1. Quotes
  2. Authors
  3. Jimmy Hoffa

Jimmy Hoffa Quotes

James Riddle Hoffa was an American labor union leader who served as the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1957 until 1971.

From an early age, Hoffa was a union activist, and he became an important regional figure with the IBT by his mid-twenties. By 1952, he was the national vice-president of the IBT and between 1957 and 1971 he was its general president. He secured the first national agreement for teamsters' rates in 1964 with the National Master Freight Agreement. He played a major role in the growth and the development of the union, which eventually became the largest by membership in the United States, with over 2.3 million members at its peak, during his terms as its leader.

Hoffa became involved with organized crime from the early years of his Teamsters work, a connection that continued until his disappearance in 1975. He was convicted of jury tampering, attempted bribery, conspiracy, and mail and wire fraud in 1964 in two separate trials. He was imprisoned in 1967 and sentenced to 13 years. In mid-1971, he resigned as president of the union as part of a commutation agreement with U.S. president Richard Nixon and was released later that year, but Hoffa was barred from union activities until 1980. Hoping to regain support and to return to IBT leadership, he unsuccessfully tried to overturn the order.

Hoffa disappeared on July 30, 1975. It is generally accepted that he was murdered by the Mafia, and in 1982 he was declared legally dead. Hoffa's legacy and the circumstances of his disappearance continue to stir debate. Wikipedia  

✵ 14. February 1913 – 30. July 1982
Jimmy Hoffa photo
Jimmy Hoffa: 19 quotes5 likes

Famous Jimmy Hoffa Quotes

“Power leads to more power, no matter what your racket, and not only were they rich and influential but they were smart as hell, too.”

Jimmy Hoffa

Source: Hoffa The Real Story (1975), Chapter 6, The Start of the Frame-Up, p. 101 (On the Kennedy family...)

“But to hear Kennedy when he was grandstanding in front of the McClellan Committee you might have thought I was making as much out of the pension fund as the Kennedys made out of selling whiskey.”

Jimmy Hoffa

Source: Hoffa The Real Story (1975), Chapter 7, Gangsters and the "Irish Mafia", p. 121

“I do to others what they do to me, only worse.”

Jimmy Hoffa

Arthur A. Sloane, Hoffa, p. 77

“We never had any silk sheets in our family…”

Jimmy Hoffa

Source: Hoffa The Real Story (1975), Chapter 5, The Spoiled Brat, p. 96

“It has to be considered damned unusual that no other union was ever investigated.”

Jimmy Hoffa

Source: Hoffa The Real Story (1975), Chapter 6, The Start of the Frame-Up, p. 103

“Mob guys had muscle, and where in hell do you think employers got the tough guys when they wanted to break a strike?”

Jimmy Hoffa

Source: Hoffa The Real Story (1975), Chapter 5, The Spoiled Brat, p. 92

Jimmy Hoffa Quotes

“Nobody in this country respects what's weak. You believe me!”

Jimmy Hoffa

CBC Television Interview, Washington, 1960 Watch it Here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWitsAgxd8U <br class="br">Context: Nobody in this country respects what&#x27;s weak. You believe me!<br>If you see a beggar on a corner, with his hat in his hand, nobody respects him.<br>Dress the same man up, give him an air of dignity, and he can command respect.<br>The same thing applies to this union.

“When you go to prison they forget it's your Constitution, too.”

Jimmy Hoffa

Source: Hoffa The Real Story (1975), Chapter 12, Convict, p. 187

“They all know I'm back, very much back, and that I will be the general president again come hell or high water.”

Jimmy Hoffa

Source: Hoffa The Real Story (1975), Chapter 1, I'll Be Back, p. 24

“You almost had to live through it to really know the gut ripping misery of the depression during the early thirties which led to labor's bloodiest and most violent days.”

Jimmy Hoffa

Source: Hoffa The Real Story (1975), Chapter 2, How It All Started, p. 27

“But because we are financially solid, because we do have an organization that is equipped to handle any situation that comes in front of us, we are successful in getting from the employers what are members want and need without strikes.”

Jimmy Hoffa

CBC Television Interview, Washington, 1960 Watch it Here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWitsAgxd8U

“I let him strain for a couple of seconds. Then like taking candy from a baby, I flipped his arm over and cracked his knuckles on the top of the table. It was strictly no contest and he knew it. But he had to try again. Same results.”

Jimmy Hoffa

Source: Hoffa The Real Story (1975), Chapter 5, The Spoiled Brat, p. 98 (Arm wrestling Robert Kennedy, February 19, 1957, Chevy Chase, Maryland)

“Sure, we loaned money to build hotels and casinos in Las Vegas. So what? Las Vegas borrowers were good customers.”

Jimmy Hoffa

Source: Hoffa The Real Story (1975), Chapter 7, Gangsters and the "Irish Mafia", p. 119

“A slab of bread "buttered" with lard and, if you were lucky, seasoned with salt and pepper, was a luxury.”

Jimmy Hoffa

Source: Hoffa The Real Story (1975), Chapter 2, How It All Started, p. 28

“In the ten years I was president of the Teamsters, I had raised the membership from eight hundred thousand to more than 2 million and made it the largest single labor union the world.”

Jimmy Hoffa

Source: Hoffa The Real Story (1975), Chapter 1, I'll Be Back, p. 13

“Our rooms were bugged, our phones were tapped, and our lawyer's rooms were broken into and their files stolen. We finally had to hire armed guards with pistols to be able to maintain our records. It was hard to believe we weren't in Russia.”

Jimmy Hoffa

Source: Hoffa The Real Story (1975), Chapter 10, Chattanooga Choo-choo, p. 164

“I've said consistently that no employer ever really accepts a union. They tolerate the unions. The very minute they can get a pool of unemployment they'll challenge the unions and try to get back what they call managements prerogatives, meaning hire, fire, pay what you want.”

Jimmy Hoffa

Source: Hoffa The Real Story (1975), Chapter 13, Outside Again, p. 213

“When you run an organization like the Teamsters one man has to be the boss and run things.”

Jimmy Hoffa

Source: Hoffa The Real Story (1975), Chapter 1, I'll Be Back, p. 22-23

“Hell, I'm not saying I'm an angel, but when it came to dirty tricks I couldn't hold a candle to the Irish Mafia.”

Jimmy Hoffa

Source: Hoffa The Real Story (1975), Chapter 7, Gangsters and the "Irish Mafia", p. 128

Similar authors

Martin Luther King, Jr. photo
Martin Luther King, Jr.658
American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Ci… None
Franklin D. Roosevelt photo
Franklin D. Roosevelt190
32nd President of the United States None
Black Elk photo
Black Elk42
Oglala Lakota leader None
Rajneesh photo
Rajneesh76
Godman and leader of the Rajneesh movement None
John C. Maxwell photo
John C. Maxwell145
American author, speaker and pastor None
Rick Warren photo
Rick Warren90
Christian religious leader None
Lee Iacocca photo
Lee Iacocca10
American businessman None
Helen Keller photo
Helen Keller156
American author and political activist None
Ronald Reagan photo
Ronald Reagan264
American politician, 40th president of the United States (i… None
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn photo
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn120
Russian writer None