Bernhard Goetz Quotes

#1. Society is better off without certain people.

Bernhard Goetz

#2. I thought I was a pretty good physical specimen. But there was a teenager from Brooklyn, who basically wiped the floor with me on the street. He gave me a punch that I didn't even feel. All I knew I was looking up at the sky. I tried to fight him, and I got a number of injuries after that.

Bernhard Goetz

#3. I was a monster. I don't deny it. I wasn't a monster until a few years ago. But you have to be a monster to survive in New York City. New York City doesn't give a damn about violence.

Bernhard Goetz

#4. I don't regret pulling the trigger. I should have been more careful with many of the things I said afterwards. That was a big regret.

Bernhard Goetz

#5. During my jury selection process, we went through over 360 jurors. It took six months, all New York residents. Of the 360 jurors, over half of them had been mugged one time. Quite a number of them, maybe 30 40, 50, had been mugged twice.

Bernhard Goetz

#6. I think vegetarianism is a crucial ethical choice for an individual and a society.

Bernhard Goetz

#7. If you have love in your life, you have life.

Bernhard Goetz

#8. The whole trial seemed surreal.

Bernhard Goetz

#9. Jail is much easier on people who have nothing.

Bernhard Goetz

#10. I go to Union Square Park, mostly to take care of squirrels.

Bernhard Goetz

#11. Prior to being mugged I did not feel I had to carry a gun. However, I knew how to shoot a gun very proficiently. As a boy, I used to play cowboys and Indians all the time.

Bernhard Goetz

#12. If you like affection, then about one in three squirrels makes an excellent companion.

Bernhard Goetz

#13. When you are surrounded by four people, one of them smiling, taunting, demanding, terrorizing, you don't have a complete grasp or perfect vision.

Bernhard Goetz

#14. You know how some people complain about the way carriage horses are treated? That they are in a small stall? That is mistreatment. In a holding cell, you get very bored. You have no newspapers, you have no anything.

Bernhard Goetz

#15. I would, without any hesitation, shoot a violent criminal again.

Bernhard Goetz

#16. Anyone, any type of story, it doesn't have to be a crime victim, you don't have to let yourself be food for the media.

Bernhard Goetz

#17. You can't let yourself be pushed around. You can't live in fear. That's no way to live your life.

Bernhard Goetz

#18. I have my values. I do things that I think are right. I think it is crucial for mankind to go vegetarian. In fact, I think if the United States and one other major power becomes basically vegetarian, the whole world will become vegetarian, eventually.

Bernhard Goetz

#19. India is mostly vegetarian, and I think that will be crucial to changing the world. I think the United States is lost.

Bernhard Goetz

#20. To shoot a gun proficiently, including speed shooting, is much less of a skill than typing.

Bernhard Goetz

#21. With my time in the limelight, I regret that I didn't use it more to push vegetarianism. I support vegetarian options in the school lunch program.

Bernhard Goetz