Quotes By Michael Bloomberg

You can't define what's middle class, what is wealthy, what is poor.

No place epitomizes the American experience and the American spirit more than New York City.

What chance does a five-foot-seven billionaire Jew who's divorced really have of becoming president?

I don't believe that government is good at picking technology, particularly technology that is changing. By the time you get it done and go through democracy, it's so outdated.

I'd be happy to provide advice if anybody asked me no matter who the President is.

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

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.

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.

There's a fascinating statistic: One out of every four people in America has visited New York since 9/11. It is astounding. Now, I don't know how you count it; it's some people coming multiple times.

If you really believe that you're making a difference and that you can leave a legacy of better schools and jobs and safer streets, why would you not spend the money? The objective is to improve the schools, bring down crime, build affordable housing, clean the streets - not to have a fair fight.

People use so much more health care when they live longer.

You know, if it's a three-way race, the public has more choice than if it's a two-way race, and has more choice in a two-way race than a one-way race.

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.

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.

There is no accountability today... no willingness to focus on big ideas.

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 know something about how to build constituencies in an independent way.

There is no business in America that would be prevented from taking results into account when making personnel decisions.

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.

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 mean, you know, we don't live in a perfect world.

If Warren Buffett made his money from ordinary income rather than capital gains, his tax rate would be a lot higher than his secretary's. In fact a very small percentage of people in this country pay a big chunk of the taxes.

I know how to make decisions and stand up to the criticism every day.

We all must recognize that homeland security funds should be allocated by threat and no other reason.

What has changed is that people have stopped working together.

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.

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.

We will rebuild, renew and remain the capital of the free world.

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.

I believe in Judaism, I was raised a Jew, I'm happy to be one - or proud to be one.