Marion Barry Quotes

If you take out the killings, Washington actually has a very very low crime rate.

- Marion Barry

This is not a sham, not a game. This is the real stuff.

- Marion Barry

Everybody in life has something that they get knocked down on. The object lesson here is not that you get knocked down - it is that you get up.

- Marion Barry

Why should blacks feel elated about seeing men walk on the moon when millions of poor blacks and whites don't have enough money to buy food to eat on earth?

- Marion Barry

I love serving people. I love helping people empower themselves.

- Marion Barry

I am making this trip to Africa because Washington is an international city, just like Tokyo, Nigeria or Israel. As mayor, I am an international symbol. Can you deny that to Africa?

- Marion Barry

I read a funny story about how the Republicans freed the slaves. The Republicans are the ones who created slavery by law in the 1600's. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves and he was not a Republican.

- Marion Barry

What dragged me down was not being mayor - it was insecurity, the need to be accepted by everyone, the pleasure syndrome. That's what brought me down.

- Marion Barry

Love is very fleeting with me. I don't know why.

- Marion Barry

I am clearly more popular than Reagan. I am in my third term. Where's Reagan? Gone after two! Defeated by George Bush and Michael Dukakis no less.

- Marion Barry

People have criticised me because my security detail is larger than the president's. But you must ask yourself: are there more people who want to kill me than who want to kill the president? I can assure you there are.

- Marion Barry

White folks may let you in their country clubs to play golf, invite you out to dinner, take you out to play tennis, but when it comes to dividing up the money, that's a whole 'nother story.

- Marion Barry

The brave men who died in Vietnam, more than 100% of which were black, were the ultimate sacrifice.

- Marion Barry

First, it was not a strip bar, it was an erotic club. And second, what can I say? I'm a night owl.

- Marion Barry

Aside from the murders, DC has one of the lowest crime rates in the country.

- Marion Barry

In Washington, I have worked hard for the people, and I've been loved by the people.

- Marion Barry

Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country.

- Marion Barry

Washington, D.C., had never seen my style of politics.

- Marion Barry

Who can better help our city recover than someone who himself has gone through recovery?

- Marion Barry

People blame me because these water mains break, but I ask you, if the water mains didn't break, would it be my responsibility to fix them then?

- Marion Barry

I promise you a police car on every sidewalk.

- Marion Barry

The laws in this city are clearly racist. All laws are racist. The law of gravity is racist.

- Marion Barry

I like boxing.

- Marion Barry

What right does Congress have to go around making laws just because they deem it necessary?

- Marion Barry

My greatest work comes in the community.

- Marion Barry

I have to admit I didn't do as much as I should have back when I was mayor, but now we're getting it done. It's not where you've been but where you're going.

- Marion Barry