Quotes by Vernon Jordan

• September 11 stands on its own as a terrible tragedy.
• What I know about this world is that white people will take care of themselves. And what I have learned is that if you are where they are on an equal basis, they cannot take care of themselves without taking care of you.
• You have to be careful how you're using the word boycott.
• The last job I applied for was to be a bus driver for the Chicago Transit Authority in 1957.
• Terrorism is not new to black people.
• I'm here because I stand on many, many shoulders, and that's true of every black person I know who has achieved.
• I had a sense of what leadership meant and what it could do for you. So am I surprised that I am sitting up here on the 62nd floor of Rockefeller Plaza? No.
• Every company, every boardroom in which I sit, has a plan, and they have objectives, goals, and a process. And to make it work, the pressure and incentive have to come from the top.
• But there will come a time and a place to give back, and each individual will recognize that time and place.
• A lot of companies make diversity a part of the performance goals against which an executive gets paid. Just as you have to make a certain sales number, you have to make a diversity number to get your bonus.
• My mother was the president of the PTA at every school I attended.