Quotes Robert Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy might not have been the most famous or powerful member of the Kennedy family, but he did have a lot of wisdom to impart on our nation before his tragic assassination.
Much of this wisdom was communicated during RFK’s most iconic speech, the one he delivered in Indianapolis, Indiana following the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968. In this mostly improvised speech, the former New York senator spoke about the importance of embracing our differences and about how responding to injustice with compassion will benefit all of us.
- “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 diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped.
- Kennedy Quotes 1. 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 diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped.
- Robert Kennedy Quotes 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.
Although this speech was delivered decades ago, we can still use it today as a guideline for how to respond to adversity or unfairness when we face it in our daily lives (though, to be honest, the majority of us are dealing with champagne problems compared to the crowd that RFK was addressing during his speech in the late sixties). These six quotes from RFK’s speech will remind you that the best way to respond to aggression or injustice is to kill ’em with kindness.
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1.
“You can be filled with bitterness and with hatred and a desire for revenge… or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend and replace that violence… with compassion and love.”
How you can apply this to your daily life: When a friend screws you over and betrays your trust, it might be tempting to seek revenge. But this will only make you feel better temporarily — it won’t make you feel less hurt in the long run. Instead, practice compassion and try to put yourself in your friend’s shoes. Understand that the act was probably performed from a place of insecurity.
Kennedy Quotes Quotable Quote “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.
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2.
“We have to make an effort to understand, to get beyond and go beyond these rather difficult times.”
How you can apply this to your daily life: If you get stuck in a rut where things aren’t going your way, remind yourself that this low point in your life is just a moment in time. If you keep your head up and don’t get discouraged, you will see the light at the end of the metaphorical tunnel, an indication of better times to come.
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3.
“My favorite poem, my favorite poet was Aeschylus. He once wrote: ‘Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.'”
How you can apply this to your daily life: Although difficult times are painful and we’d obviously rather they not happen to us at all, we do learn from them and they will help us grow wiser and stronger. Cue Kelly Clarkson.
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4.
“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 and lawlessness, but is love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another.”
How you can apply this to your daily life: When we’re faced with something unjust — even something as small as our boss taking credit for our hard work — it might be tempting to respond with equal injustice, like by bad-mouthing our boss to our colleagues. But being able to resist this temptation shows true strength in character. We can’t expect others to be kind to us if we don’t treat others with kindness.
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5.
“We can do well… We will have difficult times. We’ve had difficult times in the past. And we will have difficult times in the future… But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life and want justice for all human beings that abide in our land.”
How you can apply this to your daily life: If you’re having one of those days when you feel like the whole world is against you, it can be tempting to jump to the conclusion that our earth is populated by people who are cruel and cold-hearted. While there are some people who have done truly awful things, remember that the majority of individuals on this planet want to live in peace and harmony just like you.
6.
“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.’ Let us dedicate ourselves to that.”
How you can apply this to your daily life: Just because our kind entered this world as savages who were willing to kill each other for the juiciest piece of meat doesn’t mean that screwing each other over is just a part of human nature. We have evolved, and it’s time that we leave the “every man for himself” mentality behind to start lifting each other up instead. Your happiness does not have to come at the expense of someone else’s.
If you’re not inspired to treat others with kindness today after reading these words of wisdom from Robert F. Kennedy, then you must be a cyborg. You can watch his full speech below.
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Robert Kennedy Quotes:-Robert Kennedy (November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, and as a U.S. Senator from New York from January 1965 until his assassination in June 1968.
A-z Quotes Robert Kennedy
Inspirational Robert Kennedy Quotes
“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 Kennedy
“I believe that, as long as there is plenty, poverty is evil.”-Robert Kennedy
“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
“But suppose God is black? What if we go to Heaven and we, all our lives, have treated the Negro as an inferior, and God is there, and we look up and He is not white? What then is our response?”-Robert Kennedy
“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
“Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator. And change has its enemies.”-Robert Kennedy
“I was the seventh of nine children. When you come from that far down you have to struggle to survive.”-Robert Kennedy
“The freeway of life proposes ends, but it does not prescribe means.”-Robert Kennedy
“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
Famous Robert Kennedy Quotes
“We will find neither national purpose nor personal satisfaction in a mere continuation of economic progress, in an endless amassing of worldly goods. We cannot measure national spirit by the Dow Jones Average, nor national achievement by the Gross National Product.”-Robert Kennedy
“The Gross National Product includes the destruction of the redwoods and the death of Lake Superior. It grows with the production of napalm and missiles and nuclear warheads… It includes… the broadcasting of television programs which glorify violence to sell goods to our children.”-Robert Kennedy
“Some men see things as they are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were, and ask why not.”-Robert Kennedy
Robert Kennedy Quote Why Not
“If I get to be president, what can I do anyway? With Congress and the press, what chance do I have to make basic changes?”-Robert Kennedy
“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.”-Robert Kennedy
“Even as my father grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, signs told him: ‘No Irish Need Apply.'”-Robert Kennedy
Best Robert Kennedy Quotes
“We in the United States believe in the protection of minorities; we recognize the contributions that they can make and the leadership that they can provide; and we do not believe that any people – whether majority or minority, or individual human beings – are ‘expendable’ in the cause of theory or of policy.”-Robert Kennedy
“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
“No one needs to tell me about the importance of the free press in a democratic society or about the essential role a newspaper can play in its community.”-Robert Kennedy
“When I was counsel for the Senate Rackets Committee, about 25% of the important leads which our committee developed came from newspapers. This increased my respect for those courageous newspapers which assisted us. It also caused me to look with wonderment at some of the newspapers that did not.”-Robert Kennedy
“The hardest problems of all in law enforcement are those involving a conflict of law and local customs. History has recorded many occasions when the moral sense of a nation produced judicial decisions, such as the 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which required difficult local adjustments.”-Robert Kennedy
Greatest Robert Kennedy Quotes
“Where aspirations outstrip opportunities, law-abiding society becomes the victim. Attitudes of contempt toward the law are forged in this crucible and form the inner core of the beliefs of organized adult crime.”-Robert Kennedy
“It certainly should not surprise us that a young person without any real stake in a legitimate occupation or career may get into trouble more easily. Such persons readily accept the idea that they have been unjustly deprived of money, status, and opportunity.”-Robert Kennedy
“In the cases that come before the Department of Justice involving a wide range of unlawful activities, we see repeated evidence of family and community failures.”-Robert Kennedy
“Circumstances of crimes vary. So do motives. And so do prospects for rehabilitation. The number of imponderables makes it impossible to sentence by formula and still sentence justly.”-Robert Kennedy
“I believe indeterminate sentencing can be extremely useful, but I also believe that any such system should always take into consideration the special knowledge as to the facts in a case which only the trial judge possesses.”-Robert Kennedy
Robert Kennedy Quotes Aeschylus
“I am deeply impressed with the gravity and wisdom with which most federal judges approach the responsibility of sentencing. It is a difficult, soul-searching task at best.”-Robert Kennedy
“I am ashamed to report that my father, who is 73, has never been beaten by any of his four sons in golf. We have all become resigned to the fact that he has determined that he won’t be beaten.”-Robert Kennedy
Motivational Quotes by Robert Kennedy
“The world of sports knows no religious, racial or political differences. Athletes, from whatever land they come, speak the same language. The lessons of competition are lessons for life.”-Robert Kennedy
“The history of antitrust law enforcement shows that successful antitrust prosecutions have often strengthened and brought vitality to extremely large companies and businesses.”-Robert Kennedy
“We must continue to prove to the world that we can provide a rising standard of living for all men without loss of civil rights or human dignity to any man.”-Robert Kennedy
“In the last analysis, our every right is only worth what our lawyer makes it worth.”-Robert Kennedy
“In government, our chief executives have been lawyers. The great majority of our cabinets and congresses are and have been men trained in the law. They have provided the leadership and the statecraft and the store of strength when it was needed.”-Robert Kennedy
“President Kennedy has named two Negroes to District Judgeships and appointed Thurgood Marshall to the United States Court of Appeals. When I came to the Department of Justice, there were only ten Negroes employed as lawyers; not a single Negro served as a United States Attorney – or ever had in the history of the country. That has been changed.”-Robert Kennedy
Top Robert Kennedy Quotes
“Our generation was born during the turmoil following the First World War. That war marked the dividing line – at least for the Western World – between the comfortable security of the 19th century and the instability and flux of our own time.”-Robert Kennedy
“One of the great creative statesmen of our age was Franklin Roosevelt. He was creative precisely because he preferred experiment to ideology.”-Robert Kennedy
“The United States was born in revolution and nurtured by struggle. Throughout our history, the American people have befriended and supported all those who seek independence and a better way of life.”-Robert Kennedy
“Within the United States, we have put great emphasis upon political freedoms. Because it has been our experience that these freedoms can lead to others.”-Robert Kennedy
“Freedom possesses many meanings. It speaks not merely in terms of political and religious liberty but also in terms of economic and social progress.”-Robert Kennedy
“Communism everywhere has paid the price of rigidity and dogmatism. Freedom has the strength of compassion and flexibility. It has, above all, the strength of intellectual honesty.”-Robert Kennedy
“If freedom makes social progress possible, so social progress strengthens and enlarges freedom.”-Robert Kennedy