Dick Murphy Quotations

I don't care if you're good or not. You don't always have a corner on perfection. And you need people to challenge what you're suggesting.

I don't think it will be that difficult to match the (10) highlighted criteria on this list. There are probably quite a few people out there who have done these things.

I don't think that politics attracts the best and the brightest of America. It doesn't attract the most sincere people.

I think it's quite nicely arranged around our cultural center this year, and I think that's fine. People still will see the stores as they park and walk through downtown, going to and from the festival. There will be plenty of traffic that day. We'll see how it goes this year.

Our hearts go out to those who have lost their homes, ... This fire is so overwhelming, so devastating.

My belief is the majority of people in politics are just interested in pursuing this career in politics, and doing what's necessary to get themselves re-elected. And if that happens to coincide with the public good, great. But if it doesn't, the public good loses out.

You know, it's almost human nature. If you give me a gift, I feel indebted to you... assuming it's a substantial gift.

You have the biggest impact on controlling, on affecting local lives as mayor. It's so much more important than being a state legislator.

I want to be mayor, but I don’t need to be mayor. I’m not a career politician.

Your first obligation, I suppose, is to your God. Your second is to your family. And your third is to your community. And you ought to try to fulfill all of those in your life.

Without stores like that, veterans would have a hard time.

What I want to know is, how many students did we start with and how many did we have in the end? The other thing I want to know is, who left and why? . . . I would like to see graduation rates and absenteeism discussed at the same time.

At least I make decisions based on what I think is right, not who my friends might be.

It took a long time for me to convince my staff people to leave me unscheduled from 2:00 to 4:00 everyday. And I need to do that as mayor. I need to schedule accessibility time.

I'm not going to rule out running for a second term. But, I think you have to be psychologically prepared to walk away from the job after four years. It's the only way that you cannot be influenced by those special interests.

I'm not convinced that we have data that would suggest we need to expand this program. We're expanding a program where the results have so far shown us that staying home may be better.

informally, you know, but not in front of the council.

I'm convinced that unless you have some public financing of elections, you are never going to remove the power of wealthy interests over elected officials.

I don't think we ever had before the Council discussion of the sewer cost of service study, you know, at a public meeting, ... We talked about it informally, you know, but not in front of the council.