Ed Koch Quotes

10 Sourced Quotes

Many of the self-described "political refugees" who come here make stopovers in other countries on their way to the U.S., in places where they would be free to have as many children as they want. But they choose to continue on to the U.S. Why? Because it is more economically attractive.

Ed Koch
What about the millions of poor in this country who desperately need assistance and services to help bring them out of poverty? Shall they go to the back of the line? and shall those who have made a dramatic illegal entry, who would normally not be entitled to government assistance, or even entry itself, be put at the front?

Ed Koch
Unless they can immediately demonstrate a credible fear of persecution, why shouldn't these people be returned at once to the country from which they embarked - whether it be their home country or a stopover point - at the expense of the airline that brought them? All appeals would then be made from the country to which they have been returned.

Ed Koch
Like many others, I'm deeply sympathetic to the huge numbers of people looking to come here today to escape suffering and poverty in their own lands. But as a country, we cannot afford to have a total open-door policy without any restrictions on entry.

Ed Koch
Whenever I would fly home, especially if it was at night, there was the city of New York laid out before me and I thought to myself, 'This belongs to me. It's extraordinary. Thank you God.'

Ed Koch
Whether I am straight or gay or bisexual is nobody's business but mine.

Ed Koch
It is not possible to remake the world. You can fix parts, but you can't remake the world.

Ed Koch
You don't have to be born in New York City to be a New Yorker. You have to live here for six months. And if at the end of the six months you walk faster, you talk faster, you think faster, you're a New Yorker.

Ed Koch
New York is the city where the future comes to rehearse.

Ed Koch
Should we be rewriting history just to make people feel good? That's not history, that's psychiatry.

Ed Koch