Donald Trump says he wants to run America like he's running his business? God help us.
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.
Don't be afraid to assert yourself, have confidence in your abilities and don't let the bastards get you down.
Partisanship may be King in Washington - but the rest of us don't have to pay tribute.
What I'm trying to do is to create excitement. So people looking at the Bloomberg's office building say, "My goodness, what's going on here? There's something different about this company." You want the employees to get psyched. And it's a chance to meet each other. My job is to get people to work together. With free food and no offices, even for Bloomberg, this might be considered one of the world's great corporate headquarters.
I have two daughters that are the loves of my life and I want to leave them a better world, a better country, a better state and a better city.
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.
When I came into office, people said, 'Billionaire? How do they live? What do they eat? How do they sleep?' Today, they see me on the subway coming uptown. A couple of people say hi, some people smile and nod. Some people just sleep. It's not an issue.
Other ways of looking at the environmental or climate change stuff is to frame it in the context that it is simultaneously a public health issue. One out of eight premature deaths worldwide happens because of air pollution. The worst power plant in America kills 278 people a year and causes 445 heart attacks. So, when we improve air quality we improve our lives, and at the same time we improve the climate as well. We must see climate policy from this perspective and not as an abstract threat that may threaten our survival in 100 years.
A lot can happen in a week - just read any Bible, .. On the seventh day, Election Day, unlike the Bible, we can't rest.
We have always had, remember, small groups of both parties that split off. There were the "blue dog Democrats." There were the "Dixie Democrats." Democrats were never going to, ever again, pull together.
Being an entrepreneur isn't really about starting a business. It's a way of looking at the world: seeing opportunity where others see obstacles, taking risks when others take refuge.
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.
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.
If you want to do something for your children and show how much you love them, the single best thing-by far-is to support organizations that will create a better world for them and their children.
After all, the same steps that reduce carbon pollution also clean the air we breathe, which saves lives and reduces disease.
Nobody should ever mistake and think that our country [USA] is weakened, or that authority is diffuse and unspecified, and that we are vulnerable.
I make no secret of the fact that I was not a big Hillary Clinton supporter, but I thought in the two-way race between her and Donald Trump, that she should have been the president. But Trump promised a lot of things. And now he's six months in and hasn't passed a piece of legislation yet. Now, I personally have said we should help him. I didn't vote for him. I didn't think he was the right person. But once we have an election and he gets elected, then we have a responsibility as citizens to help him.
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.
You are safer here tonight than you would be on the streets of any other city in the world.
I believe in Judaism, I was raised a Jew, I'm happy to be one - or proud to be one.
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.
Cities with clean air gain an economic advantage, because where people want to live and work, businesses want to invest.
We will rebuild, renew and remain the capital of the free world.
I think fully, that an independent candidate can't win in this country. The Constitution is structured for basically a two-party government, a two-party race.
I've always thought if we don't want to enforce laws on the books, we should remove them from the books. But when you have laws, you breed contempt if you don't enforce them.
If you want to know how to solve society's problems, you start out with better public education.
I do not think that anybody should get paid for lousy performance. I've said that for a long time. If you work hard and you do good, you get paid well.
If someone tells me they skied all day and never fell down, I tell them to find another mountain.
Working collectively and collaboratively is the difference between mediocrity by yourself or success as a team. You have to share the pain and the responsibility and if you do then you will also share in the rewards.
We have to get control of our borders. You can only do that if you make companies obey the law and not hire undocumented or illegals. They can only do that is if they have a Social Security Card that has biometrics so they know whether the person is legal or not.
My father, a bookkeeper who never earned more than $11,000 a year in his life, sat there, writing out a $25 check to the NAACP. When I asked him why, he said discrimination against anyone is discrimination against us all. And I never forgot that. Indeed, his philanthropy was a gift, not just to that organization, but to me.
Ten years have passed since a perfect blue sky morning turned into the blackest of nights. Since then we've lived in sunshine and in shadow, and although we can never unsee what happened here, we can also see that children who lost their parents have grown into young adults, grandchildren have been born and good works and public service have taken root to honor those we loved and lost.
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.
If you don't encounter setbacks in your career, if you don't have doubts and disappointments , let me tell you, you're not dreaming big enough.
[Donald] Trump I've known because we cut ribbons together at golf courses and that sort of thing. He's a pleasant guy when you're with him. I've played golf with him twice, oh, probably 10, 15 years ago.
I don't have a problem with a woman being president; I just want the best candidate.
Design does matter. And not necessarily in a way that people realize. A lot of what you do, people take for granted - that a park has always been here, that a bicycle lane has always been there, that the street is safe or clean.
Trees will improve property values, take pollutants out of the air, help with water runoff.
Entrepreneurship is having an idea to do something great and not entirely have a plan on how to do it but the drive and will power to make it work
I never lie, so if somebody asked me a question, I told them.
I know how to make decisions and stand up to the criticism every day.
What chance does a five-foot-seven billionaire Jew who's divorced really have of becoming president?
In fact, you see Hillary [Clinton] moving very far to the left. You see all the Republicans moving very far to the right.
If you are honest with yourself and if you want to like what you see in the mirror, is you have to say what you really believe.
Fighting climate change isn't just an obligation we owe to future generations. It's also an opportunity to improve public health - and drive economic growth - in the here and now.
[Hillary Clinton] is going to decide war, peace, and health, education, livelihood for my kids. I want the best person.
We have an expression in New York City government - "In God we trust, but for everyone else, bring data." It's so easy to pick up a sound byte and say, "Oh, yeah, yeah, I believe that," without really thinking.
You have to take away some of tax breaks for the wealthy, and you have to cut back on some entitlements. Because, unless we do all of these things, it just doesn't work. And what's good theater and what's good politics isn't necessarily good economic policy.
Most gun dealers follow the law and run honest businesses. But the statistics show that 1 percent of dealers sell more than half of all illegal guns. Why isn't the federal government going after them? Here's one reason: unlike mayors, members of Congress don't get a phone call in the middle of the night when a cop is shot and killed. They don't deliver the eulogies.
We cannot continue. Our pension costs and health care costs for our employees are going to bankrupt this city.
Fifty percent of the world's population lives in cities. In a couple of decades, 70 percent of the world's population will be living in cities. Cities are where the problem is. Cities are where the solution is, where creativity exists to address the challenges and where they have most impact. This is why, in 2005, the C40 was founded, an organization of cities that address climate change. It started with 18 cities; now it's 91. Cities simply are the key to saving the planet.
I am heading straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close.
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?'
Now, you might say – “But why should we pay people for doing what they’re supposed to do?” It’s a fair question – but think of it this way: Every other anti-poverty program that’s been tried has failed to get the national poverty rate below 11 percent... Why shouldn’t we experiment with a program built around the one strategy that has proven time and again to work wonders – capitalism?
And because no matter who you are, if you believe in yourself and your dream, New York will always be the place for you.
I don't know why people carry guns. Guns kill people.
Life is too short to spend your time avoiding failure.
I do think there are certain times we should infringe on your freedom.
Someone once described the information business as exactly the opposite of sex. When it's good, it's still lousy.
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.
Keep in mind, Mike Bloomberg's kids and grandkids are breathing that air just like the coalminers' families are breathing that air. And the coalminers are the ones that have the conflict. They want their jobs, I understand that. They need to be able to feed their families. They also have to worry about their health and the health of their families.
Buy what's deliverable, not what could be.
After hard work, the biggest determinant is being in the right place at the right time.
The truth of the matter is: you can create a great legacy, and inspire others, by giving it to philanthropic organizations.
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.
I'd love to have a president who really was out there leading and traveling around the world campaigning for joint climate change action. Even the Chinese government is trying to get people to stop polluting. And I think the federal government level in China is acting more responsibly than the American government.
You can't sit there and worry about everything.
Whatever you may think of the proposed mosque and community center, lost in the heat of the debate has been a basic question: Should government attempt to deny private citizens the right to build a house of worship on private property based on their particular religion?
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.
I think it's a sign that the establishment is going to have to change. For too long they never thought about the average person, because the average person is not organized.
Last I looked - and I'm not a candidate - but last time I checked reading about the Constitution, the Electoral College has nothing to do with parties, has absolutely nothing to do with parties. It's most states are winners take all.
If you can't prove it's not true then a certain number of people will glom on and say it is true.
In our democracy, near equality is no equality. Government either treats everyone the same, or it doesn't. And right now it doesn't.
The people who are worried about privacy have a legitimate worry. But we live in a complex world where you're going to have to have a level of security greater than you did back in the olden days, if you will. And our laws and our interpretation of the Constitution, I think, have to change.
You bet I did and I enjoyed it.
If you think of all the publicity about the terrible tragedy of Virginia Tech, we have a Virginia Tech in this country every day. It's just spread across 50 states.
You're entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts.
The public is mad, frustrated, but what the public wants is progress.
I was a Democrat before I was a Republican before I became an independent and I never changed my principles.
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.
Every one of my positions cuts - out half the country. I'm pro-choice, I'm pro-gay rights, I'm pro-immigration, I'm against guns, I believe in Darwin.
America was built by immigrants. Almost nobody that I know is any more than three generations, maybe four generations, American.
You can't depend on polls.
We will go forward... we will never go back.
In business, when you fail at something, when something doesn't work, you say okay, we've learned that that's not a path to go down.
I was the one of those students who made the top half of the class possible.
What has changed is that people have stopped working together.
In the game of life, when the final buzzer sounds, the only stat you carry with you is the number of assists you made.
The one thing computers have done is let us make bigger mistakes. We have to be careful not to depend on our machines.
The cold harsh reality is that we have to balance the budget.
I tend to be reasonably blunt, maybe a little bit too much. But I just- I always respected people that tell the truth. And I've always wanted people to tell me the truth.
No place epitomizes the American experience and the American spirit more than New York City.
Most people won't have opportunity to do full-time service, but those lucky enough to have monetary wealth or some spare time really can make an enormous difference. As someone who's now in the public sector, and is seeing up-close-and-personal the real impact of what we do and what we give, I can tell you: every dollar and every volunteer help, in more ways than you can count.
Stubborn isn't a word I would use to describe myself; pigheaded is more appropriate.
I've always respected those who tried to change the world for the better, rather than just complain about it.
And I think the more money you put in people's hands, the more they will spend. And if they don't spend it, they invest it. And investing it is another way of creating jobs. It puts money into mutual funds or other kinds of banks that can go out and make loans, and we need to do that.
I like the theater, dining and chasing women. Let me put it this way: I am a single, straight billionaire in Manhattan. It's like a wet dream.
There is no accountability today... no willingness to focus on big ideas.
You must first be willing to fail — and you must have the courage to go for it anyway.
What we shouldn't do is let people who want to come here make the decision themselves. America should be in control of its own borders.
Government should not tell you what to do unless there's a compelling public purpose.
The next day after I got fired, literally the next day, I started a new company.
Progress is not inevitable. It's up to us to create it.
What you've got to do is be honest. Say what you believe. Give it to them straight. Just don't wuss out.
In New York City, a lot of people think "the great outdoors" is the area between your front door and a taxi cab.
I thought Jeb Bush would have made a good president. He was on the board of my foundation. He's very conservative, much too conservative for me.
We need to have more taxes, not less, and we need the taxes we have, certainly, to provide services - for defense and education and health care. We should not cut money here in order to cut taxes.
Despite its potential, the federal government has restricted funding for creating new cell lines - putting the burden of any future research squarely on the shoulders of the private sector. Government's most basic responsibility, however, is the health and welfare of its people, so it has a duty to encourage appropriate scientific investigations that could possibly save the lives of millions.
And I keep saying, whether you like the president or not, everybody has to pull together and help the president because, as the president goes, so goes the country, as the country goes, so goes your job, your ability to feed your family, your government.
The main claim to fame, I think, of Bernie Sanders - who I've never met; I'm sure he's a pleasant guy - [is that] he's certainly not stupid.
Nobody wants a job where they don't have authority to go along with the responsibility. Quite the contrary. The more authority you give people, the better people you can attract, and the harder they're going to work, and the more loyal they are going to be.
I like what I see when I look in the mirror. If I get sentimental, I look and say, "Uh. It's a bad day. They beat up on me," this, that, and the other thing. But ya know? We've spent one billion trying to convince people to not smoke. It's been phenomenally successful. We've probably saved millions of lives. There aren't many people that have done that. So, you know, when I get to heaven, I'm not sure I'm gonna stand for an interview. I'm going right in.
We have an energy policy - we're transferring our wealth to overseas to a bunch of countries that don't have the same values as us. In some cases, they're using our money to finance terrorism against us.
Don't think that I'm - I'd- I'm infallible. Will always make mistakes.
I think we are not serious about attacking the long-term debt problem, and that's one of the things that he's going to have to find a way to get on the agenda.
Politicians generally respond to who is going to help them get elected and re-elected.
Even though New York is the safest big city in the nation, there are still far too many illegal guns on our streets. Nearly all of them arrive from out of state - and most are sold by a small group of rogue gun dealers who refuse to obey federal laws.
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.
We haven't had a world war in a long time. We do have mass movements of people out of Syria and North Africa. But, fundamentally, if you take Japan, you're complaining that the economy isn't booming, they'd like to have slightly higher inflation.
Getting the job done has been the basis for the success my company has achieved.
I have my own army in the NYPD, which is the seventh biggest army in the world.
If you look at who starts new businesses, people that are innovative and risk takers. When you look at immigrants, you really have to be an innovator and a risk taker to leave everything you know in the old country and go to a new country. People that come here in America come here to work.
I know a con when I see one.
I never liked anyone who didn't have a temper. If you don't have a temper, you don't have any passion.
