Robert P. Moses Quotes & Sayings

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

Columbus was an Abraham, for he went out not knowing whither he went. Columbus was a Moses, for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible. Only the man of faith is the man of power. Only he who can see the invisible can do the impossible. God grant that to-day in that bark we may be wafted by God's blessing, and may land at last on the shores of Heaven, where we shall sing a sweeter Te Deum than that which awoke the echoes on the soil of virgin America, or those amid the splendors of the court at Barcelona. — Robert Stuart MacArthur

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

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

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

Those who can, build. Those who can't, criticize. — Robert Moses

It was only by escaping into the desert that Moses and the Jews were able to solidify their identity and reemerge as a social and political force.
Jesus spent his forty days in the wilderness, and Mohammed, too, fled Mecca at a time of great peril for a period of retreat. He and just a handful of his most devoted supporters used this period to deepen their bonds, to understand who they were and what they stood for, to let time work its good. Then this little band of believers reemerged to conquer Mecca and the Arabian Peninsula and later, after Mohammed's death, to defeat the Byzantines and the Persian empire, spreading Islam over vast territories. Around the world every mythology has a hero who retreats, even to Hades itself in the case of Odysseus, to find himself. — Robert Greene

Long Island is shaped the way it is largely because of Robert Moses. Long Island is a perfect example of how political power shapes people's lives every day. — Robert Caro

Here the skeptic finds chaos and the believer further evidence that the hand that made us is divine. — Robert Moses

[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. — Robert Moses

He continued to be an infant long after he ceased to be a prodigy. — Robert Moses

To doubt the literal meaning of the words of Jesus or Moses incurs hostility from most people, but it's just a fact that if Jesus or Moses were to appear today, unidentified, with the same message he spoke many years ago, his mental stability would be challenged. This isn't because what Jesus or Moses said was untrue or because modern society is in error but simply because the route they chose to reveal to others has lost relevance and comprehensibility. "Heaven above" fades from meaning when space-age consciousness asks, Where is "above"? But the fact that the old routes have tended, because of language rigidity, to lose their everyday meaning and become almost closed doesn't mean that the mountain is no longer there. It's there and will be there as long as consciousness exists. — Robert M. Pirsig

Not one of the learned gentlemen who pretend that the Mosaic laws are filled with justice and intelligence, would live, for a moment, in any country where such laws were in force. — Robert G. Ingersoll

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. — Robert Moses

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. — Robert Moses

I felt that there's an obligation when writing a piece about an urban expressway made in the 50s to acknowledge the context, and Robert Moses is sort of an iconic figure in New York, and he influenced the shape of the city more than anyone else before or after him. He was one of the most powerful and influential civic architects in the world, because of how much he transformed the city. He built multiple bridges and highways and parks and recreational spaces, beaches - in the course of a few decades, he completely changed the city — Sufjan Stevens

All great leaders since Moses have known that a feared enemy must be crushed completely. (Sometimes they have learned this the hard way.) If one ember is left alight, no matter how dimly it smolders, a fire will eventually break out. More is lost through stopping halfway than through total annihilation: The enemy will recover, and will seek revenge. Crush him, not only in body but in spirit. — Robert Greene

The elect of God are those who hear the voice of the Lord, do not harden their hearts, gather with the Lord and his Church, magnify their callings, and, because of their purity, abide the day of the Savior's second coming (D&C 29:7; 33:6; 35:21; 84:34; Moses 7:62). — Robert L. Millet

All of Robert Caro's biographies are exceptional, in part because of Caro's fundamental ambivalence about power. He sees its necessity and use for getting things done, even as he is often repelled by watching power at close range. His masterpiece on Robert Moses, The Power Broker, describes the evolution of Moses from idealist to pragmatist as he became one of the most powerful figures in the 20th century. — Jeffrey Pfeffer

Robert Moses wasn't elected to anything. We're taught that in a democracy power comes from being elected. He had more power than anyone, and he held it for 48 years. — Robert Caro

You can draw any kind of picture you want on a clean slate and indulge your every whim in the wilderness in laying out a New Delhi, Canberra, or Brasilia, but when you operate in an overbuilt metropolis, you have to hack your way with a meat ax. (Robert Moses) — Robert A. Caro

THe world now has so many problems that if Moses had come down from Mount Sinai today, the two tablets he'd carry would be aspirin. — Robert Orben

Critics build nothing — Robert Moses

The Koran was assembled from a variety of prior Hagarene texts (hence the contradictions re Jesus' death) in order to provide the Moses-like Muhammad with a Torah of his own ... — Robert M. Price

If the end doesn't justify the means, what does? (Robert Moses) — Robert A. Caro

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

Do you realize what would happen if Moses were alive today? He'd go up to Mount Sinai, come back with the Ten Commandments, and spend the next eight years trying to get published. — Robert Orben

According to Robert, his friend Moses was a soldier in the first war, as he described it. He fought Indians and soldiers in red coats. — Nancy B. Brewer

Hospitality has always been a potent political weapon. Moses used it like a master. Coupled with his overpowering personality, a buffet often did as much for a proposal as a bribe. — Robert A. Caro

Majorities, of course, start with minorities. — Robert Moses

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. — Robert Moses

As noted in 1964 by Robert P. "Bob" Moses, director of the Mississippi project of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC): "It's not contradictory for a farmer to say he's nonviolent and also pledge to shoot a marauder's head off. — Charles E. Cobb