Top 60 Edward I. Koch Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “I can explain it to you, but I can’t comprehend it for you.”

— Edward I. Koch

2. “The art of creation is older than the art of killing.”

— Edward I. Koch

3. “But enough of me. Lets talk about you. What do you think of me?”

— Edward I. Koch

4. “Should we be rewriting history just to make people feel good? That’s not history, that’s psychiatry.”

— Edward I. Koch

5. “The fireworks begin today. Each diploma is a lighted match. Each one of you is a fuse.”

— Edward I. Koch

6. “Stereotypes lose their power when the world is found to be more complex than the stereotype would suggest. When we learn that individuals do not fit the group stereotype, then it begins to fall apart.”

— Edward I. Koch

7. “You punch me, I punch back. I do not believe it’s good for one’s self-respect to be a punching bag.”

— Edward I. Koch

8. “To learn something new every day is still exciting!”

— Edward I. Koch

9. “In action be primitive; in foresight, a strategist.”

— Edward I. Koch

10. “If you agree with me on 9 out of 12 issues, vote for me. If you agree with me on 12 out of 12 issues, see a psychiatrist.”

— Edward I. Koch

11. “Water, water, everywhere, Atlantic and Pacific. But New York City’s got them beat, Our aqua is terrific!”

— Edward I. Koch

12. “I’m coming to the end of my life. I do reflect on what I’ve done for the 85 years that I have been given so far. And I’m proud of what I’ve done.”

— Edward I. Koch

13. “Citizens, thank you for all your birthday wishes. I am 88 years old today and still lucky to live in the greatest city in the world.”

— Edward I. Koch

14. “The key to success in politics: Never forget, seldom forgive.”

— Edward I. Koch

15. “Deals are my art form. Other people paint beautifully on canvas or write wonderful poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals. That’s how I get my kicks.”

— Edward I. Koch

16. “There’s enormous energy required to carry grudges – enormous energy! And I’m getting too old to expend my energy that way, cause I think every person has a limited amount of energy. So I have given up all grudges.”

— Edward I. Koch

17. “The best way to lose weight is to close your mouth – something very difficult for a politician. Or watch your food – just watch it, don’t eat it.”

— Edward I. Koch

18. “The person who is bent on killing you will follow you wherever you are.”

— Edward I. Koch

19. “I never doubted that I would be a good mayor. I never did.”

— Edward I. Koch

20. “I wake up every morning and say to myself, Well, I’m still in New York. Thank you, God.”

— Edward I. Koch

21. “If you turn your back on these people, you yourself are an animal. You may be a well-dressed animal, but you are nevertheless an animal.”

— Edward I. Koch

22. “Life is indeed precious, and I believe the death penalty helps affirm this fact.”

— Edward I. Koch

23. “Don’t tell me this is a difficult problem. If it weren’t difficult, it wouldn’t be a problem.”

— Edward I. Koch

24. “There’s a nastiness out there that wants to harm me with words. These are my enemies – the ideologues, the populists, the columnists who don’t like the fact that I take them on toe-to-toe. What I try to do is tell the truth. It’s not the coin of the realm in politics.”

— Edward I. Koch

25. “I was born at the age of twelve on a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lot.”

— Edward I. Koch

26. “If I traveled to the end of the rainbow as Dame Fortune did intend, Murphy would be there to tell me the pot’s at the other end.”

— Edward I. Koch

27. “In a neighborhood, as in life, a clean bandage is much, much better than a raw or festering wound.”

— Edward I. Koch

28. “I’m just a simple Jewish boy from the Bronx.”

— Edward I. Koch

29. “I said, to be a New Yorker you have to live here for six months, and if at the end of the six months you find you walk faster, talk faster, think faster, you’re a New Yorker.”

— Edward I. Koch

30. “Have confidence in your decisions. Make them expeditiously, and stay with them as long as you believe you are correct no matter what others say. However, when you conclude you were in error, do not hesitate to announce the error publicly and change course.”

— Edward I. Koch

31. “Be different-if you don’t have the facts and knowledge required, simply listen. When word gets around that you can listen when others tend to talk, you will be treated as a sage.”

— Edward I. Koch

32. “Have you ever lived in the suburbs? It’s sterile. It’s nothing. It’s wasting your life.”

— Edward I. Koch

33. “I love being the mayor. I want to be the mayor forever.”

— Edward I. Koch

34. “The most guileful amongst the reporters are those who appear friendly and smile and seem to be supportive. They are the ones who will seek to gut you on every occasion.”

— Edward I. Koch

35. “Anybody who suggests that I run for governor is no friend of mine. It’s a terrible position, and besides, it requires living in Albany, which is small-town life at its worst.”

— Edward I. Koch

36. “God gave me a very good hand to play over my 88 years. I have no regrets.”

— Edward I. Koch

37. “Jews have always thought that having someone elevated with his head above the grass was not good for the Jews. I never felt that way. I believe that you have to stand up.”

— Edward I. Koch

38. “You don’t have to love them. You just have to respect their rights.”

— Edward I. Koch

39. “I’m not the type to get ulcers. I give them.”

— Edward I. Koch

40. “Tone can be as important as text.”

— Edward I. Koch

41. “Whenever I leave Manhattan, I get the bends!”

— Edward I. Koch

42. “I know many writers who first dictate passages, then polish what they have dictated. I speak, then I polish – occasionally I do windows.”

— Edward I. Koch

43. “I’m confident President Obama will continue his unambiguous commitment to the Jewish state in his second term.”

— Edward I. Koch

44. “There was always a love-hate relationship with New York in the rest of the country, but I made them feel more love than hate.”

— Edward I. Koch

45. “I probably have another two or three years. Or I can pass tomorrow, but it doesn’t make a difference to me.”

— Edward I. Koch

46. “If you don’t like the President, it costs you 90 bucks to fly to Washington to picket. If you don’t like the governor, it costs you 60 bucks to fly to Albany to picket. If you don’t like me – 90 cents.”

— Edward I. Koch

47. “When I came in, the city was on the edge of bankruptcy. I’m proud of what I did. I built the foundation that mayors after me built upon – particularly Bloomberg. But the foundation was essential because if it hadn’t occurred, we would have been another Detroit.”

— Edward I. Koch

48. “Maybe he just looks good compared to the bores he’s running against.”

— Edward I. Koch

49. “No, I am not a homosexual. If I were a homosexual, I would hope I would have the courage to say so. What’s cruel is that you are forcing me to say I am not a homosexual. This means you are putting homosexuals down. I don’t want to do that.”

— Edward I. Koch

50. “I have a social life. But I don’t discuss it.”

— Edward I. Koch