Michael Bloomberg Quotes

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.

There will be ups, there will be downs, there will be sideways. I can just tell you I have been hired, I have been fired, I have been lauded, I have been vilified. I've said some of the most brilliant things that just by accident appeared on my tongue, and I’ve said some of the dumbest things that you could imagine. But each day - even the day that I knew I was going to be fired - I looked forward to because I've always believed that tomorrow was going to be the best day of my life.

Progress is not inevitable. It's up to us to create it.

I believe we can turn around our country's current, wrong-headed course, if we start basing our actions on ideas, shared values, and a commitment to solve problems without regard for party.

The federal poverty measurement … hasn't been changed since it was first introduced in 1964. … [T]he formula [doesn't] indicate that we've made any gains in fighting poverty. … [Yet] we have made real progress in fighting poverty and raising living standards since the 70s. … The poverty formula … is bankrupt.

It's scary in this country, it's probably because of our bad educational system, but the percentage of people that believe in Creationalism is really scary for a country that's going to have to compete in the world where science and medicine require a better understanding.

Leading from the front: It's what built America. But these days, the federal government isn't at the front – it's cowering in the back corner of the room, ducking responsibility and hoping no one notices.

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.

Taxes are not good things, but if you want services, somebody's got to pay for them so they're a necessary evil.

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.

The whole purpose of college is to learn how to deal with difficult situations, not to run away from them. A micro-aggression is exactly that : micro. But in a macro sense, one of the most dangerous places on a college campus is the so-called 'safe space', because it creates a false impression that we can isolate ourselves from those who hold different views. We can't, and we shouldn't try—not in politics or in the workplace. Graduates, in the global economy, and in a democratic society, an open mind is the most valuable asset you can possess.

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.

If they don't act, we will. Shame on them but we cannot sit around and watch our environment deteriorate and put this world in jeopardy. We are willing to stand up, we think it is one of the seminal issues of our time.

On fears arising after the foiling of an alleged plot to blow up a fuel pipeline beneath JFK airport: "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."

I've always wondered if people who block each other from expressing their opinions do so because they have so little confidence in their own. To me, encountering an opposing point of view is a chance to gain a deeper understanding of the issues at stake... and develop my own point of view. But the first thing you've got to do is you've got to let people speak and you've got to listen. And that's what the first amendment is all about. That's what really distinguishes this country from others.