Quotes By Michael Bloomberg

To a contrarian like me, constant advice not to do something almost always starts me quickly down the risky, unpopular path.

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.

On Sept. 11, 2001, thousands of first responders heroically rushed to the scene and saved tens of thousands of lives. More than 400 of those first responders did not make it out alive. In rushing into those burning buildings, not one of them asked, 'What God do you pray to?' What beliefs do you hold?'

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.

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

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.

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.

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 By the time you get it done and go through democracy, it's so outdated.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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.