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People expect Byzantine, Machiavellian logic from politicians. But the truth is simple. Trial lawyers learn a good rule: 'Don't decide what you don't have to decide.' That's not evasion, it's wisdom.

Mario Cuomo

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Mario Cuomo
Age: 82 †
Born: 1932
Born: June 15
Died: 2015
Died: January 1
Baseball Player
Former Governor Of New York
Lawyer
Politician
Jamaica
Queens
Mario Matthew Cuomo
Learn
Decide
Machiavellian
Political
Logic
Byzantine
Truth
Rule
Evasion
Good
Politician
Lawyers
People
Expect
Trial
Wisdom
Trials
Politics
Politicians
Simple
Lawyer

More quotes by Mario Cuomo

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We work harder and we earn less. Income inequality is at the highest point in over a century. While American capitalism never guaranteed success, it did guarantee opportunity, for too many, the dream of economic mobility has been replaced with a nightmare of economic stagnation.
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I protect my right to be a Catholic by preserving your right to believe as a Jew, a Protestant, or non-believer, or as anything else you choose. We know that the price of seeking to force our beliefs on others is that they might some day force theirs on us.
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The closed circle of materialism is clear to us now - aspirations become wants, wants become needs, and self-gratification becomes a bottomless pit.
Mario Cuomo
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Democracy is not meant to be efficient, it is meant to be fair.
Mario Cuomo
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Most of us have achieved levels of affluence and comfort unthought of two generations ago. We've never had it so good, most of us. Nor have we ever complained so bitterly about our problems.
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The mugger who is arrested is back on the street before the police officer, but the person mugged may not be back on the street for a long time, if ever.
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If you can manipulate news, a judge can manipulate the law. A smart lawyer can keep a killer out of jail, a smart accountant can keep a thief from paying taxes, a smart reporter could ruin your reputation - unfairly.
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Decide exactly what you want to achieve. Do you want to help people, or do you want to be powerful?
Mario Cuomo
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The Republicans believe that the wagon train will not make it to the frontier unless some of the old, some of the young, some of the weak are left behind.
Mario Cuomo
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The truth is the justice system does need review, there are troubling questions that need to be answered, law enforcement needs to respect the community and the community needs to respect law enforcement.
Mario Cuomo
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When you've parked the second car in the garage, and installed the hot tub, and skied in Colorado, and wind-surfed in the Caribbean, when you've had your first love affair and your second and your third, the question will remain, where does the dream end for me?
Mario Cuomo
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It's a Little Leaguers game that major leaguers play extraordinarily well, a game that excites us throughout adulthood. The crack of the bat and the scent of the horsehide on leather bring back our own memories that have been washed away with the sweat and tears of summers long gone...even as the setting sun pushes the shadows past home plate.
Mario Cuomo
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I think it's already apparent that a good part of this Nation understands - if only instinctively - that anything which seems to suggest that God favors a political party or the establishment of a state church, is wrong and dangerous.
Mario Cuomo
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For me to make lasagna would be a desecration of a great Italian dish. . . . I don't mess with sacred things.
Mario Cuomo
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For too many, the dream of economic mobility has been replaced with a nightmare of economic stagnation.
Mario Cuomo
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I told them that my grandfather had died in the Great Crash of 1929 - a stockbroker jumped out of a window and crushed him and his pushcart down below.
Mario Cuomo
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The price of seeking to force our beliefs on others is that someday they might force their beliefs on us.
Mario Cuomo
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We believe in only the government we need, but we insist on all the government we need.
Mario Cuomo
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In this life, you should read everything you can read. Taste everything you can taste. Meet everyone you can meet. Travel everywhere you can travel. Learn everything you can learn. Experience everything you can experience.
Mario Cuomo
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The American people need no course in philosophy or political science or church history to know that God should not be made into a celestial party chairman.
Mario Cuomo