La Guardia Quotes & Sayings

The snare in Christian work is to rejoice in successful service, to rejoice in the fact that God has used you. . . If you make usefulness the test, then Jesus Christ was the greatest failure that ever lived. The lodestar of the saint is God Himself, not estimated usefulness. It is the work that God does through us that counts, not what we do for Him.[27] — Warren W. Wiersbe

Prohibition cannot be enforced for the simple reason that the majority of American people do not want it enforced and are resisting its enforcement. — Fiorello H. La Guardia

A public library is the most democratic thing in the world. What can be found there has undone dictators and tyrants: demagogues can persecute writers and tell them what to write as much as they like, but they cannot vanish what has been written in the past, though they try often enough ... People who love literature have at least part of their minds immune from indoctrination. If you read, you can learn to think for yourself. — Doris Lessing

I think the best thing a person can do is to read through the Gospels in the Bible and really look at Jesus, because if a person does this, they will realize that the Jesus they learned about in Sunday school or the Jesus they hear jokes about or the skinny, Gandhi Jesus that exists in their imaginations isn't anything like the real Jesus at all. — Donald Miller

Politics is very much like taxes - everybody is against them, or everybody is for them as long as they don't apply to him — Fiorello H. La Guardia

I am sorry that the distinguished leader of the Republican Party in the House states that he is not versed in botany and publicly admits that he does not know anything of these terms or what it is all about; but, Mr. Chairman, it is indeed a sad day for the people of this country when we must close the doors of the laboratories doing research work for the people of the United States. — Fiorello H. La Guardia

Aw, man," Finn said, coming up to stand beside me, a black duffel bag dangling from his hand. "I didn't even get to shoot anybody." "Well, look on the bright side," I drawled. "Your clothes didn't get messed up. Neither did your hair." Finn perked up at my reasoning. — Jennifer Estep

It is impossible to tell whether prohibition is a good thing or a bad thing. It has never been enforced in this country. — Fiorello H. La Guardia

An industry that cannot pay its workers a decent living wage has no right to exist. — Fiorello H. La Guardia

Initially, the purveyors of racism need no more than the silent acquiescence of the public ... [I]t is never too soon to confront bigotry and racism whenever, wherever, and in whatever form it raises its ugly head. It is incumbent upon all people to confront even the slightest hint of racist thought or action with zero tolerance. — Hans J. Massaquoi

When I make a mistake, it's a beauty! — Fiorello H. La Guardia

I've always been a daydreamer. When the other kids were playing, I was listening to the roar at Yankee Stadium - I was always attracted to the roar of the crowd. — Sean Combs

If I knew how a lot of my relationships would have turned out, I never would have gotten involved in them ... And I would have missed out on some of the best times in my life. — L.A. Witt

Only a well-fed, well-housed, well-schooled people can enjoy the blessings of liberty. — Fiorello H. La Guardia

The drys seemingly are afraid of the truth. Why not take inventory and ascertain the true conditions. Let us not leave it to the charge of an antiprohibition organization, or to any other private association, let us have an official survey and let the American people know what is going on. A complete and honest and impartial survey would reveal incredible conditions ... — Fiorello H. La Guardia

As often as we made love I remembered what my poet told me, that this man was born of a goddess, the force that moves the stars and the waves of the sea and couples the animals in the fields in spring, the power of passion, the light of the evening star. — Ursula K. Le Guin

Age is only a number, not a state of mind or a reason for any type of particular behavior. — Cecelia Ahern

We read about secret lives that people have on the Internet, or alternate lives of a serial killer where the whole family didn't know that their dad or their brother or their child was that. There are all the things in our heart that no one really knows, and I thought that that was interesting territory to explore. — Catherine Hardwicke

She was still loping around on all fours, her fists blue-white from the strain. As if she were holding a secret tight to the ground. Sister Maria de la Guardia would sigh every time she saw her. "Caramba!" She'd sit down with Mirabella and pry her fingers apart. "You see?" she'd say softly, again and again. "What are you holding on to? Nothing, little one. Nothing. — Karen Russell

The Devil is easy to identify. He appears when you're terribly tired and makes a very reasonable request which you know you shouldn't grant. — Fiorello H. La Guardia

The most humble research scientist in the Department of Agriculture is at this time contributing more to this country than the most useful member of Congress. — Fiorello H. La Guardia

I am certain that the good Lord never intended grapes to be made into grape jelly. — Fiorello H. La Guardia

We have had two chickens in every pot, two cars in every garage, and now we have two headaches for every aspirin. — Fiorello H. La Guardia

The trouble that public unions could potentially cause for citizens was one reason that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, hero of Democrats and union organizers alike, opposed them for government workers. Republican Fiorello La Guardia, a great mayor of New York, opposed them, too. Unlike in the private sector, where unions were a needed counterweight to strong management, in the public sector unions had a big say in selecting management through the election process. As a result, they had a lot of power on both sides of the labor-management negotiating process. Roosevelt and La Guardia thus feared that, when government officials and unions battled over power, citizens could lose out. — Joel Klein

Science knows no politics. Are we in this frenzy of [the Depression] economy, brought about by those who control the wealth of this country, seeking to put a barrier on science and research for the paltry sum of $39,113 out of an appropriation of $100,000,000? — Fiorello H. La Guardia

During adolescence, friends bring an intimate quality of support that can't be provided by any adult. — Sara Shandler

You cannot preach self-government and liberty to people in a starving land. — Fiorello H. La Guardia

My generation has failed miserably. We've failed because of lack of courage and vision. It requires more courage to keep the peace than to go to war. — Fiorello H. La Guardia

God took the beauty of the Bay of Naples, the Valley of the Nile, the Swiss Alps, the Hudson River Valley, rolled them into one and made San Francisco Bay. — Fiorello H. La Guardia

That's so different in Hong Kong when I'm using my own mother language, I can treat the line in one thousand different ways, with many different reactions. — Chow Yun-Fat