Eliot Spitzer quotes

Eliot Spitzer is an American lawyer and former politician, best known for serving as the Governor of New York and as the state's Attorney General. His career was marked by prominent prosecutions of corporate crime and corruption. He resigned from office following a scandal and later became a media commentator. Here are 56 of his quotes:

One of the biggest lies in capitalism is that companies like competition. They don't. Nobody likes competition. (Eliot Spitzer)
Never talk when you can nod and never nod when you can wink and never write an e-mail, because it's death. You're giving prosecutors all the evidence we need. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
Eliot Spitzer
The Republican argument that raising the debt ceiling encourages additional future spending is logically irresponsible. The debt ceiling has to be raised to authorize spending already approved by Congress. Despite that fallacy, the GOP has been able to score political points with its argument. View quote
Eliot Spitzer
I don't care about motivation. I care about credibility. View quote
Eliot Spitzer
Sometimes in politics, you think you've seen it all. Turns out I was wrong. View quote
Eliot Spitzer
In politics you learn to always smile. View quote
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. View quote
Eliot Spitzer
Delay is the enemy of progress. (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. View quote
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. View quote
Eliot Spitzer
I do not believe that politics in the long run is about individuals. It is about ideas. View quote
Eliot Spitzer
Health care reform, the marquee legislative accomplishment of the Obama administration's first term, was passed before we entered the world of divided government. View quote
Eliot Spitzer
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. View quote
Eliot Spitzer
While their fiscal views aren't mine, the moderates are the last reasonable voice in the current Republican Party. View quote
Eliot Spitzer
It's time to let science and medicine, not politics and rhetoric, lead us to good, sound policy. View quote
Eliot Spitzer
A year is an eternity in politics - though less than a moment in history. View quote
Eliot Spitzer
The irony is that it was tougher to rent a car from Cerberus when it owned Alamo than to buy a semi-automatic. To rent a car, one had to provide ID, a drivers' license, and get insurance coverage. To buy a gun? Cash and carry, from the back of a station wagon at a gun show. No concerns about downstream liability or risk. View quote
Eliot Spitzer
Shareholders have the right and obligation to set the parameters of corporate behavior within which management pursues profit. (Eliot Spitzer)
I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself. View quote
Eliot Spitzer
Public speaking? I speak to myself on the street! View quote
Eliot Spitzer
Power must be used, but it must be tempered by soul-searching and the recognition of our human capacity for error. That is the maxim that should inform our approach to every challenge, from reforming state government to engaging in foreign affairs. View quote
Eliot Spitzer
A significant piece of the wealth that the NFL owners garner is a result of the enormous TV revenues they get - and those revenues are supported by a legislatively granted exemption from the antitrust laws that has been made applicable to sports leagues, primarily the NFL. View quote
Eliot Spitzer