"Well, we have to provide the world's best schools. We certainly don't have them, but that's our objective."
"I am what I am and, you know, I'm a very lucky guy."
"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."
"I've got the greatest job in the world. There's no other job in government where cause and effect is so tightly coupled where you can make a difference every day in so many different ways and in so many different people's lives. It's a great challenge."
"Taxes are not good things, but if you want services, somebody's got to pay for them so they're a necessary evil."
"It's no fun to protest on an empty stomach."
"The cold harsh reality is that we have to balance the budget."
"We will rebuild, renew and remain the capital of the free world."
"We are the safest large city in America, but any crime rate is too high."
"You are safer here tonight than you would be on the streets of any other city in the world."
"No place epitomizes the American experience and the American spirit more than New York City."
"We all must recognize that homeland security funds should be allocated by threat and no other reason."
"We will go forward... we will never go back."
"And because no matter who you are, if you believe in yourself and your dream, New York will always be the place for you."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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've shown the world that New York can never be defeated, because of its dynamic and diverse population and because it embodies the spirit of enterprise and the love of liberty. And because no matter who you are, if you believe in yourself and your dream, New York will always be the place for you."
"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."
"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."
"You don't make spending decisions, investment decisions, hiring decisions, or whether-you're-going-to-look-for-a-job decisions when you don't know what's going to happen."
"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."
"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."
"The public is upset. If they haven't lost their job, they know somebody that has. If they haven't lost their house, they know somebody that has. What do you do? When something's wrong, it's government's job to fix it, it must be government that's responsible for causing it."
