be Closer To Their Markets.

I Don't Have A Problem With A Woman Being President; I Just Want The Best Candidate.

We Would Betray Our Values And Play Into Our Enemies' Hands If We Were To Treat Muslims Differently Than Anyone Else. In Fact, To Cave To Popular Sentiment Would Be To Hand A Victory To The Terrorists, And We Should Not Stand For That.

I Think That Most Of The Candidates [for Presidency] Can't Run The Railroad, And I Still Worry That Whoever Gets Elected Will Have Policies Designed For Political Rather Than Practical Reasons.

When It Comes To Public School Education, We Have Been Unwilling To Measure Our Results. We've Been Unwilling To Pay Based On Performance. We Have Tenure Where, Even If You Can't Teach, You Can't Get Fired. We've Been Unwilling To Invest In New Schools.

We Have Always Had, Remember, Small Groups Of Both Parties That Split Off. There Were The "blue Dog Democrats." There Were The "dixie Democrats." Democrats Were Never Going To, Ever Again, Pull Together.

Neither Party Has God On Its Side, A Monopoly On Good Ideas, Or A Lock On Any Single Fiscal, Social, Or Moral Philosophy.

If Someone Tells Me They Skied All Day And Never Fell Down, I Tell Them To Find Another Mountain.

I Was A Democrat Before I Was A Republican Before I Became An Independent And I Never Changed My Principles.

Funny Graduation

[jeb Bush] Could, As I Describe It, Run The Railroad.[john] Kasich Could Run The Railroad. Hillary Clinton Can Run The Railroad. Running The Railroad Is The Most Important Thing. You Have Got 4 Million Employees; You've Got To Make The System Work, And It Doesn't Work Very Well.

I've Always Respected Those Who Tried To Change The World For The Better, Rather Than Just Complain About It.

We Are The Safest Large City In America, But Any Crime Rate Is Too High.

We Will Rebuild, Renew And Remain The Capital Of The Free World.

The World Trade Center Site Will Forever Hold A Special Place In Our City, In Our Hearts. But We Would Be Untrue To The Best Part Of Ourselves And Who We Are As New Yorkers And Americans If We Said No To A Mosque In Lower Manhattan.

The Governor Of Texas Was A Real Climate Change, Well, "skeptic" Would Be A Nice Way Of Phrasing It. Still, Though, Texas Is A Leader In Renewables. So, What I Care About Is What Politicians Are Actually Doing, Not What They Are Saying.

I Think Both Of Them [donald Trump And Bernie Sanders] Have [chances] Because They Are Not The Establishment, Not For Who They Are.

You Know, If You Look Back In The 1930s, The Money Went To Infrastructure. The Bridges, The Municipal Buildings, The Roads, Those Were All Built With Stimulus Money Spent On Infrastructure. This Stimulus Bill Has Fundamentally Gone, Started Out With A $500 Rebate Check, Remember. That Went To Buy Flat-screen Tvs Made In China.

After All, The Same Steps That Reduce Carbon Pollution Also Clean The Air We Breathe, Which Saves Lives And Reduces Disease.

I Do Think There Are Certain Times We Should Infringe On Your Freedom.

I'd Love To Have A President Who Really Was Out There Leading And Traveling Around The World Campaigning For Joint Climate Change Action. Even The Chinese Government Is Trying To Get People To Stop Polluting. And I Think The Federal Government Level In China Is Acting More Responsibly Than The American Government.

You Can Buy Almost Anything Anyplace In The World. You Can Get It Delivered In 24 Hours. You Can Pay For It On Credit Or Just By Swiping Something. So, I Don't Know That The World Is Worse Off, In That Context, Than Before.

The Estate Taxes, On Balance, Are Good. They Get People To Give Money To Charity, And They Prevent These Family Dynasties Which Keep Other People From Having Opportunities. It May Be Good For A Family, But For Society It's Probably Not Good. And I've Always Been In Favor Of Having An Estate Tax.

For Sure I Would Prefer Trump Had Not Withdrawn From The Paris Agreement. But The Fight Against Climate Change Is Really Done At The Local Level - Whether It's Cities, Local Governments Or The Private Sector, Corporate And Individual. No Matter What Trump Says, Nobody Is Going To Go Back And Take The Scrubber Out Or Change Back To Polluting. The Damage That Trump Can Do Is If There Are Countries That Are On The Fence About Whether They Want To Address The Issue, This Gives The Naysayers, The Doubters, Those That Don't Want To Do Anything, A Little More Ammunition.

I Think One Of The Great Dangers Here Is Going And Categorizing Anybody From One Religion As A Terrorist. That's Not True... That Would Let The Terrorists Win. That's What They Want Us To Do.

In New York City, A Lot Of People Think "the Great Outdoors" Is The Area Between Your Front Door And A Taxi Cab.

Ten Years Have Passed Since A Perfect Blue Sky Morning Turned Into The Blackest Of Nights. Since Then We've Lived In Sunshine And In Shadow, And Although We Can Never Unsee What Happened Here, We Can Also See That Children Who Lost Their Parents Have Grown Into Young Adults, Grandchildren Have Been Born And Good Works And Public Service Have Taken Root To Honor Those We Loved And Lost.

New York Has Been, And Will Continue To Be, A Magnet For People From All Over The World. This Is Where The Arts, Business, Research And Technology Converge To Create The World's Foremost Urban Economy.

Basically, The Ubr Is A Relic Of An Earlier Vision For Uddi. The Original Vision For Uddi Was As A Standard That Would Help Companies Conduct Business With Each Other In An Automated Fashion. The Idea Was That Companies Could Publish How They Wanted To Interact, And Other Companies Could Find That Information And Use It To Establish A Relationship.

Someone Once Described The Information Business As Exactly The Opposite Of Sex. When It's Good, It's Still Lousy.

What The Democrats Have To Understand Is That While We Do Need To Reform Our Regulation And We Do Need More Restrictions, It Is True That It Is Capitalism And Free Enterprise And Companies That Create Jobs And Wealth For Every American.

Most People Won't Have Opportunity To Do Full-time Service, But Those Lucky Enough To Have Monetary Wealth Or Some Spare Time Really Can Make An Enormous Difference. As Someone Who's Now In The Public Sector, And Is Seeing Up-close-and-personal The Real Impact Of What We Do And What We Give, I Can Tell You: Every Dollar And Every Volunteer Help, In More Ways Than You Can Count.

I Tend To Be Reasonably Blunt, Maybe A Little Bit Too Much. But I Just- I Always Respected People That Tell The Truth. And I've Always Wanted People To Tell Me The Truth.

Telling The Truth

Keep In Mind, Mike Bloomberg's Kids And Grandkids Are Breathing That Air Just Like The Coalminers' Families Are Breathing That Air. And The Coalminers Are The Ones That Have The Conflict. They Want Their Jobs, I Understand That. They Need To Be Able To Feed Their Families. They Also Have To Worry About Their Health And The Health Of Their Families.

We Have Reduced Poverty In The World By 50% Since The Year 1970 - The Number Of People Who Go To Bed Hungry, The Number Of People That Have To Sleep Without A Roof Over Their Heads, The Number Of People That Are Illiterate.the World Is Better.

Like Israel, New York City's History Has Been Defined By Immigrants Who Come In Search Of Freedom And The Opportunity To Build A Better Life. And Like Israel, New York City Has Remained A Target For Terrorists Who Seek To Destroy That Freedom

The Press Really Is Not Doing Its Job Of Holding Their [the Candidates'] Feet To The Fire. ... The Tough Questions Are Not What Are You In Favor Of, But How Are You Going To Get It Through Congress?

Tough Questions

Donald Trump Says He Wants To Run America Like He's Running His Business? God Help Us.

Jeb Bush Is Very Good On Immigration, He's Very Good On Education. He's A Smart Guy.

Canada Sets Aside 36 Percent Of Their Visas For People With Skills They Think Their Country Needs. We Set Aside Six Percent. We Educate The Doctors, And Then Don't Give 'em A Green Card.

And Because No Matter Who You Are, If You Believe In Yourself And Your Dream, New York Will Always Be The Place For You.

Today, You're A Piranha If You Are Seen Having Coffee With Somebody From The Other Party In Many Cases.

What I'm Trying To Do Is To Create Excitement. So People Looking At The Bloomberg's Office Building Say, "my Goodness, What's Going On Here? There's Something Different About This Company." You Want The Employees To Get Psyched. And It's A Chance To Meet Each Other. My Job Is To Get People To Work Together. With Free Food And No Offices, Even For Bloomberg, This Might Be Considered One Of The World's Great Corporate Headquarters.

Working Together

Every One Of My Positions Cuts - Out Half The Country. I'm Pro-choice, I'm Pro-gay Rights, I'm Pro-immigration, I'm Against Guns, I Believe In Darwin.

[donald] Trump I've Known Because We Cut Ribbons Together At Golf Courses And That Sort Of Thing. He's A Pleasant Guy When You're With Him. I've Played Golf With Him Twice, Oh, Probably 10, 15 Years Ago.

You're Going To See A Million People Here Who Have The Courage To Come And Not Let Terrorists Win, And That's Exactly What We Should All Do.

The Fact Is, The Most Painful And Tragic Lesson Of The 20th Century Was That Regimes Based On Racial Superiority And Religious Hatred Can't Be Trusted To Keep Their Word To The International Community.

Partisanship May Be King In Washington - But The Rest Of Us Don't Have To Pay Tribute.

We Need To Have More Taxes, Not Less, And We Need The Taxes We Have, Certainly, To Provide Services - For Defense And Education And Health Care. We Should Not Cut Money Here In Order To Cut Taxes.

I Don't Think There's Much Difference Between The Two Parties. I Think Whatever Their Constituents At The Moment Want, That's What They Believe. If Their Constituents Changed, They Would Change Overnight.

It's No Fun To Protest On An Empty Stomach.

The Problem Of Dealing With The Financial Industry Is Being Addressed Today. You Can Measure It With Interest Rates Coming Down. You Can Measure It With The Quantity Of Loans, And That Sort Of Thing. The Problem Is, That Nobody Wants To Take The Loans. Once The Banks Are Willing To Give It, That's Only Half The Problem.

We All Must Recognize That Homeland Security Funds Should Be Allocated By Threat And No Other Reason.

This Society Cannot Go Forward, The Way We Have Been Going Forward, Where The Gap Between The Rich And The Poor Keeps Growing. It's Not Politically Viable; It's Not Morally Right; It's Just Not Going To Happen.

I Think That All Money Can Do Is To Get Your Message Out. Unfortunately, We Live In A World Where You Have To Use Mass Media To Communicate With The People, And It Just Costs An Awful Lot Of Money.

I Like The Theater, Dining And Chasing Women. Let Me Put It This Way: I Am A Single, Straight Billionaire In Manhattan. It's Like A Wet Dream.

There Is No Business In America That Would Be Prevented From Taking Results Into Account When Making Personnel Decisions.

In Our Democracy, Near Equality Is No Equality. Government Either Treats Everyone The Same, Or It Doesn't. And Right Now It Doesn't.

People Have No Confidence That Washington, Both Sides Of Aisle, Are Coming Together To Try And Do What's Right For The Economy.

The Russian Economy Is Way Down Because Of The Price Of Oil, And Because The Ussr Was A Big Chunk Of It.

Russian Economy

I Never Lie, So If Somebody Asked Me A Question, I Told Them.

When You Go To Washington Now, You Can Feel A Sense Of Fear In The Air - The Fear To Do Anything, Or Say Anything, That Might Affect The Polls, Or Give The Other Side An Advantage, Or Offend A Special Interest.

Our Climate Is Changing. And While The Increase In Extreme Weather We Have Experienced In New York City And Around The World May Or May Not Be The Result Of It, The Risk That It May Be - Given The Devastation It Is Wreaking - Should Be Enough To Compel All Elected Leaders To Take Immediate Action.

If You Want To Do Something For Your Children And Show How Much You Love Them, The Single Best Thing-by Far-is To Support Organizations That Will Create A Better World For Them And Their Children.

We Will Go Forward... We Will Never Go Back.

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Lawrence Durrell

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