Robert Agresta

Robert Agresta (born March 31, 1983) is a lawyer and an American Republican Party politician who was elected on November 4, 2008 to serve a three-year term as a Republican councilman in the Borough of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey

Quotes

 * We should embrace the disagreement that echoes in this chamber because this is the forum that the founders of our great country envisioned.
 * Scribd:Robert Agresta Inauguration speech Quoted in Mayor & Council Meeting of January 2009


 * The road ahead bears many challenges and now more than ever do the people of our community need a limited government that allows the people to do what they do best … to build their own wealth.
 * Scribd:Robert Agresta Inauguration speech Quoted in Mayor & Council Meeting of January 2009.


 * It is often said that our modern world is incapable of self-government.
 * Scribd:Robert Agresta Inauguration speech Quoted in Mayor & Council Meeting of January 2009


 * The free electoral process is one of the things that outsiders envy most about this country.The distinctly American two-party system is perpetuated through that process.
 * Scribd:Robert Agresta Inauguration speech Quoted in Mayor & Council Meeting of January 2009


 * We should embrace the disagreement that echoes in this chamber because this is the forum that the founders of our greatcountry envisioned. We should... no we are duty bound to enthusiastically avail ourselves it.This discourse is not idle chatter, but rather it is an adversarial system.  It is a system that creates accountability in government.  It creates a free market of ideas.
 * Scribd:Robert Agresta Inauguration speech Quoted in Mayor & Council Meeting of January 2009


 * The Japanese have a term called Ikigai. Ikigai is the Japanese translation of the French 'raison d’etre' or 'reason for being.'  When Plato wrote about government, what Plato said was that the most preferred form of governor was what we know as the true statesman.  -- The philosopher king who knows his place and his task.  My purpose is to be a builder of new ideas and companies.  I live to put new ideas together and advance the conversation.  It is my Ikigai.  I simply love to do it.  There is nothing more exciting to me than helping new ideas spring up out of the ground.
 * Public Release May, 2011, Politicker NJ


 * In Nuoro Province of Sardinia Italy and Okinawa Japan there are zones called “blue zones” that are known for having the highest number of centenarians - which are people over age 100.  When scientists researched these zones to find out how these people were living so long, they found the least common denominator:  These people all had emphasized Ikigai in their cultures.  They knew what their reason for being alive was.  I have never believed that one man should remain a lifelong politician, therefore, I am imposing my own term limit on this office.  Ideas get used up and then the man who had them needs to step aside to make way for the new ones.  And so, I strive to become like he whom Plato once apotheosized - the statesman.  This means that I know my place, and that is why as a builder and starter, it is now my time to pass the torch of good government on to whomever the public’s wisdom declares a new leader in the upcoming November election.
 * Public Release May, 2011, Politicker NJ

Attributed

 * Everyone knows I'm no treehugger.
 * Scribd:Robert Agresta Inauguration speech Quoted in Mayor & Council (May 24, 2009