Quotations from Robert F. Kennedy, 1925-1968
- Some men see things as they are and say, "Why?" I dream of things that never were and say, "Why not?"
Robert F. Kennedy, after George Bernard Shaw- What is objectionable, what is dangerous about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents.
- The free way of life proposes ends, but it does not prescribe means.
- Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is equally true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on.
- One fifth of the people are against everything all the time.
- Few will have the greatness to bend history; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.
Day of Affirmation Address, University of Capetown, South Africa, June 6, 1966- Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
Day of Affirmation Address, University of Capetown, South Africa, June 6, 1966- This world demands the qualities of youth: not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease.
Day of Affirmation Address, University of Capetown, South Africa, June 6, 1966- Democracy is no easy form of government. Few nations have been able to sustain it. For it requires that we take the chances of freedom; that the liberating play of reason be brought to bear on events filled with passion; that dissent be allowed to make its appeal for acceptance; that men chance error in their search for the truth.
Statement on Vietnam, February 19, 1966- The sharpest criticism often goes hand in hand with the deepest idealism and love of country.
Address, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, February 24, 1967- The future is not a gift: it is an achievement. Every generation helps make its own future. This is the essential challenge of the present.
Address, Seattle World's Fair, August 7, 1962- The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of bold projects and new ideas. Rather, it will belong to those who can blend passion, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the great enterprises and ideals of American society.
Address, University of California at Berkeley, October 22, 1966- I believe that, as long as there is plenty, poverty is evil.
Speech, Athens, Georgia, May 6, 1961- All great questions must be raised by great voices, and the greatest voice is the voice of the people - speaking out - in prose, or painting or poetry or music; speaking out - in homes and halls, streets and farms, courts and cafes - let that voice speak and the stillness you hear will be the gratitude of mankind.
Address, New York City, January 22, 1963
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