John Hickenlooper Quotes

In 1999, I found myself the unlikely leader of a community-based effort to protect what was arguably Colorado's most important brand, and one once thought to be untouchable: the 'Mile High' part of Denver's Mile High Stadium.

- John Hickenlooper

You never see Coke and Pepsi doing attacks to each other. It would depress the product category of soft drinks.

- John Hickenlooper

Infrastructure is more than laying new roads and expanding transit: it's running the fiber and deploying new technologies for reliable, affordable Internet in every part of the state.

- John Hickenlooper

When you grow up a fatherless son, in many ways you have to raise yourself. No one tells you what looks good on you, how to carry yourself, or provides the approval. Without a father, you grow up never knowing what you didn't have. There is no intimate model of who you want to become, so it's as if you're always guessing.

- John Hickenlooper

When people think of the West, it's easy to envision wagon trains, Buffalo Bill, the glory days of the Gold Rush. Cowboy hats come to mind.

- John Hickenlooper

Wellington Webb was one of the most significant mayors of the latter half of the 20th century. His natural political instincts are almost unrivaled.

- John Hickenlooper

Isolationism is not leadership.

- John Hickenlooper

We are, by many measures, one of the more diverse cities in the country, growing more diverse all the time, and one of the more harmonious in terms of how we live together.

- John Hickenlooper

Today we're dealing with metropolitan Shanghai, metropolitan New Delhi or Paris. If we're competing at that level, our diversity, that richness of people coming from so many different backgrounds, is one of our greatest advantages.

- John Hickenlooper

I'm not sure there's another way to help move more people out of poverty than to raise the minimum wage.

- John Hickenlooper

When I got inaugurated in 2010, OneRepublic donated their time and played for the inauguration. And my stepfather, who is 86, came out. He usually goes to bed at eight o'clock, but he stayed for the entire concert. It was awesome.

- John Hickenlooper

Governor Kasich and I won't agree on everything, but agree we've got to control the rise in health care costs on all levels.

- John Hickenlooper

I was skinny. I wore thick glasses. I had acne.

- John Hickenlooper

When someone's kind of a braggart to the bully... it makes me on edge just because I live that, and I don't think that's a model we want for our kids in this country.

- John Hickenlooper

I loved baseball. I was a pitcher. I loved being on the mound because I also loved being at the center of the action, the cat and mouse battle with the batter on every pitch. You had to develop grit.

- John Hickenlooper

Secure the border; have an ID system that works. Have a guest worker system. And then, finally, hold businesses accountable. Once you do that, most of the chambers of commerce and those who are clamoring around immigration will take a deep breath and relax.

- John Hickenlooper

Last, in restaurants you spend a lot of time dealing with people who are very unhappy. Soup has been spilled on their laps, they've waited 10 minutes to get their check so they can leave, and you learn how to listen, I think, in a much more proactive way than government does.

- John Hickenlooper

You looked at Stanford or Harvard, or the University of Colorado, these were powerful engines just turning out people ready to create and grow businesses.

- John Hickenlooper

Money isn't everything, but the gaps between rich districts and poor districts ultimately mean a workforce that won't be as competitive as it could be, and individual Coloradans won't be as successful as they could be.

- John Hickenlooper

If we want to close the achievement gap, build a well-educated workforce and responsible citizenry, we must start with our youngest children.

- John Hickenlooper

From the first day we opened Wynkoop, my brewpub in Denver, I knew I'd be ten times better running a restaurant than I was a geologist.

- John Hickenlooper

Education is the social bedrock for the hopes and dreams of our children and the foundation that is necessary for their future prosperity.

- John Hickenlooper

Government doesn't have a high tolerance for failure.

- John Hickenlooper

And if I lost I would have gone back to 12 weeks of vacation, because I was successful enough that I was spending much more time on non-profit boards and traveling a lot.

- John Hickenlooper

We need a comprehensive focus on infrastructure that supports not just transportation but also broadband, education, healthcare, and our environment.

- John Hickenlooper

The vice president can play a real role in that, in helping solve some of the biggest problems in the country.

- John Hickenlooper

Almost all government starts at a very local level at some point.

- John Hickenlooper

People turn off the news, stop reading in-depth magazine articles - especially young people. Look at the increasing reluctance of young people to vote. I think a lot of that is directly - you can lay it at the feet of these negative campaigns and relentless attack ads.

- John Hickenlooper

Some day, someone will do something wrong and there will be a scandal to report in the paper. When that happens, we will address it honestly and openly and try to deal with it as quickly and as fairly as we can, and keep moving the city forward.

- John Hickenlooper

Voters are tired of us kicking the can down the road, because they know it's going to land in a pothole.

- John Hickenlooper

I assume we will have figured out a way to efficiently utilize solar energy and tied that to an efficient way to use nuclear energy in such a way that it doesn't pose a serious environmental issue.

- John Hickenlooper

Given that, and assuming that we begin to adjust to issues like climate change and the greenhouse effect, Denver's location in the center of the country becomes a tremendous advantage.

- John Hickenlooper

Oftentimes, when constituencies or sectors of opinion are distinct, when they are confronted with a situation where they're going to have to make a serious compromise, they react very negatively publicly, but they also recognize when they step back that this is right.

- John Hickenlooper

There could have been more planning in New Orleans, but you look at all the devastation that happened there - have we gotten to 3,000 deaths yet? For that magnitude of a disaster, that's not all that bad.

- John Hickenlooper

Politics generally doesn't mix with sports very well.

- John Hickenlooper

Denver is a city that will be far more defined by its future than its past.

- John Hickenlooper

In the restaurant business, you never want to have enemies, whereas it seems that many politicians judge their success by how high their enemies are and whether they can show that they can hold their ground and give a punch for every punch they take.

- John Hickenlooper

Tough times call for tough choices and pinching every penny.

- John Hickenlooper

Whenever I've met with businesses that want to locate in Colorado, the state's infrastructure for moving people and products is a top concern.

- John Hickenlooper

Is there some risk every day we walk out our front door? Every time we get in our car? Yeah. Are we materially less safe now than we were 10 years ago? Whatever delta there is, it's very small.

- John Hickenlooper

Most of us have faced a - faced a serious budget problem or another at some pivotal moment in our lives.

- John Hickenlooper

I never ran for student council or class president or any of that stuff. I didn't hang out with those people. It was just a different universe from the one I inhabited.

- John Hickenlooper

Many of the basic lessons of business, such as the critical value of customer service or measuring risk against reward when investing capital, have essential application in government, but not in a vacuum.

- John Hickenlooper

Any businessman will tell you that transportation is fundamental to success.

- John Hickenlooper

In terms of all kinds of things, in terms of educational reform, in terms of health care, transportation, Colorado has a chance to be a national model.

- John Hickenlooper

If the two economies can figure out how to waltz... I think there is benefit for Colorado colleges and universities, and I think there are benefits for Cuba as well.

- John Hickenlooper

I was an entrepreneur myself and often say that I'm on loan to public service.

- John Hickenlooper

My father had a handgun on the bedside table, and we were all taught to handle firearms.

- John Hickenlooper

The old system, the War on Drugs, was a train wreck.

- John Hickenlooper

Let's face it: the War on Drugs was a disaster. It may be well intentioned... but it sent millions of kids to prison, gave them felonies oftentimes when they had no violent crimes.

- John Hickenlooper

I could easily say that, for quite a long time before I became mayor, I had obeyed all laws.

- John Hickenlooper

The Democratic Party is always going to be the party of civil rights and fairness - everybody gets an equal, fair shot at the American dream. And we're going to be the party that really fights to protect planet Earth - enjoy whatever time we're going to get!

- John Hickenlooper

We need to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit that is alive in Colorado.

- John Hickenlooper

I think we're in good shape, but the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina is in some small way mitigated by the fact that we now have more people talking about it, thinking about it and working on it, so that we will be more vigilant and ready.

- John Hickenlooper

One's ability to enter into thousands of lawsuits as a tool for success, or to use bankruptcy to avoid paying your former employees and vendors, have little relevance when trying to create good government.

- John Hickenlooper

If I can convince people that good people don't do attack ads, and that we want good people to represent us, then the attack ads work against themselves.

- John Hickenlooper

I think, in this country, if you work 40 hours a week, and you work hard, you ought to be able to afford an apartment somewhere.

- John Hickenlooper

In the restaurant business, you learn quickly there's no margin in having enemies.

- John Hickenlooper

Now, I've never hosted a reality TV show, but I know the true mark of a successful businessman is not the number of times you say, 'You're fired.' It's the number times you say, 'You're hired.'

- John Hickenlooper

It's crucial that we keep care for our seniors a priority.

- John Hickenlooper

In the end, I did end up repeating seventh grade.

- John Hickenlooper

We have put the energy needs and costs of hardworking Coloradans before any special interest agenda or false promise.

- John Hickenlooper

For me, the risks in terms of opening that brewpub were fairly high. I put my house up as collateral, I invested the liquid money I had and two years of my time to get it over, but that's really not much of a risk for what the potential reward was if it worked.

- John Hickenlooper

Colorado needs a governor who brings people together to create jobs and cut government spending.

- John Hickenlooper

The Affordable Care Act was passed in large part because of recognition that our nation's health care system is not working. The act is not perfect, but it is a starting point, and we have been using it to improve the health of Coloradans.

- John Hickenlooper

Government requires bringing people together and genuinely hearing their issues. It requires the establishment and strengthening of community.

- John Hickenlooper

The world has become rapidly more competitive.

- John Hickenlooper

There can be an energy in a populist campaign that isn't always in the best interest of the party.

- John Hickenlooper

I used to make snap judgments, moved quickly. It's more important to be thoughtful, think of the consequences of your decisions.

- John Hickenlooper

Democracy is based upon empathy and the recognition that some decisions are solely for the community's benefit without regard to one's own narrow self-interest.

- John Hickenlooper

We need to recognize that we can't allow people that are aberrations of nature to take away the joys and freedoms that we enjoy.

- John Hickenlooper

A mayor is a symbol and a public face of what a city bureaucracy provides its citizens.

- John Hickenlooper

The one thing that I don't think the Obama administration gets anywhere near enough credit for is the high level of administrators. They meet all the time so they can synergize the federal investments. That's the way any corporation would do it.

- John Hickenlooper

We have this tradition of the Second Amendment and people's rights to self-defense and a certain suspicion that the government can't be trusted.

- John Hickenlooper

Bernie Sanders deserves a lot of credit because he has raised issues.

- John Hickenlooper

Being the one person out there committed to not running negative ads - voters respond to that.

- John Hickenlooper

Universal background checks work. You keep the guns out of the hands of dangerous people. That shouldn't be partisan - that should be something we can all agree to, but it became this huge battle and, you know, really, really a challenge.

- John Hickenlooper

I've made several careers out of people underestimating me - it's almost an advantage worth cultivating.

- John Hickenlooper

Of everyone else who was running, and there were some very talented people, none of them had anywhere near the experience I had in hiring people, holding them accountable, creating systems for accountability.

- John Hickenlooper

The most important thing a mayor does is hire talented people to run the city.

- John Hickenlooper

If it was really successful, it was a life calling, a career I was excited about doing, so I didn't think the overall risk was anywhere near as high as what the reward was.

- John Hickenlooper

If people think that Colorado is a beacon for artists and creative people who are really talented, I think they're going to be a little happier during the day, and I think they're going to be a little more successful at their job, no matter what their job is.

- John Hickenlooper

If you ask me about Donna Lynne, she's one of the flat-out most talented people I've ever worked with, and I've worked with some pretty talented people.

- John Hickenlooper

I can say that every ad that I control, that I'm going to make sure my ads are positive.

- John Hickenlooper

We don't want the federal government coming in and telling us how to do our environmental remediation or how we're going to do our healthcare.

- John Hickenlooper

I would argue that one of the issues which the public should be much more emphatic about with all politicians... is patronage, appointing people to high positions because they supported your campaign or helped you raise money.

- John Hickenlooper

To a certain extent, people's behavior in a campaign is generally a reflection of how they would act in office.

- John Hickenlooper

I think President Trump is trying to distract the country away from the failures he's had - the inability to get a health care bill that both sides could come together on.

- John Hickenlooper

Fracking is an industrial process, but it can be done safely. It's government's job to make sure it can be done safely.

- John Hickenlooper

Even as we continue to carry the banner of civil rights and environmental justice, we've also got to focus on many, many people - for them, life starts with a good job.

- John Hickenlooper

When your economy is not growing that fast, everybody's got to bite the bullet.

- John Hickenlooper

Taxpayers don't want their money spent more than a very, very slender amount on actual buying art or paying for concerts.

- John Hickenlooper

No matter how the Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, states are making progress in developing strategies to provide more access to quality health care coverage.

- John Hickenlooper

This is a generous country that realizes people want to work hard.

- John Hickenlooper

Infrastructure investments lead to jobs. And quality of life starts with a good job.

- John Hickenlooper

Colorado is a state that people like to be themselves and solve their own problems.

- John Hickenlooper

Foreign students... big part of our economy.

- John Hickenlooper

Colorado has always been a good place to find what you're made of.

- John Hickenlooper

Colorado does not shut down. Colorado does not quit. Colorado does not break.

- John Hickenlooper

We will see the increasingly rapid rate of growth we've already been seeing in Colorado continue.

- John Hickenlooper

I started out here in Colorado as a geologist. During a downturn, everyone in our company got laid off.

- John Hickenlooper

When there's work to be done in Colorado, for Colorado, we should look to skilled Coloradans first.

- John Hickenlooper

Colorado is known for many great things.

- John Hickenlooper

I think I was in 10th or 11th grade before I ever read a book for pleasure.

- John Hickenlooper

Sustainable jobs are created by the private sector.

- John Hickenlooper

I would argue that's because we had a bunch of smart people running around here. They were coming in and working very hard and many of them had left jobs in which they made significantly more money.

- John Hickenlooper

From my subjective position, there was no honeymoon.

- John Hickenlooper

Especially during the first nine months, there was so much going on with trying to hire 55 people to run the city, it was hard to imagine any honeymoon.

- John Hickenlooper

America is always attracting people, from all over the earth.

- John Hickenlooper

What I remember most vividly was the sense of always being a little behind the other kids in class - that sense of I wasn't cut out for class or I wasn't cut out to read.

- John Hickenlooper

The social and educational value of preschool is undisputed.

- John Hickenlooper

We did not do a good enough job of taking care of the people who were losing their careers and retraining them into the new economy.

- John Hickenlooper

This country is built on free speech.

- John Hickenlooper

I try to go to concerts whenever I can, just because I love music.

- John Hickenlooper

I believe that the more this hemisphere operates with a sense of common purpose, I think the better we'll all do.

- John Hickenlooper

America's greatness has always been demonstrated by our moral leadership.

- John Hickenlooper

Giving all of Denver's kids an equal chance at success is the best investment we can make in our community's kids and future.

- John Hickenlooper

In trying times, Coloradans do what we always have done: pull together and get it done.

- John Hickenlooper

If you don't trust the media, they are not going to trust you, and if they don't trust you, it's hard for the public to trust you.

- John Hickenlooper

Partisanship has gotten worse and worse.

- John Hickenlooper

What I want most is for my son to be proud of me.

- John Hickenlooper

You don't get to choose what your legacy is.

- John Hickenlooper