Quotes by Robert Kennedy

“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?”

“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?”

“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 ...”

“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 - ...”

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

“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 sw...”

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

“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.”

“One can find a squalid America as easily as a scenic America; a bitter, hopeless America as easily as the confident America of polyethylene wrapping, new cars, and camping trips in the summer.”

“The ultimate relationship between justice and law will be an eternal subject for speculation and analysis. But it may be said that in a democratic society, law is the form which free men give to ju...”

“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.”

“We know that we cannot live together without rules which tell us what is right and what is wrong, what is permitted and what is prohibited. We know that it is law which enables men to live together...”

“Automation provides us with wondrous increases of production and information, but does it tell us what to do with the men the machines displace? Modern industry gives us the capacity for unparallel...”

“Yesterday, we fought wars which destroyed cities. Today, we are concerned with avoiding a war which will destroy the earth. We can adapt atomic energy to produce electricity and move ships, but can...”

“In my judgment, physical fitness is basic to all forms of excellence and to a strong, confident nation.”

“Some men see things as they are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were, and ask why not.”

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

“We have very strong environmental laws in the United States and elsewhere around the world. The problem is that they're seldom enforced.”

“I always knew that I was going be an environmental advocate when I was very young.”

“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.”