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Robert Kennedy

12 quotes

Not every great thinker makes it into the history books, but Robert Kennedy's words speak for themselves. Robert Kennedy's observations on Change are as sharp as their thoughts on Freedom, revealing genuine breadth of mind. 17 of Robert Kennedy's sharpest quotes live here, spanning themes of Change, Freedom, Work, Wisdom, and Time. Perhaps their most recognizable line: "Whenever men take the law into their own hands, the loser is the law. And when the law loses, freedom languishes."

“Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator. And change has its enemies.”

— Robert Kennedy

Change

All Quotes by Robert Kennedy

“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 Kennedy

Change

“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

Future

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”

— Robert Kennedy

Great

“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

Society

“Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator. And change has its enemies.”

— Robert Kennedy

Change

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

— Robert Kennedy

Freedom

“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

God

“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?”

— Robert Kennedy

Dreams

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

— Robert Kennedy

Freedom

“One-fifth of the people are against everything all the time.”

— Robert Kennedy

Time

“Tragedy is a tool for the living to gain wisdom, not a guide by which to live.”

— Robert Kennedy

Wisdom

“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 Kennedy

Change