Latest Van Jones Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• In the U.S., African- Americans, no matter what we do - when we sit in, when we freedom ride, when we kneel in, whatever it is, the initial response from the public tends to be overwhelmingly negative, because basically we're kind of raining on folks' parades. As time goes on, the Muhammad Ali's and all the people that raised those issues, they then become heroes later when people reflect on the courage they showed and the issues that they raised. And Donald Trump is in danger of being a more and more reviled figure as the years go on.

  Van Jones

  Rain, Hero, People

  Source: www.realclearpolitics.com

• Donald Trump never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Here's an issue where his concern is this line with public opinion, but the way he deals with it is actually puts him in a super minority in terms of people who are able to somehow bring himself to support his language and demeanor.

  Van Jones

  Opportunity, People, Support

  Source: www.realclearpolitics.com

• It's a tremendous challenge now: to make sure the green economy is big enough that there is enough labor demand that people who've been thrown out of work can be re-employed AND people who are new to the workforce can be employed. And that is going to be very difficult.

  Van Jones

  People, Challenges, Enough

  Source: therumpus.net

• I think that for those of us who come from oppressed backgrounds and who do our work in marginalized communities, recovering our innocence is one of the most important acts of self-liberation and de-colonization. Not letting the requirement that we adapt to impossible circumstances and unconscionable crimes leave us shackled to the kind of cynicism and armor such that we can't breathe and laugh and magnetize to ourselves all the genius and love and support that we need to transform the situation. That's probably the biggest challenge, is to recover our innocence.

  Van Jones

  Thinking, Laughing, Support

  Source: therumpus.net

• The reality is if you take any three people and look at their cellphones or blackberries and facebook pages, you can get to almost everywhere in the country, because we're networked together in a way that is incredibly powerful.

  Van Jones

  Country, Powerful, Reality

  Source: therumpus.net

• I think parenting is one of the most important jobs, because you can hit two or three generations with the values in your house and the traditions you establish. But I don't think I'm very good at it, and I don't know anybody who thinks they're very good at it. Probably almost everyone gets an A in grandparenting, but in parenting, if you get a B- you're doing pretty good.

  Van Jones

  Thinking, Grandparent, House

  Source: therumpus.net

• I think the most important thing is discovering an idea that moves you, and then letting people who are moved by that idea find each other, and work together. A lot of times people focus on the technical side-"oh, I've got to take a class on non-profit development." Too few people allow themselves to think outside the box with regard to their issue areas.

  Van Jones

  Moving, Thinking, People

  Source: therumpus.net

• We need to think bigger, dream bigger, and get bigger.

  Van Jones

  Dream, Thinking, Think Big

  Source: therumpus.net

• The people who seem to us to be a very tiny elite, far off and mysterious, actually live in a fairly big world. The way they look at the planet is like they're looking at an index card covered in supply routes. We protestors had imagined ourselves this huge threat. But we were at best bemusing. To the extent that the people inside did care, it was almost like we were paying them a compliment-it reinforced their sense of power.

  Van Jones

  People, World, Care

  Source: therumpus.net

• I used to go to all the environmental conferences when I wasn't an invited speaker. I was just somebody in the back taking a lot of notes. It was when I was least visible that I came up with the most cool stuff. Now, because I don't get to be Clark Kent, I feel like my learning curve is slowing way down. I'm always afraid the conversation will move on and I'll be up at the front of the room saying last year's speech.

  Van Jones

  Moving, Environmental, Speakers

  Source: therumpus.net

• I do feel kind of like I have a split identity in that there's Van Jones, who has this big public role and tries to inspire millions of people to do new stuff together. And then there's just me: a pretty quiet, shy, retiring person.

  Van Jones

  People, Inspire, Trying

  Source: therumpus.net

• I am not, in fact, a superhero. Just a humble, mild-mannered civil rights attorney.

  Van Jones

  Humble, Superhero, Civil Rights

  Source: therumpus.net

• I think it would be good to get somebody a job. Right now we're in a bubble of green rhetoric and a bowl of actual green investment and job creation. So my goal for next year is to move from inspiration to implementation on this stuff.

  Van Jones

  Moving, Inspiration, Thinking

  Source: therumpus.net

• We're now moving into a stage where the green economy isn't just going to be the place for people to spend money. It's going to become a place where a lot more people can earn money, and also save more money. These kind of solutions require collective action and government action. So as an advocate for government change, even somebody like me gets to have a role.

  Van Jones

  Moving, People, Action

  Source: therumpus.net

• Hatred of the people who hate you, that is the opposite of being the enemy. I want to fight fire with water wherever I can.

  Van Jones

  Hate, Fighting, Fire

  Source: pen.org

• If I didn't have that deep grounding, it would be very easy for me to just be someone who is consumed with anger and hatred. And that would be Trump's great victory: to turn us into replicas of him, just on the other side of a wall screen. I refuse to let me or my family or my movement or my friends be turned into the opposite of Trump. I want to be the antidote for Trump.

  Van Jones

  Wall, Opposites, Hatred

  Source: pen.org

• Every person with a pulse has a responsibility to stand in solidarity with the Muslim community that is on the front lines fighting against groups like ISIS, both militarily and ideologically, every day, and now on the front line of standing up for civil liberties and civil rights to make America great. [They] are the best insurance for the safety of all Americans.

  Van Jones

  Responsibility, Fighting, America

  Source: pen.org

• It is the Muslim community that has the best chance of stopping and checking and pushing back on people who are trying to politicize their own faith. So this attack on Islam is an attack on a great faith. It undermines the people who are trying to rescue this faith from these horrible people. It endangers every human being on earth because it accelerates the radicalization of some and emboldens the worst elements of that faith. So this fight is a fight I think that we have to take on.

  Van Jones

  Fighting, Thinking, People

  Source: pen.org

• I think the Muslim community is now being asked to bear an unfair burden to save a great faith from the fundamentalists and a great nation from bigotry.

  Van Jones

  Thinking, Community, Bears

  Source: pen.org

• I think the African American community, the Latino community, the Native American communities have borne an unfair burden in the last century, and continue to.

  Van Jones

  Native American, Thinking, Community

  Source: pen.org

• God chooses community sometimes to bear an unfair burden to force us to rise to the next level of consciousness and understanding.

  Van Jones

  Community, Understanding, Next Level

  Source: pen.org

• I think that America could not become America until it dealt with the disenfranchisement of women and African Americans in the last century. It had to. America could not become America until it dealt with that. And did it deal with it perfectly? No. But it had to confront it.

  Van Jones

  Thinking, America, Lasts

  Source: pen.org

• America cannot be America in the new century until it deals with these new questions of gender, including the trans issues, and the questions around faith and Islam.

  Van Jones

  America, Issues, Islam

  Source: pen.org

• For me, I think that the struggle around how to deal with Islam in the United States is the defining moral struggle of this half of the new century.

  Van Jones

  Struggle, Thinking, Islam

  Source: pen.org

• What I saw during the Hillary Clinton campaign [2016] with data dummies who were more concerned with polls than people, they were more concerned with donors than voters. And it wasn't a lot of heart felt on that campaign and I think it left us vulnerable.

  Van Jones

  Heart, Thinking, Data

  Source: pen.org