Robert Francis Kennedy Quotes

If any man claims the Negro should be content ... let him say he would willingly change the color of his skin and go to live in the Negro section of a large city. Then and only then has he a right to such a claim.

Robert Francis Kennedy

Progress is a nice word, but change is its motivator and change has enemies.

Robert Francis Kennedy

There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not.

Robert Francis Kennedy

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 Francis Kennedy

Laws can embody standards; governments can enforce laws--but the final task is not a task for government. It is a task for each and every one of us. Every time we turn our heads the other way when we see the law flouted--when we tolerate what we know to be wrong--when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy, or too frightened--when we fail to speak up and speak out--we strike a blow against freedom and decency and justice.

Robert Francis Kennedy

We should, I believe, beware of the pitfalls described by Taine: 'Imagine a man who sets out on a voyage equipped with a pair of spectacles that magnify things to an extraordinary degree. A hair on his hand, a spot on the tablecloth, the shifting fold of a coat, all will attract his attention; at this rate, he will not go far, he will spend his day taking six steps and will never get out of his room.' We have to get out of this room.

Robert Francis Kennedy

Moral courage is a more rare commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence.

Robert Francis Kennedy

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 injustice.

Robert Francis Kennedy

The free way of life proposes ends, but it does not prescribe means.

Robert Francis Kennedy

What is objectionable, what is dangerous, about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents.

Robert Francis Kennedy

Some men see things as they are and ask, 'why?' I dream things that never were and ask, 'why not?'NB: This quote is a paraphrase from a similar quote by G. B. Shaw.

Robert Francis Kennedy

Whenever men take the law into their own hands, the loser is the law. And when the law loses, freedom languishes.

Robert Francis Kennedy