If the ends don't justify the means, then what does?

When you operate in an overbuilt metropolis, you have to hack your way with a meat ax.

[It is] the most hideous waterfront structure ever inflicted on a city by a combination of architectural conceit and official bad taste. the Cathedral of Asphalt.

I raise my stein to the builder who can remove ghettos without removing people as I hail the chef who can make omelets without breaking eggs.

Critics build nothing.

l have no fear of change as such and, on the other hand, no liking for it merely for its own sake.

Those who can, build. Those who can't, criticize.

Unfortunately there are still people in other areas who regard New York City not as part of the United States, but as a sort of excrescence fastened to our Eastern shore and peopled by the less venturesome waves of foreigners who failed to go West to the genuine American frontier.

Majorities, of course, start with minorities.

Every true New Yorker believes with all his heart that when a New Yorker is tired of New York, he is tired of life.

If you elect a matinee idol mayor, you're going to have a musical comedy administration.

I have long since abandoned the notion that higher education is essential to either success or happiness. Hothouses of learning do not always grow anything edible.