140 Robert Kennedy Quotes About Life, Law And Equality
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Robert Francis Kennedy was one of America's brightest politicians, born on 20 November 1925.
Occasionally called by the nickname Bobby Kennedy, Robert F Kennedy was a lawyer and noted politician in the United States. He was assassinated on 6 June 1968.
From January 1965, Robert Kennedy served as a United States Senator. He was also the 64th United States Attorney General. He was a member of the Democratic Party and has produced many inspiring Robert Kennedy quotes.
Looking for Robert Kennedy quotes? We have gathered the best Robert F Kennedy quotes from the American politician. If you like these Robert F Kennedy quotes, check out these Jackie Kennedy quotes and Rose Kennedy quotes to read more quotes from key figures in the United States.
The Best Robert Kennedy Quotes
Ready to discover the best Robert Kennedy quotes? Here are some Robert Kennedy quotes about justice, life, the United States, and more.
1. "Fear not the path of truth for the lack of people walking on it."
- Robert F Kennedy.
2.
"When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies he pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies."
- Robert F Kennedy.
3. "But the greatest danger of all would be to do nothing."
- Robert F Kennedy.
4. "No martyr's cause has ever been stilled by an assassin's bullet."
- Robert F Kennedy.
5. "Some men see things as they are, and say 'why?'. I dream of things that never were, and say 'why not.'"
- Robert F Kennedy.
6. "Always forgive your enemies, but never forget their names."
- Robert F Kennedy.
7. "In the last analysis, our every right is only worth what our lawyer makes it worth."
- Robert F Kennedy.
8. "In your hands, lies the future of your world and the fulfillment of the best qualities of your own spirit."
- Robert F Kennedy.
9. "A sniper is only a coward, not a hero; and an uncontrolled, uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of reason."
- Robert F Kennedy.
10. "We have to make an effort to understand, to get beyond, or go beyond these rather difficult times."
- Robert F Kennedy.
11. "It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped."
- Robert F Kennedy.
12. "America's answer to the intolerant man is diversity - the very diversity which our heritage of religious freedom has inspired."
- Robert F Kennedy.
13. "I'm tired of chasing people."
- Robert F Kennedy.
14. "Great change dominates the world and unless we move with change, we will become its victims."
- Robert F Kennedy.
15. "What happens to the country, to the world, depends on what we do with what others have left us."
- Robert F Kennedy.
16. "I thought they’d get one of us, but Jack’s been through, never worried about it. I thought it would be me."
- Robert F Kennedy.
17. "Wars of any magnitude release powerful social and economic forces which can change the whole face of the world."
- Robert F Kennedy.
18. "You had better pretend you don't know me. Everyone connected to me seems jinxed."
- Robert F Kennedy.
19. "The greatest truth must be the recognition that in every man, in every child is the potential for greatness."
- Robert F Kennedy.
20. "Don't get mad, get even."
- Robert F Kennedy.
21. "Whenever we tear the fabric of the life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for his own self and his children, the whole nation is degraded."
- Robert F Kennedy.
22. "Now I can go back to being ruthless again."
- Robert F Kennedy.
23. "In my judgment, physical fitness is basic to all forms of excellence and to a strong, confident nation."
- Robert F Kennedy.
24. "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.
25. "All of us will ultimately be judged on the effort we have contributed to building a new world order."
- Robert F Kennedy.
26. "Every generation helps make its own future and this is the essential challenge of the present."
- Robert F Kennedy.
27. "If you win, the reporters will always write about well-oiled machines and super-planning. If you lose, they will always write about hopeless incompetence."
- Robert F Kennedy.
28. "It is more important to be of service than successful."
- Robert F Kennedy.
29. "The freeway of life proposes ends, but it does not prescribe means."
- Robert F Kennedy.
30. "Since the days of Greece and Rome, when the word 'citizen' was a title of honor, we have often seen more emphasis put on the rights of citizenship than on its responsibilities."
- Robert F Kennedy.
31. "Courage is the most important attribute of a lawyer."
- Robert F Kennedy.
32. "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."
- Robert F Kennedy.
33. "This much is clear: violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a good cleansing of whole society can remove that sickness from our soul."
- Robert F Kennedy.
34. "Satellite communications connect television screens in Japan with television cameras in England, and the distance of half a world loses its meaning."
- Robert F Kennedy.
35. "I run because I am convinced that this country is on a perilous course and I have such strong feelings about what must be done."
- Robert F Kennedy.
Quotes By Robert Kennedy On Life
Are you enjoying these Robert Kennedy quotes? In these Bobby Kennedy quotes he explains his purpose in life.
36. "There are people in every time and every land who want to stop history in its tracks."
- Robert Kennedy.
37. "Let us 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."
- Robert Kennedy.
38. "The purpose of life is to contribute in any way to making things better."
- Robert Kennedy.
39. "One of the primary purposes of civilization - and certainly its primary strength - is the guarantee that family life can flourish in unity, peace, and order."
- Robert Kennedy.
40. "Tragedy is a tool for the living to gain wisdom, not a guide by which to live."
- Robert Kennedy.
41. "You're the happiest while you're making the greatest contribution."
- Robert Kennedy.
42. "Like other Americans, I've reconciled myself to the idea that an animal's life has been sacrificed to bring me a meal of pork or chicken."
- Robert Kennedy.
43. "A life without criticism is not worth living."
- Robert Kennedy.
44. "One-fifth of the people are against everything all the time."
- Robert Kennedy.
45. "The most patriotic thing you can do is to take care of the environment and try to live sustainably."
- Robert Kennedy.
46. "Sometimes people think that because you have money and position you are immune from the human experience."
- Robert Kennedy.
47. "I don't know why God put us on earth. If I had my choice, I would never have lived. I had no control over it."
- Robert Kennedy.
48. "I think, there is an obligation on the part of all of us to stay informed and aware."
- Robert Kennedy.
49. "From the first moment of independence, the United States has been dedicated to innovation as a way of government and a way of life."
- Robert Kennedy.
50. "Every dictatorship has ultimately strangled in the web of repression it wove for its people, making mistakes that could not be corrected because the criticism was prohibited."
- Robert Kennedy.
51. "Just because we cannot see clearly the end of the road, that is no reason for not setting out on the essential journey."
- Robert Kennedy.
52. "Your life can be anything you want it to be."
- Robert Kennedy.
53. "I can feel as lonesome and lost as the next man when I turn the key in the door and go into an empty house that is usually full of kids and dogs."
- Robert Kennedy.
54. "But history will judge you, and as the years pass, you will ultimately judge yourself, in the extent to which you have used your gifts and talents to lighten and enrich the lives of your fellow men."
- Robert Kennedy.
55. "Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land."
- Robert Kennedy.
56. "I have told friends and supporters who are urging me to run that I would not oppose President Johnson under any foreseeable circumstances."
- Robert Kennedy.
Robert Kennedy Quotes On Law
Find Robert Kennedy quotes about Civil Rights and more in this list of Robert Kennedy quotes.
57. "The sharpest criticism often goes hand in hand with the deepest idealism and love of country."
- Robert Kennedy.
58. "Whenever men take the law into their own hands, the loser is the law."
- Robert Kennedy.
59. "First is the danger of futility; the belief there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills — against misery and ignorance, injustice and violence."
- Robert Kennedy.
60. "He tells so many lies that he convinces himself after a while that he's telling the truth. He just doesn't recognize truth or falsehood."
- Robert Kennedy.
61. "Tolerating organized crime promotes the cheap philosophy that everything is a racket."
- Robert Kennedy.
62. "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."
- Robert Kennedy.
63. "It is easy to overlook the importance of the young in underdeveloped countries."
- Robert Kennedy.
64. "People are selfish, but they can also be compassionate and generous, and they care about the country."
- Robert Kennedy.
65. "The essence of successful counterinsurgency is not to kill, but to bring the insurgent back into the national life."
- Robert Kennedy.
66. "Every American has the duty to obey the law and the right to expect that the law will be enforced."
- Robert Kennedy.
67. "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 Kennedy.
68. "To the extent that laws are founded on morality and on logic, they can lead men's hearts and minds."
- Robert Kennedy.
69. "And when the law loses, freedom languishes."
- Robert Kennedy.
70. "Large-scale hog producers are a greater threat to the United States and U.S. democracy than Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network."
- Robert Kennedy.
71. "Those who challenge the law in one or another of its aspects weaken the whole legal structure of society."
- Robert Kennedy.
Robert Kennedy Quotes On Justice
Are you enjoying these Robert Kennedy quotes? Find more Robert Kennedy quotes about hope, American justice, oppression, and resistance here.
72. "I believe that, as long as there is plenty, poverty is evil."
- Robert Kennedy.
73. "... 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 Kennedy.
74. "I don't try to antagonize people, but somebody has to be able to say no."
- Robert Kennedy.
75. "I now know how Tojo felt when he was planning Pearl Harbor."
- Robert Kennedy.
76. "Gentlemen, I don't give a damn if the state and the county organizations survive after November, and I don't give a damn if you survive."
- Robert Kennedy.
77. "Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator."
- Robert Kennedy.
78. "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..."
- Robert Kennedy.
79. "Nothing is more false than the notion that the triumph of Communism is inevitable..."
- Robert Kennedy.
80. "If communist unions ever gain a position to exercise influence in the transport lanes of the world, the free world had suffered a staggering blow."
- Robert Kennedy.
81. "Every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on."
- Robert Kennedy.
82. "The first sign of tyranny is government's complicity in privatizing the commons for private gain."
- Robert Kennedy.
83. "If freedom makes social progress possible, so social progress strengthens and enlarges freedom."
- Robert Kennedy.
84. "Government belongs wherever evil needs an adversary and there are people in distress."
- Robert Kennedy.
85. "The evil is not what they say about their cause but what they say about their opponents."
- Robert Kennedy.
86. "The leaders of the world face no greater task than that of avoiding nuclear war."
- Robert Kennedy.
87. "Change has its enemies."
- Robert Kennedy.
88. "While free markets tend to democratize a society, unfettered capitalism leads invariably to corporate control of the government."
- Robert Kennedy.
89. "There are people in every time and every land who want to stop history in its tracks."
- Robert Kennedy.
90. "Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice between fellow human beings. He died in the cause of that effort."
- Robert Kennedy.
91. "People are selfish. But they can also be compassionate and generous, and they care about the country. But not when they feel threatened."
- Robert Kennedy.
92. "The essential humanity of men can be protected and preserved only where the 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."
- Robert Kennedy.
93. "I don’t think there is a law that you can punish those politicians under."
- Robert Kennedy.
94. "It is immoral to see evil and not act on it."
- Robert Kennedy.
95. "Too often we honor swagger and bluster and wielders of force..."
- Robert Kennedy.
96. "The victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are, most important of all, human beings whom other human beings loved and needed."
- Robert Kennedy.
97. "But we can perhaps remember, if only for a time, that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short moment of life."
- Robert Kennedy.
Inspirational Robert Kennedy Quotes
Here, you will find inspiring Robert Kennedy quotes. Which of these Robert Kennedy quotes inspires you most?
98. "Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly."
- Robert Kennedy.
99. "Lack of education, old age, bad health, or discrimination - these are causes of poverty, and the way to attack it is to go to the root."
- Robert Kennedy.
100. "We might not be the best, and none of us were, but we were to make the effort to be the best."
- Robert Kennedy.
101. "If freedom makes social progress possible, so social progress strengthens and enlarges freedom."
- Robert Kennedy.
102. "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 Kennedy.
103. "I was the seventh of nine children. When you come from that far down you have to struggle to survive."
- Robert Kennedy.
104. "If you never quit, you'll never fail."
- Robert Kennedy.
105. "After you have done the best you can, the hell with it."
- Robert Kennedy.
106. "The road toward equality of freedom is not easy, and great cost and danger march alongside us."
- Robert Kennedy.
107. "... too often we excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of others."
- Robert Kennedy.
108. "If people are not getting off their behinds, how do you say that nicely?"
- Robert Kennedy.
109. "If our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity."
- Robert Kennedy.
110. "If we must act effectively we must deal with the world as it is. We must get things done."
- Robert Kennedy.
111. "All great questions must be raised by great voices, and the greatest voice is the voice of the people."
- Robert Kennedy.
112. "A revolution will come whether we will it or not. We can affect its character, we cannot alter its inevitability."
- Robert Kennedy.
113. "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 Kennedy.
Robert Kennedy Famous Quotes
Ready for the final installment of Robert Kennedy quotes? Here, you will read some amazing and famous Robert Kennedy quotes.
114. "The future is not a gift. It is an achievement."
- Robert Kennedy.
115. "Elections remind us not only of the rights but the responsibilities of citizenship in a democracy."
- Robert Kennedy.
116. "What is objectionable, what is dangerous, about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant."
- Robert Kennedy.
117. "The future is not completely beyond our control. It is the work of our own hands."
- Robert Kennedy.
118. "People say I am ruthless. I am not ruthless. And if I find the man who is calling me ruthless, I shall destroy him."
- Robert Kennedy.
119. "What we need in the United States is not division."
- Robert Kennedy.
120. "Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves."
- Robert Kennedy.
121. "The natural state of a human being is dignity."
- Robert Kennedy.
122. "Religion is a salve for confusion and misdirection."
- Robert Kennedy.
123. "All can be swept away by a government that does not heed the demands of its people."
- Robert Kennedy.
124. "The future does not belong to those who are content with today."
- Robert Kennedy.
125. "Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their peers, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society."
- Robert Kennedy.
126. "One question that really shakes me, really shakes me—if God exists, why do poor people exist?"
- Robert Kennedy.
127. "The environmental movement is not about protecting the fishes and the birds so much as recognizing that nature is the infrastructure of our communities."
- Robert Kennedy.
128. "All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world, but we don't."
- Robert Kennedy.
129. "Are we like the God of the Old Testament, that we in Washington can decide which cities, towns, and hamlets in Vietnam will be destroyed?"
- Robert Kennedy.
130. "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."
- Robert Kennedy.
131. "The sharpest criticism often goes hand in hand with the deepest idealism and love of country."
- Robert Kennedy.
132. "No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders."
- Robert Kennedy.
133. "That's my brother, all guts, no brains."
- Robert Kennedy.
134. "This is a Day of Affirmation, a celebration of liberty. We stand here in the name of freedom."
- Robert Kennedy.
135. "GDP does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play."
- Robert Kennedy.
136. "We Kennedys eat Rockefellers for breakfast."
- Robert F. Kennedy.
137. "Each nation has different obstacles and different goals, shaped by the vagaries of history and of experience."
- Robert Kennedy.
138. "Together, we can make ourselves a nation that spends more on books than on bombs, more on hospitals than the terrible tools of war, more on decent houses than military aircraft."
- Robert Kennedy.
139. "I think there is an obligation on the part of all of us to stay informed and aware."
- Robert Kennedy.
140. "Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence."
- Robert Kennedy.
At Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Robert Kennedy quotes, why not look at these Louis Brandeis quotes and Sandra Day O'Connor quotes too?
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A professional content writer hailing from Kolkata, India, with extensive experience in the corporate sector, Writvik Gupta has worked with several reputed companies, including ITC WelcomHotel Jodhpur, Bharti AXA Life Insurance, Aryan Imaging, and Eduquity. He also serves as a consultant for a startup based in Bangalore. With a passion for the outdoors, Writvik enjoys trekking and traveling to remote destinations. He also has a keen interest in exploring various cuisines and regularly volunteers for social causes.
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