Vernon Jordan Quotations

The last job I applied for was to be a bus driver for the Chicago Transit Authority in 1957.

I'm here because I stand on many, many shoulders, and that's true of every black person I know who has achieved.

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.

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.

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.

But there will come a time and a place to give back, and each individual will recognize that time and place.

You have to be careful how you're using the word boycott.

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.

September 11 stands on its own as a terrible tragedy.

My mother was the president of the PTA at every school I attended.

Where institutions in corporate America have, in fact, committed, you see the results. And where there is no commitment, the results are bad.

I want to say absolutely and unequivocally that Ms. Lewinsky told me in no uncertain terms that she did not have a sexual relationship with the president. At no time did I ever say, suggest or intimate to her that she should lie.

You're in love, that's what your problem is.

Terrorism is not new to black people.

What I know about this world is 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 are where you are today because you stand on somebody's shoulders. And wherever you are heading, you cannot get there by yourself. If you stand on the shoulders of others, you have a reciprocal responsibility to live your life so that others may stand on your shoulders. It's the quid pro quo of life. We exist temporarily through what we take, but we live forever through what we give