Jimmy Hoffa Quotes

We never had any silk sheets in our family...

Nobody in this country respects what's weak. You believe me!
If you see a beggar on a corner, with his hat in his hand, nobody respects him.
Dress the same man up, give him an air of dignity, and he can command respect.
The same thing applies to this union.

When you go to prison they forget it's your Constitution, too.

In the ten years I was president of the Teamsters, I had raised the membership from eight hundred thousand to more than 2 million and made it the largest single labor union the world.

Sure, we loaned money to build hotels and casinos in Las Vegas. So what? Las Vegas borrowers were good customers.

They all know I'm back, very much back, and that I will be the general president again come hell or high water.

Mob guys had muscle, and where in hell do you think employers got the tough guys when they wanted to break a strike?

When you run an organization like the Teamsters one man has to be the boss and run things.

Hell, I'm not saying I'm an angel, but when it came to dirty tricks I couldn't hold a candle to the Irish Mafia.

I do to others what they do to me, only worse.

But because we are financially solid, because we do have an organization that is equipped to handle any situation that comes in front of us, we are successful in getting from the employers what our members want and need without strikes.

Power leads to more power, no matter what your racket, and not only were they rich and influential but they were smart as hell, too.

You almost had to live through it to really know the gut ripping misery of the depression during the early thirties which led to labor's bloodiest and most violent days.

A slab of bread "buttered" with lard and, if you were lucky, seasoned with salt and pepper, was a luxury.

But to hear Kennedy when he was grandstanding in front of the McClellan Committee you might have thought I was making as much out of the pension fund as the Kennedys made out of selling whiskey.