The knife of corruption endangered the life of New York City. The scalpel of the law is making us well again.
Interpretation
Corruption harms society, but the justice system can heal it.
Ed Koch's quote emphasizes the detrimental impact of corruption on society, likening it to a knife that threatens the very fabric of a city like New York. He contrasts this harm with the healing power of law and justice, suggesting that through proper legal measures, a community can recover and thrive again.
In practice
During a speech on community safety, one might say this quote to emphasize the importance of law enforcement.
No, I am not a homosexual. If I were a homosexual, I would hope I would have the courage to say so. What's cruel is that you are forcing me to say I am not a homosexual. This means you are putting homosexuals down. I don't want to do that.
In a neighborhood, as in life, a clean bandage is much, much better than a raw or festering wound.
Have confidence in your decisions. Make them expeditiously, and stay with them as long as you believe you are correct no matter what others say. However, when you conclude you were in error, do not hesitate to announce the error publicly and change course.
I was not afraid of the press or the militants. It was uncomfortable, but I was not afraid. With respect to the press, I knew I knew more than they knew about city matters. With respect to the militants, I understood it. I mean, everybody believed in those days that they were being screwed, you know, that somebody was getting ahead of them.
Loneliness is the way by which destiny endeavors to lead man to himself.
As long as you don't practice it, this dying and becoming, You are only a dreary guest on this dark earth.
When a place gets crowded enough to require ID's, social collapse is not far away. It is time to go elsewhere. The best thing about space travel is that it made it possible to go elsewhere.
How one walks through the world, the endless small adjustments of balance, is affected by the shifting weights of beautiful things.
Some people are old at 18 and some are young at 90. Time is a concept that humans created.
Emotions, in my experience, aren't covered by single words. I don't believe in "sadness", "joy", or "regret". Maybe the best proof that the language is patriarchal is that is oversimplifies feeling. I'd like to have at my disposal complicated hybrid emotions.
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