Robert F. Kennedy: Trending quotes (page 3)

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“Too often we honor swagger and bluster and wielders of force; too often we excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of others.”

Robert F. Kennedy

On the Mindless Menace of Violence (1968)
Context: Too often we honor swagger and bluster and wielders of force; too often we excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of others. Some Americans who preach non-violence abroad fail to practice it here at home. Some who accuse others of inciting riots have by their own conduct invited them. Some look for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is clear: violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.

Dreams

“Few will have the greatness to bend history, but each of us can work to change a small portion of the events, and then the total — all of these acts — will be written in the history of this generation.”

Robert F. Kennedy

Day of Affirmation Address (1966)
Variant: Few will have the greatness to bend history, but each of us can work to change a small portion of the events, and then the total — all of these acts — will be written in the history of this generation.

History , Change

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm only going to talk to you just for a minute or so this evening, because I have some very sad news for all of you, and, I think, sad news for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world; and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee.”

Robert F. Kennedy

Speech on the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1968)

Love , People , World , Sadness

“I called him because it made me so damned angry to think of that bastard sentencing a citizen for four months of hard labor for a minor traffic offense and screwing up my brother's campaign and making our country look ridiculous before the world.”

Robert F. Kennedy

On calling Judge Oscar Mitchell for sentencing Martin Luther King, Jr., as quoted in Robert Kennedy: Brother Protector (2000), p. 173

World , Thinking , Country

“I think that we could agree on what kind of a world we would all want to build. it would be a world of independent nations, moving toward international community, each of which protected and respected the basic human freedoms. It would be a world which demanded of each government that it accept its responsibility to insure social justice. It would be a world of constantly accelerating economic progress — not material welfare as an end in itself, but as a means to liberate the capacity of every human being to pursue his talents and to pursue his hopes. It would, in short, be a world that we would be proud to have built.”

Robert F. Kennedy

Day of Affirmation Address (1966)

World , Justice , Hope , Communication

“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.”

Robert F. Kennedy book The Pursuit of Justice

"I Remember, I Believe," The Pursuit of Justice (1964)

Men , Problem

“I thought they'd get one of us, but Jack, after all he'd been through, never worried about it…. I thought it would be me.”

Robert F. Kennedy

After hearing that his brother John F. Kennedy had been assassinated in Dallas, TX, on 22 November 1963, as reported https://books.google.com/books?id=nsOlkJ7yVhMC&q=I+thought+they%27d+get+one+of+us%2C+but+Jack%2C+after+all+he%27s+been+through%2C+never+worried+about+it+I+thought+it+would+be+me.#v=snippet&q=%22I%20thought%20they%27d%20get%20one%20of%20us%22%20%22but%20Jack%2C%20after%20all%20he%E2%80%99d%20been%20through%2C%20never%20worried%20about%20it....%20I%20thought%20it%20would%20be%20me.%22&f=false by Ed Guthman in Peter Collier & David Horowitz's The Kennedys: An American Drama https://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=intitle:%22The+Kennedys%22+inauthor:%22David+Horowitz%22+inauthor:%22Peter+Collier%22&num=50 (1984), ISBN 1893554317, p. 249

“Hand in hand with freedom of speech goes the power to be heard, to share in the decisions of government which shape men's lives. Everything that makes man's life worthwhile — family, work, education, a place to rear one's children and a place to rest one's head — all this depends on the decisions of government; all can be swept away by a government which does not heed the demands of its people, and I mean all of its people. Therefore, the essential humanity of men can be protected and preserved only where government must answer — not just to the wealthy, not just to those of a particular religion, or a particular race, but to all its people.
And even government by the consent of the governed, as in our own Constitution, must be limited in its power to act against its people; so that there may be no interference with the right to worship, or with the security of the home; no arbitrary imposition of pains or penalties by officials high or low; no restrictions on the freedom of men to seek education or work or opportunity of any kind, so that each man may become all he is capable of becoming.
These are the sacred rights of Western society.”

Robert F. Kennedy

Day of Affirmation Address (1966)

Life , Men , Pain , Children

“Every dictatorship has ultimately strangled in the web of repression it wove for its people, making mistakes that could not be corrected because criticism was prohibited.”

Robert F. Kennedy

"Value of Dissent" speech Nashville, Tennessee (21 March 1968)

People

“One-fifth of the people are against everything all the time.”

Robert F. Kennedy

Address at the University of Pennsylvania (6 May 1964), quoted in [http://www.thisdayinquotes.com/2011/05/about-one-fifth-of-people-are-against.html The Philadelphia Inquirer (7 May 1964)

People , Time

“When there were periods of crisis, you stood beside him. When there were periods of happiness, you laughed with him. And when there were periods of sorrow, you comforted him.”

Robert F. Kennedy

Tribute to John F. Kennedy http://www.rfkmemorial.org/lifevision/tributetojfkatthednc/, 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City (27 August 1964)

Happiness

“I expect one of the prices we pay for democracy is there are going to be differences. We pay a price but we get something very important in return.”

Robert F. Kennedy

Speaking on his support for President Johnson in the upcoming presidential election (17 March 1967), as quoted in "I'll Campaign For Johnson," Says Kennedy" http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1967/03/18/page/39/article/ill-campaign-for-johnson-says-kennedy

Democracy

“In the words of the old saying, 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.”

Robert F. Kennedy book The Pursuit of Justice

The Pursuit of Justice http://books.google.com/books?id=o3mHAAAAMAAJ&q="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" pt. 3, "Eradicating Free Enterprise in Organized Crime," (1964)
Alexander Lacassange https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Lacassagne Attribution of original quote

Law , Communication

“Ultimately, America's answer to the intolerant man is diversity, the very diversity which our heritage of religious freedom has inspired.”

Robert F. Kennedy

"Extremism, Left and Right," pt. 3, (1964)

Freedom

“For there is another kind of violence, slower but just as deadly destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions; indifference and inaction and slow decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. This is the slow destruction of a child by hunger, and schools without books and homes without heat in the winter. This is the breaking of a man's spirit by denying him the chance to stand as a father and as a man among other men. And this too afflicts us all.”

Robert F. Kennedy

On the Mindless Menace of Violence (1968)

Men , Hunger , Books , School

“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 resistance.”

Robert F. Kennedy

Inscribed on the Robert F. Kennedy gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery
Day of Affirmation Address (1966)

Hope , History , Courage , Time

“He has called on the best that was in us. There was no such thing as half-trying. Whether it was running a race or catching a football, competing in school—we were to try. And we were to try harder than anyone else. We might not be the best, and none of us were, but we were to make the effort to be the best. "After you have done the best you can", he used to say, "the hell with it."”

Robert F. Kennedy

Tribute to his father, Joseph P. Kennedy, read at Joseph Kennedy's funeral by Senator Ted Kennedy, November 20, 1969. Reported in Congressional Record (25 November 1969), vol. 115, p. 35877

School , Hell , Effort , Football

“In my judgment, the slogan "black power" and what has been associated with it has set the civil rights movement back considerably in the United States over the period of the last several months.”

Robert F. Kennedy

Remark during testimony of Floyd McKissick before a Senate subcommittee of which Kennedy was a member (December 8, 1966); reported in Federal Role in Urban Affairs, hearings before the Subcommittee on Executive Reorganization of the Committee on Government Operations, United States Senate, 89th Congress, 2d session, part 11, p. 2312 (1967)