Famous Robert Kennedy Quotations

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"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."
by Robert Francis Kennedy
"Any fact that needs to be disclosed should be put out now or as quickly as possible, because otherwise ... the bleeding will not end."
by Robert Francis Kennedy
"Each time someone 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."
by Robert F. Kennedy
"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, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, these ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."
by Robert Francis Kennedy
"Few men 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 which yields most painfully to change."
by Robert F. Kennedy
"High office teaches decision making, not substance. It consumes intellectual capital it does not create it. Most high officials leave office with the perceptions and insights with which they entered they learn how to make decisions but not what decisions to make."
by Robert Francis Kennedy
"I think that the Communist Party as a political organization is of no danger to the United States. It has no following and has been disregarded by the American people for many, many years."
by Robert F. Kennedy
"I thought they'd get one of us, but Jack, after all he's been through, never worried about it ... I thought it would be me."
by Robert Francis Kennedy
"I've talked to students from Ivy League colleges who don't know their professors well enough to ask for a letter of recommendation. That doesn't happen at UMaine. Our faculty are genuine and sincere in their care for the students."
by Robert F. Kennedy
"If I should ever be captured, I want no negotiation-and if I should request a negotiation from captivity they should consider that a sign of duress."
by Robert Francis Kennedy
"In crises the most daring course is often safest."
by Robert Francis Kennedy
"It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. 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."
by Robert F. Kennedy
"It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. 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 that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."
by Robert F. Kennedy
"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly."
by Robert Francis Kennedy
"Our future may lie beyond our vision, but it is not completely beyond our control. It is the shaping impulse of America that neither fate nor nature nor the irresistible tides of history, but the work of our own hands, matched to reason and principle, that will determine our destiny. There is pride in that, even arrogance, but there is also experience and truth. In any event, it is the only way we can live."
by Robert F. Kennedy
"Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator. And change has its enemies."
by Robert F. Kennedy
"Some men see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say 'Why not?'"
by Robert F. Kennedy
"Some men see things as they are and say why I dream things that never were and say Why not"
by Robert Francis Kennedy
"Some men see things as they are and ask, 'why' I dream things that never were and ask, 'why not'NB This quote is a paraphrase from a similar quote by G. B. Shaw."
by Robert Francis Kennedy
"The American temptation is to believe that foreign policy is a subdivision of psychiatry."
by Robert Francis Kennedy
"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."
by Robert Francis Kennedy
"The problem of power is how to achieve its responsible use rather than its irresponsible and indulgent use - of how to get men of power to live for the public rather than off the public."
by Robert F. Kennedy
"The statesman's duty is to bridge the gap between his nation's experience and his vision."
by Robert Francis Kennedy
"There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?"
by Robert Francis Kennedy, 1968 presidential campaign
"There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not"
by Robert Francis Kennedy
"There hasn't been a nuclear plant proposed since 1973 ... and the reason for it is because it is just not economical, ... It still requires huge government subsidies to make it work and we still don't know what we are going to do with the waste for the next thousand years."
by Robert F. Kennedy
"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."
by Robert Kennedy
"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."
by Robert F. Kennedy
"Whatever must happen ultimately should happen immediately."
by Robert Francis Kennedy
"Whenever men take the law into their own hands, the loser is the law. And when the law loses, freedom languishes."
by Robert Francis Kennedy
"You can't make war in the Middle East without Egypt and you can't make peace without Syria."
by Robert Francis Kennedy
"'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, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, these ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.'"
by Robert F. Kennedy
"Let no one be discouraged by the belief there is nothing one person can do against the enormous array of the world's ills, misery, ignorance, and violence. 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 a generation."
by Kennedy. Robert F.
"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."
by Robert Francis Kennedy
"Ultimately, America's answer to the intolerant man is diversity, the very diversity which our heritage of religious freedom has inspired."
by Robert Francis Kennedy
"It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. 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 injustice."
by Robert Francis Kennedy
"What's nice about my dating life is that I don't have to leave my house. All I have to do is read the paper: I'm marrying Richard Gere, dating Daniel Day-Lewis, parading around with John F. Kennedy, Jr., and even Robert De Niro was in there for a day."
by Julia Roberts
"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly"
by Robert Kennedy
"Don't get mad, get even."
by Robert F. Kennedy
"Some men see things as they are and say 'why?'. I dream things that never were and say 'why not?'."
by Bobby (Robert?) Kennedy
"The free way of life proposes ends, but it does not prescribe means."
by Robert F. Kennedy


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