Bill de Blasio Quotes

When one is in office one has no idea how damnable things can feel to the ordinary rank and file of the public.

When you start talking about government as 'we' instead of 'they,' you have been in office too long.

You think your congressman is working all day to get you a job? He may want to. He or she is probably not a bad person. They probably want to do the right thing. But they can't.

But on the big things, I'm not going to trim in order to win public opinion. Because I really don't want to serve in the Senate if I arrive there without permission to do the things I think need to be done.

To serve as prime minister while being too mindful of the approval rating is like serving as a prime minister on a roller coaster. What is important, I believe, is that I really act on promises that I make and leave results. Leave a track record and show that to the Japanese public, who will, at the end of the day, I hope, appreciate it.

I never believed that my service in the U.S. Congress should become a permanent career.

On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter what it does.

My plan is to govern as long as I can.

Is it not natural that a man who is a candidate for the favor of the people, and who is dependant on the suffrages of his fellow-citizens for the continuation of his public honors, should take care to inform himself of their dispositions and inclinations…? This dependant [creates] strong chords of sympathy between the Representative and the constituent.

Administration is the essence of government, and its quality is a prime condition of civic comfort.

He's a terrible politician, but he makes a fine senator and public servant.

We already have term limits. They’re called elections.

When it comes to listening to my constituents or to the governor's staff, who are more interested in their pet projects and their government cars, I'll vote for my constituents every time.

If elected, I shall consider the whole people of Sangamon my constituents, as well those that oppose as those that support me. While acting as their representative I shall be governed by their will on all subjects upon which I have the means of knowing what their will is.

You wouldn’t need term limits if these [political] jobs don’t pay anything.

I’ve never felt that his private life was the way to judge him. We should judge a president by the way he performs as president.

The moral element … ministers, professors, and respectable persons … do not believe politics should be pursued as a trade.

As for my conduct in public office, my compatriots, as is usually the case, will divide their opinions; their children will render true judgment.

I consider biennial elections as a security that the sober, second thought of the people shall be law.

Political authorities should lead the way and not lag behind [public opinion].

The public, by and large, trusts its leaders not only to tell the truth, but to get the job done. When they don’t get the job done, they get punished, and when they don’t get the job done and it comes out that they lied, they’re in really serious trouble. This is what happened to [Lyndon] Johnson and it’s what happened to [George W,] Bush. If you’re going to tell a lie, make sure the policy works out.

Whenever I had to make a difficult decision as a Congressman, I thoud think about the average citisen in my Congressional districr and how he would advise me if he knew everythign I knew about the issue.

If you're governor of a state, and you have nothing to say when the president attacks the people that you represent, you are complicit.

I am inheriting a country which has been badly ravaged by years of misrule and ineptitude. There has been a wide disconnect between the people and the government.

I don't work for Donald Trump. I work with him. I work for the people who sent me up here. He ran on repealing and replacing Obamacare. Those people that put him and me in office expect us to repeal and replace Obamacare.