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The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

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The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Eliot Spitzer Quotes

As one who was a prosecutor for many years, I can tell you that having a tape recording of interrogations would help everybody. It would make clear if there had been improper pressure exerted on a defendant or witness, and it would also protect the interrogating officer from false claims that such pressure had been brought to bear.

– Eliot Spitzer

I have long said there are three distinct groups under the GOP’s tent: theological warriors, who want to impose their social views on the rest of society; Tea Party zealots, who say with a straight face that they want the government to get out of their Medicare; and remnants of the pro-business moderates.

– Eliot Spitzer

Tax rates for the wealthy should revert to Clinton-era levels, both because it is necessary for long-term deficit reduction and because fairness dictates it. Moreover, there is no proof that higher marginal rates dissuade investment, all the rhetoric from the Right notwithstanding.

– Eliot Spitzer

I love and always have loved policy issues and trying to have an impact on the issues that are out there. I cherish my years in government. I have loved my participation at CNN, at Current; writing; teaching. Where I will go next, I will have to sort out.

– Eliot Spitzer

Yes, people pull the trigger – but guns are the instrument of death. Gun control is necessary, and delay means more death and horror.

– Eliot Spitzer

I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself.

– Eliot Spitzer

While their fiscal views aren’t mine, the moderates are the last reasonable voice in the current Republican Party.

– Eliot Spitzer

Public speaking? I speak to myself on the street!

– Eliot Spitzer

The Occupy movement needs an organizing principle, and – just as the Tea Party did – it needs some actual measures of success. Choose one candidate whose agenda is squarely within that of the movement and make his or her electoral success a focal point.

– Eliot Spitzer

After 25-plus years as a lawyer, prosecutor, and defense attorney, I have developed a deep appreciation for both the wisdom of the law and the role that jurists play in framing the rights and responsibilities that define our society.

– Eliot Spitzer

In politics you learn to always smile.

– Eliot Spitzer

When the United States was founded, the very idea of a nation premised on democratic principles of freedom and tolerance was viewed by the vast majority of the world as an experiment doomed to fail. Dictatorships, monarchies, and theocracies had for many centuries ruled the world.

– Eliot Spitzer

Imagine if the pension funds and endowments that own much of the equity in our financial services companies demanded that those companies revisit the way mortgages were marketed to those without adequate skills to understand the products they were being sold. Management would have to change the way things were done.

– Eliot Spitzer

Some say that I should settle down, go slower and not push so hard, so quickly for such transformational change. To them, I say that you misunderstand the size of the problems we face, the strength of the status quo and the urgency of the people’s desire for change.

– Eliot Spitzer

Our criminal justice system is fallible. We know it, even though we don’t like to admit it. It is fallible despite the best efforts of most within it to do justice. And this fallibility is, at the end of the day, the most compelling, persuasive, and winning argument against a death penalty.

– Eliot Spitzer

Those who are critical of Alliance are the same people who have done nothing for 30 years.

– Eliot Spitzer

The pace of global warming is accelerating and the scale of the impact is devastating. The time for action is limited – we are approaching a tipping point beyond which the opportunity to reverse the damage of CO2 emissions will disappear.

– Eliot Spitzer

The reality of split government puts a premium on creativity within the administration. President Obama needs to put the right people in charge of the agencies and then have them push the bounds of administrative power to change policy through those agencies. President Obama has a pretty good track record of this.

– Eliot Spitzer

Why does it have to be politics? Is there a dynamism to that world and a theoretical capacity to do things that draws many talented people? Absolutely. Are there other ways to be involved and lead an interesting life? Of course.

– Eliot Spitzer

It’s time to let science and medicine, not politics and rhetoric, lead us to good, sound policy.

– Eliot Spitzer

In the melting pot that is America, inclusive trumps exclusive. Whether it’s single women, young adults, or minorities, alienating the rapidly growing voting blocs is not smart politics.

– Eliot Spitzer

From those to whom much is given, much is expected. I have been given much – the love of my family, the faith and trust of the people of New York, and the chance to lead this state. I am deeply sorry that I did not live up to what was expected of me.

– Eliot Spitzer

Companies that pollute should be taxed so that a product’s cost to society is reflected in the price of that product.

– Eliot Spitzer

Shareholders have the right and obligation to set the parameters of corporate behavior within which management pursues profit.

– Eliot Spitzer

The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon shook our nation to the core. Americans were deeply frightened, sad, and angry, and they rallied around a President who, at the time, showed impressive certitude and calm.

– Eliot Spitzer

As someone with a deep faith in competition and the market, I also know that markets only work with tough enforcement of the rules that guarantee competition and fair play – and that the pressure to break those rules only gets stronger as the amount of money involved gets larger.

– Eliot Spitzer

I don’t care about motivation. I care about credibility.

– Eliot Spitzer

The Chautauqua Institution is truly a national treasure. It is a place for contemplation and a place for reflection, a place where platitudes and slogans can be set aside and be replaced by thoughtfulness and introspection.

– Eliot Spitzer

I don’t like politicians who vacillate.

– Eliot Spitzer

Mitt Romney’s primary season embrace of the social and economic agenda of the more rabid elements of his party doomed him, especially the shrill immigration rhetoric and the harshly insensitive theory that no additional sacrifice or contribution should be sought from those at the top.

– Eliot Spitzer

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