Whenever men take the law into their own hands, the loser is the law. And when the law loses, freedom languishes.
—Robert F. Kennedy
Topics: Lawyers, Freedom, Law
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 ideals of American society.
—Robert F. Kennedy
Topics: Future
Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.
—Robert F. Kennedy
Topics: Failure
Don’t get mad, get even.
—Robert F. Kennedy
Topics: Revenge
Your life is the sum result of all the choices you make, both consciously and unconsciously. If you can control the process of choosing, you can take control of all aspects of your life. You can find the freedom that comes from being in charge of yourself.
—Robert F. Kennedy
Topics: Freedom
We should, I believe, beware of the pitfalls described by Taine: ‘Imagine a man who sets out on a voyage equipped with a pair of spectacles that magnify things to an extraordinary degree. A hair on his hand, a spot on the tablecloth, the shifting fold of a coat, all will attract his attention; at this rate, he will not go far, he will spend his day taking six steps and will never get out of his room.’ We have to get out of this room.
—Robert F. Kennedy
Topics: Ambition
A desire to be in charge of our own lives, a need for control, is born in each of us. It is essential to our mental health, and our success, that we take control.
—Robert F. Kennedy
Topics: Being True to Yourself
Some believe there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world’s ills—against misery, against ignorance, or injustice and violence. Yet many of the world’s great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant reformation, a young general extended an empire from Macedonia to the borders of the earth, and a young woman reclaimed the territory of France. It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the World, and 32 year old Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal. ‘Give me a place to stand,’ said Archimedes, ‘and I will move the world.’ These men moved the world, and so can we all.
—Robert F. Kennedy
Topics: Earth, Purpose, Believe, Vision
Our Gross National Product now is over 800 billion dollars a year.
But that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage, … special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them, … the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl, … napalm, … nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities, … the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.
Yet the Gross National Product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learnings, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country.
It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud to be Americans.
—Robert F. Kennedy
Topics: America
It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a (person) 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.
—Robert F. Kennedy
If any man claims the Negro should be content … let him say he would willingly change the color of his skin and go to live in the Negro section of a large city. Then and only then has he a right to such a claim.
—Robert F. Kennedy
Topics: Equality
Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator. And change has its enemies.
—Robert F. Kennedy
Topics: Change
Fear not the path of Truth for the lack of People walking on it.
—Robert F. Kennedy
It is not enough to understand, or to see clearly. The future will be shaped in the arena of human activity, by those willing to commit their minds and their bodies to the task.
—Robert F. Kennedy
Topics: Future
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.
—Robert F. Kennedy
Topics: Tolerance
Few are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change.
—Robert F. Kennedy
Topics: Bravery, Courage
We in Government have begun to recognize the critical work which must be done at all levels—local, State and Federal—in ending the pollution of our waters
—Robert F. Kennedy
Topics: Water
Goethe tells us in his greatest poem that Faust lost the liberty of his soul when he said to the passing moment, ‘Stay, thou art so fair.’
—Robert F. Kennedy
Topics: Ambition
Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not.
—Robert F. Kennedy
The sharpest criticism often goes hand in hand with the deepest idealism and love of country.
—Robert F. Kennedy
Ultimately, America’s answer to the intolerant man is diversity, the very diversity which our heritage of religious freedom has inspired.
—Robert F. Kennedy
Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events … it is from numberless acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped.
—Robert F. Kennedy
Topics: Belief, Age
The big threat to America is the way we react to terrorism by throwing away what everybody values about our country—a commitment to human rights. America is a great nation because we are a good nation. When we stop being a good nation, we stop being great.
—Robert F. Kennedy
Topics: Terrorism
Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; 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.
—Robert F. Kennedy
Topics: History, Action
What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black.
—Robert F. Kennedy
Topics: Compassion
Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
—Robert F. Kennedy
Topics: Achievement, Achieving, Accomplishment, Achieve, Adventure, Failure, One liners, Great, Success & Failure, Fail, Risk, Success
Laws can embody standards; governments can enforce laws—but the final task is not a task for government. It is a task for each and every one of us. Every time we turn our heads the other way when we see the law flouted—when we tolerate what we know to be wrong—when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy, or too frightened—when we fail to speak up and speak out—we strike a blow against freedom and decency and justice.
—Robert F. Kennedy
Topics: Apathy
The free way of life proposes ends, but it does not prescribe means.
—Robert F. Kennedy
Topics: Freedom
One-fifth of the people are against everything all the time.
—Robert F. Kennedy
Topics: Opposition, Dissent
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- John F. Kennedy American Head of State
- Stewart Udall American Politician
- Elliot Richardson American Lawyer
- Rudy Giuliani American Politician
- Robert G. Ingersoll American Lawyer, Orator, Agnostic
- Caroline Kennedy American Attorney, Diplomat
- William Bennett American Politician
- Lyndon B. Johnson American Head of State
- Horace Greeley American Journalist
- Hugo Black American Politician
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