I am a Democrat. I have been one all of my life.

Chicago kept industry, attracted new business, became the center for convention trade and transportation.

If for no other reason than the energy crisis now facing this country, the federal government should be eager to become partners with us in rebuilding our city.

The nation can no longer afford to continue policies that hasten the flight of persons to the distant suburbs.

We must care. We must all care. And while I am working, while the governments is working, so must the people also work.

The people of Chicago are a proud people - and for good reason.

The credit for much of this rightly belongs to the late Mayor Daley who forged a coalition of business and labor that kept Chicago always moving ahead.

I pledge tonight to be Mayor for all of the people of this city - for one Chicago.

If all of us would require the same level of performance from ourselves as we expect from government, this city will forever be the city that works.

I accept that responsibility and ask only that I be judged by my performance as its chief executive.

For my part, I plan to work out a fair and adequate redistribution of city services to all city neighborhoods.

In the housing projects, people talked of ways to reduce crime, relieve overcrowding, and they were good ideas that we plan to study, and possibly implement.

If those communities are left to decay, this city will decay.

City employees will be hired and promoted because of their abilities - without outside interference.

In the days and months I spent walking through the various communities of this city, I found that Chicago did not work for everyone, however.

If we are to succeed, we must recognize that the community redevelopment is not solely the rehabilitation of housing, or putting a mall in the business strips.

We saw hundreds of programs to redevelop the central city, the neighborhoods, in the past.

But as important as the job to be done by government in the neighborhoods, the people must also be involved.

But always I was a private citizen whose activities in government or political party were appointive.

The Chicago Symphony is considered the greatest orchestra in the world.

Chicago's neighborhoods have always been this city's greatest strength.

The cooperation of government at its different levels is important and can only be achieved as long as the people of Chicago are directly involved in our efforts and supportive of our goals.

Be assured that I did not become the Mayor of Chicago to preside over its decline.

I am here before you tonight to dedicate this administration to bringing a new renaissance of neighborhood life and community spirit, a renewal of confidence in the future of our city and a revival of opportunity for all Chicago.

Tonight - by taking this solemn oath - I am no longer a private citizen but the Mayor of the City of Chicago.

As I visited the various neighborhoods in the campaign, I learned fast that it's a mistake to think that all of the wisdom and possible solutions to our problems are available only in this building.

Our universities and museums are respected around the country.

But I am committed to keeping this city a strong and viable center for commerce and industry, for continuing to make it a place of opportunity for its citizens.

The people ask much, often more than any government can give. We must resist the temptation to promise solutions to all problems.

I am a Democrat. I have been one all of my life.

The people must know that from this day on, we want their opinions.

When there were fears about the future of this nation's older cities... when a few of the cities teetered on the brink of bankruptcy, all eyes were focused on Chicago for contrast.

Chicago kept industry attracted new business became the center for convention trade and transportation.

Roosevelt's magic lay in one facet of his personality: He knew how to take the risk. No other man in public life I knew could so readily take the challenge of the new.

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.

Art teaches nothing, except the significance of life.

If it came to saving the life of one priest or sacrificing the life of an entire congregation, the church would save the life of the priest. Which is backwards, of course.

Work is the meat of life, pleasure the dessert.

All literary men are Red Sox fans - to be a Yankee fan in a literate society is to endanger your life.

At the end, the realization is that she had to get to a place in her life where she could drop her guard and make peace with the fact that whether she had a small amount of time, that she had to kind of live it completely through, instead of living by the rules.

You have choices to make about what you do with the rest of your life.

From the standpoint of observation, then, we must regard it as a highly probable hypothesis that the beginnings of the mental life date from as far back as the beginnings of life at large.

I want to have babies one day but not right now. When I do it I want to do it really well. I want it to be my best project in life.

Any judge who allows an adulterer with a live-in girlfriend to terminate the life of his wife should be impeached.

I can assure you, public service is a stimulating, proud and lively enterprise. It is not just a way of life, it is a way to live fully.

The work which is manipulated looks a little boring to me. I think life is pretty strange anyway. It is wooo, wooo, wooo!

With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, and the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things.

This isn't life in the fast lane, it's life in the oncoming traffic.

The good parts of a book may be only something a writer is lucky enough to overhear or it may be the wreck of his whole damn life and one is as good as the other.