Robert F. Kennedy
(1925-1968)

American Politician, 64th US Attorney General
Civil Rights Advocate
1978 Congressional Gold Medal

birthdate: November 20
birthplace:
Brookline, Massachusetts

QUOTES

COURAGE
It is from the 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.

"Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of 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."

ECOLOGY
"We in Government have begun to recognize the critical work which must be done at all levels—local, State and Federal—in ending the pollution of our waters."

"Listen, the environmental movement is not about protecting the fishes and the birds so much as recognizing that nature is the infrastructure of our communities ... If you're saying the values that drive the environmental movement are uncool and antithetical to America, then I would argue just the opposite. If you think being patriotic is not cool, I'd say that's not true either. I'd say the most patriotic thing you can do is to take care of the environment and try to live sustainably."

ECONOMY
The gross national product includes air pollution and advertising for cigarettes, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors, and jails for the people who break them ... It does not allow for the health of our families, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play.

FREEDOM
The enlargement of liberty for individual human beings must be the supreme goal and abiding practice of any western society.

LIVING A LIFE OF COMPASSION
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?

PERSEVERANCE
"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly."

POVERTY
I believe that, as long as there is plenty, poverty is evil.

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

TRUTH
The greatest truth must be recognition that in every man, in every child is the potential for greatness.

"Each time a person stands for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he or she 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."

WE CAN CREATE A BETTER WORLD
"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."

 

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