John Prendergast Quotes

#1. Wars can be resolved. Human rights atrocities can be stopped. We just have to apply the right policies.

John Prendergast

#2. You couldn't catch a mouse if leaped in between your paws!

Erin Hunter

#3. Look well to the characters and qualifications of those you elect and raise to office and places of trust.

Matthias B. Tallmadge

#4. At the present time he was a man of perhaps forty-five years of age, short and heavy-set, with a bullet-shaped head that rested on broad, ape-like shoulders. His thick torso and bulging paunch were supported by a pair of spindly legs that contrasted oddly with the upper portions of his beefy body.

H.P. Lovecraft

#5. In tennis, there is the forehand, the backhand, the overhead smash and the drop volley, all with a different grip.

John Updike

#6. May you and I run in such a way to receive the prize of gold when we run the race of passionate faith ...

Angela Thomas

#7. On Sunday, I think the most important thing for me is to just turn my brain off. The idea of not trying is the key, because that's where you're relaxed enough to let your brain make new connections.

Rebecca Stead

#8. What we (U.S.) have done, is undertaken diplomacy through public assertions that tend to alienate everyone.

John Prendergast

#9. The biggest road block to action on genocide and other human rights crimes is ignorance. Most people just don't know that such things are happening, and often, if they have a vague idea they are happening, there is a feeling that there is nothing that can be done to stop these crimes.

John Prendergast

#10. In human rights and peacemaking, it's really about having a solid concrete goal - the reduction of human suffering somewhere in the world - and then doing what is required to get that goal achieved.

John Prendergast

#11. At home, I have a wife, fortunately, and my children are all grown, and I have many grandchildren. I spend weekends with my grandchildren; I adore them.

I.M. Pei

#12. All South Sudanese deserve consistent and unimpeded humanitarian assistance, regardless of if they live in areas held by rebel or government forces.

John Prendergast

#13. Bruce's band is so different from the Grateful Dead; there's no lead guitar player, for one thing.

Phil Lesh

#14. Americans' perceptions of Africa remain rooted in troubling stereotypes of helplessness and perpetual crisis.

John Prendergast

#15. There isn't one celebrity I've worked with who doesn't have major doubts about what impact they are having. I am glad when they question the impact, because it shows they are based firmly in the reality that peacemaking isn't the same as changing a streetlight or distributing mosquito nets.

John Prendergast

#16. 'Unlikely Brothers' talks about the importance of citizen action and shows why and how we can make a difference.

John Prendergast

#17. Africa is going through its own historical process of state formation just as Europe and America did. It is just happening much later than other continents because of the interruption of Africa's own historical development by the colonization of Africa by Europe.

John Prendergast

#18. When Marvel approached me about possibly bringing back a She-Hulk solo series, a few touchstones for a take immediately popped into my head - make her an attorney. Make her charming and fun, not weighed down by the various things life will throw at her. Give her a vibrant social life.

Charles Soule

#19. There is also a beast, a beast of strange dimensions. He has the head of a horse and the body of a man who needs a lot of attention. He represents me in college: I was a dork-ataur.

Demetri Martin

#20. Africans are on the front lines of humanitarian efforts, distributing life-saving aid in dangerous environments. Africans comprise the vast majority of peacekeepers in civil conflict on that continent. Africans for the most part lead peace negotiations for the wars being fought in Africa.

John Prendergast

#21. It turns out, all the studies show you invest a little time in another person's life, often a younger person, and all of us have that capacity to do it, just an hour a week, an hour every couple of weeks, and you can make a tremendous difference in a kid's life over their lifetime.

John Prendergast

#22. Through my years of working on war and peace in Africa, I have learned that there are solutions to some of the greatest human rights challenges, and we all can be a part of those solutions.

John Prendergast

#23. When I was 19 years old, I hitchhiked across the country to San Francisco.

John Prendergast

#24. When there are no gas chambers, no barbed wire, and no concentration camps, many don't recognize the perpetration of new genocides and other targeted mass atrocity crimes because they may not look the same.

John Prendergast

#25. I see courage everywhere I go in Africa. Fearless human rights activists in Darfur. Women peace advocates in eastern Congo. Former child soldiers in Northern Uganda who now are helping other former child soldiers return to civilian life.

John Prendergast

#26. I've had a number of near misses during my travels that in retrospect seem of greater concern than they did at the time. I guess that is what happens with age.

John Prendergast

#27. Have you no respect for the past? For what was thought and believed by your foremothers?"
"Why, no," she said. "Why should we? They are all gone. They knew less than we do. If we are not beyond them, we are unworthy of them - and unworthy of the children who must go beyond us.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

#28. Most Americans may not realize that the news they consume is driven in part by the media mantra, 'if it bleeds, it leads.'

John Prendergast

#29. I'm probably a little too impatient with ensuring that the networks and organizations I'm part of are doing the right thing, and pushing the right thing the right way.

John Prendergast

#30. Slavery, racism, sexism, and other forms of bigotry, subordination, and human rights abuse transform and adapt with the times.

John Prendergast

#31. If you repress rather than unlock the potential of large groups of Americans, what's that going to do to our economy? It's going to contract, not expand.

John Prendergast

#32. I spent a lot of time with President Mandela supporting his efforts in the peace process in Burundi. The thing that impressed me the most was his humility.

John Prendergast

#33. There is a long and successful tradition of popular movements in the U.S. and elsewhere having an impact on crises in forgotten places.

John Prendergast