Mario Cuomo Education Quotes

The American people need no course in philosophy or political science of church history to know that God should not be made into a celestial party chairman. ~ Mario Cuomo

What I didn't do was pick one thing and keep saying it over and over again, so I could have gotten credit for it. ~ Mario Cuomo

No one in the modern history of this country, no president, has done more to move toward a balanced budget than has President Bill Clinton. ~ Mario Cuomo

The closed circle of materialism is clear to us now - aspirations become wants, wants become needs, and self-gratification becomes a bottomless pit. ~ Mario Cuomo

I did once answer the question 'What would you say on your tombstone?' I know what I would say: 'Mario Cuomo, 1932 - dash,' and, 'He tried.' That's it. ~ Mario Cuomo

Every minute brings a new opportunity. Every minute brings new growth, new experiences. ~ Mario Cuomo

I went to electric razors so I would not have to look at myself in the morning. ~ Mario Cuomo

People expect Byzantine, Machiavellian logic from politicians. But the truth is simple. Trial lawyers learn a good rule: 'Don't decide what you don't have to decide.' That's not evasion, it's wisdom. ~ Mario Cuomo

I had a chance to go on the Supreme Court of the United States, and my whole family was more disappointed in my deciding not to do that than in my deciding not to run for president - much more. ~ Mario Cuomo

My parents were immigrants. ~ Mario Cuomo

Please make this nation remember how futures are built ~ Mario Cuomo

We believe in a government that is characterized by fairness and reasonableness, a reasonableness that goes beyond labels, that doesn't distort or promise to do things that we know we can't do. ~ Mario Cuomo

I wish I were as good a man as my son is. ~ Mario Cuomo

The values derived from religious belief will not - and should not - be accepted as part of the public morality unless they are shared by the pluralistic community at large, by consensus. ~ Mario Cuomo

Entertainers and sports figures achieve fame and wealth but find the world empty and dull without the solace and stimulation of drugs. ~ Mario Cuomo

I will take a draft to the Yankees or to the Mets. A draft for president is not conceivable. ~ Mario Cuomo

I am one who believes that the world goes from the slime to the sublime. And you can take Darwin and all your philosophers and all your ontologists, and that's the direction. ~ Mario Cuomo

There is a respectable body of economic thought that holds that casino gambling is actually economically regressive to a state and a community. ~ Mario Cuomo

Those two principles: We're supposed to love one another and we're supposed to work together to make the experience better. That's all the religion you need, really, to make a success of this planet ... ~ Mario Cuomo

Democracy is not meant to be efficient, it is meant to be fair. ~ Mario Cuomo

Barack Obama is probably one of the brightest in terms of sheer intelligence ... also probably the best orator we've ever had as a president. ~ Mario Cuomo

In 1960 Americans chose John F. Kennedy because they were ready for change. They were ready for new and better ideas. After six years of scandals and failed policies under the Reagan Administration, Americans are again ready for change and stronger leadership. I love my country. That is why I am seeking the Democratic nomination for president. ~ Mario Cuomo

You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose. ~ Mario Cuomo

Every time I've done something that doesn't feel right, it's ended up not being right. ~ Mario Cuomo

My favorite thought about Abraham Lincoln is he believed in two things: loving one another and working together to make this world better. ~ Mario Cuomo

In 1980, in 1984, millions of middle-class Democrats became Reagan Democrats, and more of them drifted toward the Republicans with Bush in 1988. ~ Mario Cuomo

I had not even thought of running for president until one day in 1991, at a small fund-raiser, completely unanticipated, someone stood up and said, 'Hey, Mario, in all the years we've supported you, we've never heard you talk about the presidency, and we want to know why not.' ~ Mario Cuomo

In the end, I'm convinced we will all benefit if suspicion is replaced by discussion, innuendo by dialogue; if the emphasis in our debate turns from a search for talismanic criteria and neat but simplistic answers to an honest - more intelligent - attempt at describing the role religion has in our public affairs, and the limits placed on that role. ~ Mario Cuomo

I believe public education is the new civil rights battle and I support charter schools. ~ Andrew Cuomo

The first good player I watched as a kid was Joe DiMaggio, and that was like ballet. Since then, I played sandlot and college ball and came to understand how difficult it can be. ~ Mario Cuomo

In matters outside the courtroom, courts have decried differential treatment between print and broadcast media. New York City mayoral candidates Mario Cuomo and Edward Koch tried to exclude selected members of the media in 1977 by limiting access to their campaign headquarters to those who had received invitations. Ruling in American Broadcasting Cos. v. Cuomo, a federal court observed, "once there is a public function, public comment, and participation by some of the media, the First Amendment requires equal access to all of the media or the rights of the First Amendment would no longer be tenable."44
In 1981, a federal court in Georgia struck down a judge's order excluding television crews from a White House press pool. The court said the order violated the press and public's First Amendment right of access to White House events. It felt television coverage "provides a comprehensive visual element and an immediacy, or simultaneous aspect, not found in print ~ Marjorie Cohn

Organized belief in spirituality - that's what a religion is. ~ Mario Cuomo

I don't ever recall having a political argument with Bob Grant. I've known him a long time. I've always liked him. ~ Mario Cuomo

There is no basis to say I'm being coy about running for president. If I chose to explore the presidency, I wouldn't do it in a backward way. I'll say, 'I'm exploring the presidency.' ~ Mario Cuomo

The problems of a retired schoolteacher in Duluth are OUR problems. That the future of the child in Buffalo is OUR future. That the struggle of a disabled man in Boston to survive and live decently is OUR struggle. That The hunger of a woman in Little Rock is OUR hunger. That the failure anywhere to provide what reasonably we might to avoid pain is OUR failure. ~ Mario Cuomo

9/11 occurs, and you're going to rebuild, and after awhile, the memory will be there, but there will be something new there, and different, and functioning, and electric. ~ Mario Cuomo

It's an old story; it's as old as our history. The difference between Democrats and Republicans has always been measured in courage and confidence. The Republicans believe that the wagon train will not make it to the frontier unless some of the old, some of the young, some of the weak, are left behind by the side of the trail. The strong, the strong they tell us, will inherit the land. We Democrats believe in something else. We Democrats believe that we can make it all the way with the whole family intact, and we have more than once. ~ Mario Cuomo

I watched a small man with thick calluses on both hands work 15 and 16 hours a day. I saw him once literally bleed from the bottoms of his feet, a man who came here uneducated, alone, unable to speak the language, who taught me all I needed to know about faith and hard work by the simple eloquence of his example. ~ Mario Cuomo

We believe in a government strong enough to use words like "love" and "compassion" and smart enough to convert our noblest aspirations into practical realities. ~ Mario Cuomo

In 1982, I wrote in my diary that life is motion, not joy. If the way you measure success in life is by how much joy it brings you, you're measuring inaccurately. Life is also sadness, defeat, striving. It is many things. ~ Mario Cuomo

For me to make lasagna would be a desecration of a great Italian dish ... I don't mess with sacred things. ~ Mario Cuomo

I am a trial lawyer. Matilda says that at dinner on a good day I sound like an affidavit. ~ Mario Cuomo