Jody Williams Quotations

When I was a kid I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up, but I did know what I didn't want to do. I didn't want to grow up, have 2.2 kids, get married, the whole white picket fence thing.

Since World War II, most of the conflicts in the world have been internal conflicts. The weapon of choice in those wars has all too often been landmines - to such a degree that what we find today are tens of millions of landmines contaminating approximately 70 countries around the world.

One of our goals is to build a sense of community within the group of first- and second-year teachers that are new to the district in Ottumwa, and the other is to help orientate those teachers to our community. The bus tour accomplishes both of those goals,

No one anywhere in the (U.S.) government is standing up and asking "are we threatening world peace?

No one anywhere in the (U.S.) government is standing up and asking ""are we threatening world peace?

Guns go home with the soldiers, but landmines are designed to kill - mindlessly, out of control, for years.

Landmines distinguish themselves because once they have been sown, once the soldier walks away from the weapon, the landmine cannot tell the difference between a soldier or a civilian - a woman, a child, a grandmother going out to collect firewood to make the family meal.

Landmines are different from other conventional weapons. When a war is over, the landmines stay in the ground and continue to kill - for decades.

Our challenge as educators is to make sure children are fed, feel safe, and basic needs are met. Our job is to make it so they're not thinking of survival and can use their energy and attention to learn,

It does not mean that there are not major countries that have not stayed outside the treaty, including our own -- the United States. But we believe that we will eventually get every nation in the world on board ... because we keep monitoring their activities ... and we keep the pressure on them every day.

Most likely the coat was sold for milk or bread or helped a neighbor,

We are moving in the right direction. It does not mean we don't have great challenges before us.

Even soldiers from the Vietnam War had said that when they were fighting in that war, the landmine was just one of any number of weapons to use in the fighting. It wasn't until they began to think about the aftermath and the legacy of landmines that they recognized the long-term, indiscriminate impact of the weapon.

I've repeatedly said that Bill Clinton is neither a leader nor a statesman and I'll say it again, ... I hope this prize will help change his mind.

Although we are making great strides in our work to rid the world of this weapon, we need to do more.

The rest of the world did not go away because New York was attacked. There are many many problems in the world we need to address, not just that one.

The rest of the time is up to the rest of us,

The landmine is eternally prepared to take victims. In common parlance, it is the perfect soldier, the 'eternal sentry.' The war ends, the landmine goes on killing.

If maintenance is deferred, these buildings and structures decay to the point that major capital outlay is required.

In poverty, people are possessions. In the middle class, possessions means things,

By the late 1980s, there was the beginning of awareness about a significant global landmine problem, and small steps were being taken to try to deal with the problem.

I decided one night after working with this one foster baby who kept pulling his feed tube out of his nose, I decided to use my two degrees in fashion design and make an outfit that would stop him from pulling these tubes out. That's how it began. There are so many other parents out there that could benefit from something like this.

I believe in both my right and my responsibility to work to create a world that doesn't glorify violence and war but where we seek different solutions to our common problems.

This victory is in large part due to the Internet... For the first time, a coalition of NGOs has had an influence on the security of the entire world without being a superpower.

Together we have given the world the possibility of one day living on a truly mine-free planet.

Emotion without action is irrelevant.

It's sort of easy to make a challenge. It's very hard to put the full fate of your government behind the challenge and make it happen. That's real leadership.

For me, the difference between an ‘ordinary’ and an ‘extraordinary’ person is not the title that person might have, but what they do to make the world a better place for us all.

If you really want to make a change, just get up off your ass and do it.

Go beyond tolerance to acceptance.

I think there’s a mythology that if you want to change the world, you have to be sainted, like Mother Teresa or Nelson Mandela or Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Ordinary people with lives that go up and down and around in circles can still contribute to change.

Militarists say that to gain peace we must prepare for war. I think we get what we prepare for. If we want a world where peace is valued, we must teach ourselves to believe that peace is not a ‘utopian vision’ but a real responsibility that must be worked for each and every day in small and large ways. Any one of us can contribute to building a world where peace and justice prevail.

The landmine cannot tell the difference between a soldier or a civilian - a woman, a child, a grandmother going out to collect firewood to make the family meal... once peace is declared the landmine does not recognize that peace. The landmine is eternally prepared to take victims.

I believe that worrying about the problems plaguing our planet without taking steps to confront them is absolutely irrelevant. The only thing that changes this world is taking action.

Worrying about a problem is not a strategy for change.

What separates an ordinary woman from an extraordinary one? The belief that she is ordinary.

What I consider to be peace [is] a sustainable peace in which the majority of people on this planet have access to enough resources to live dignified lives.

We really are at the crossroads and [disarmament] will happen if people of goodwill all over the world raise their voices and take action to let the governments of the world know that’s what they want.