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.
I can speak of slavery only so far as it came under my own observation - only so far as I have known and experienced it in my own person.
Space and time are the framework within which the mind is constrained to construct its experience of reality.
In a culture where profit has become the true God, self-sacrifice can seem incomprehensible rather than noble.
Those who came to the United States didn't realize they were white until they got here. They were told they were white. They had to learn they were white. An Irish peasant coming from British imperial abuse in Ireland during the potato famine in the 1840s, arrives in the United States. You ask him or her what they are. They say, "I am Irish." No, you're white. "What do you mean, I am white?" And they point me out. "Oh, I see what you mean. This is a strange land."
Once the command of the air is obtained by one of the contending armies, the war becomes a conflict between a seeing host and one that is blind.
I have nowhere claimed nor even implied that unbelief is a guarantee of good conduct or even an indicator of it.
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