Robert Francis Kennedy Citations
Robert Francis Kennedy: Citations en anglais
Farewell statement, Warsaw, Poland, reported in The New York Times (2 July 1964)
Contexte: Just because we cannot see clearly the end of the road, that is no reason for not setting out on the essential journey. On the contrary, great change dominates the world, and unless we move with change we will become its victims.
Though Kennedy stated that he was quoting George Bernard Shaw when he said this, he is often thought to have originated the expression, which actually paraphrases a line delivered by the Serpent in Shaw's play Back To Methuselah: “You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?’". This phrase was first used by his brother John F. Kennedy in 1963 (June 28th), during his visit to Ireland, in his address to the Irish Dail (Government): "George Bernard Shaw, speaking as an Irishman, summed up an approach to life, 'Other people, he said, see things and say why? But I dream things that never were and I say, why not?" ( Address on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ADeazX9blw.). Robert's other brother Edward famously quoted it (paraphrasing it even further), to conclude his eulogy to his late brother after his assassination (8 June 1968): Some men see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say why not? - (Eulogy in CBS news video) http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5268061n
Misattributed
Source: Robert Kennedy in His Own Words: The Unpublished Recollections of the Kennedy Years
The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents.
" Extremism, Left and Right http://books.google.com/books?id=o3mHAAAAMAAJ&q=%22What+is+objectionable+what+is+dangerous+about+extremists+is+not+that+they+are+extreme+but+that+they+are+intolerant%22+%22evil+is+not+what+they+say+about+their+cause+but%22&pg=PA68#v=onepage," The Pursuit of Justice, pt. 3 (1964)
Speech on the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1968)
Contexte: And let's dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.
“Tragedy is a tool for the living to gain wisdom, not a guide by which to live.”
"Conflict in Vietnam and at Home" speech http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/rfk/filmmore/ps_ksu.html at Kansas State University on March 18, 1968 as part of the Alfred M. Landon Lectures on Public Issues.
On the Mindless Menace of Violence (1968)
Contexte: 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.
Day of Affirmation Address (1966)
Variante: 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.
Speech on the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1968)
On calling Judge Oscar Mitchell for sentencing Martin Luther King, Jr., as quoted in Robert Kennedy: Brother Protector (2000), p. 173
Day of Affirmation Address (1966)
"I Remember, I Believe," The Pursuit of Justice (1964)
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
Day of Affirmation Address (1966)
"Value of Dissent" speech Nashville, Tennessee (21 March 1968)
“One-fifth of the people are against everything all the time.”
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)
Tribute to John F. Kennedy http://www.rfkmemorial.org/lifevision/tributetojfkatthednc/, 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City (27 August 1964)
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
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
On the Mindless Menace of Violence (1968)
Inscribed on the Robert F. Kennedy gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery
Day of Affirmation Address (1966)
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
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)
