Coleman Young - Quotes

Quotes

Coleman Young was known for his blunt statements, frequently using profanity:

"I'm smiling all the time. That doesn't mean a God damned thing except I think people who go around solemn-faced and quoting the Bible are full of shit."

"Swearing is an art form. You can express yourself much more exactly, much more succinctly, with properly used curse words."

Coleman Young to Detroit journalists via closed-circuit television from Hawaii: "Aloha, Mother Fuckers!"

"Racism is like high blood pressure—the person who has it doesn’t know he has it until he drops over with a God damned stroke. There are no symptoms of racism. The victim of racism is in a much better position to tell you whether or not you’re a racist than you are."

"I issue a warning to all those pushers, to all rip-off artists, to all muggers: It’s time to leave Detroit; hit Eight Mile Road! And I don’t give a damn if they are black or white, or if they wear Superfly suits or blue uniforms with silver badges. Hit the road."

"You can't look forward and backward at the same time."

"We need to dream big dreams, propose grandiose means if we are to recapture the excitement, the vibrancy, and pride we once had."

"We don't need no Goddamn Greenpeace!" (In response to activists suspended from the smoke stacks of a new incinerator that was about to be put into operation.)

"There is no brilliant single stroke that is going to transform the water into wine or straw into gold."

"I've learned over a period of years there are setbacks when you come up against the immovable object; sometimes the object doesn't move."

"Boogien Mansion" (Repeated reference to city of Detroit's official mayoral residence the Manoogian Mansion)

"I don't know nothing about no God Damned Krugerrands."