Ed Koch Quotes

What I really appreciated about Obama in the last campaign was that he was not reactive, and we're such a reactive culture... It takes a certain strength to be patient and have a plan.

We must be part of the general staff at the inception, rather than the ambulance drivers at the bitter end.

I'm mischievous, but I'm calculated.

The successful man is the one who finds out what is the matter with his business before his competitors do.

We haven't rushed to set up targets, either in business or in football. Our goal was to understand how to act and then to move gradually.

The two worst strategic mistakes to make are acting prematurely and letting an opportunity slip; to avoid this, the warrior treats each situation as if it were unique and never resorts to formulae, recipes or other people's opinions.

Meeting the challenges of the future requires a state that can think and act strategically.

I don't do anything unless I think about it six months in advance.

Rich and successful people are solution-oriented; they spend their time and energy strategizing and planning the answers to challenges that come up, and creating systems to make certain that problem doesn't occur again.

It is better to anticipate than to react.

Plan for what is difficult while it is easy, do what is great while it is small.

An inch of foreknowledge is worth ten miles of after-thought.

If I always appear prepared, it is because before entering an undertaking, I have meditated long and have foreseen what might occur. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly and secretly what I should do in circumstances unexpected by others; it is thought and preparation

Those who plan do better than those who do not plan, even should they rarely stick to their plan.

In general, the men of lower intelligence won out. Afraid of their own shortcomings and of the intelligence of their opponents, so that they would not lose out in reasoned argument or be taken by surprise by their quick-witted opponents, they boldly moved into action. Their enemies,on the contrary, contemptuous and confident in their ability to anticipate, thought there was no need to take by action what they could win by their brains.

It would have marked a want of foresight in the convention, which our own experience would have rendered inexcusable.

I would say act like a man of thought and think like a man of action.

Arm yourself with as many options as possible before making your next move.

A commander in chief ought to say to himself several times a day: If the enemy should appear on my front, on my right, on my left, what would I do? And if the question finds him uncertain, he is not well placed, he is not as he should be, and he should remedy it.

Weigh the situation, then move.

The one who anticipates the action wins. The one who does not, loses.

You want to be an alchemist so badly? Don't wait to react to the immediate problem. Plan ahead. Look at the big picture and you won't ever have to deal with that problem. Better to save yourself from a major catastrophe than drag your feet over a bunch of little inconveniences.

Effective people are not problem-minded; they're opportunity minded. They feed opportunities and starve problems.

Strategy is about shaping the future.