“The ballot is stronger than the bullet.”
Abraham Lincoln
“There’s no such thing as a vote that doesn’t matter.”
Barack Obama
Robert F. Kennedy
Quotations On Justice
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“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. 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 resistance.”
Robert F. Kennedy
(www.pixabay.com)
“No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency.”
Theodore Roosevelt
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“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
“In a democracy, justice must apply to the most powerful as well as the weakest among us. If it does not, then the experiment in democracy that is the United States of America will fail.”
Charles F. French
Quotations on Idealism–Revisited
StandardI am an unapologetic idealist, a dreamer, and an optimist. As a writer and teacher, I find these qualities to be essential. I continue to see ways to improve the world, no matter how many losses or setbacks occur.
We must always stand up for what is right, what is worth fighting for, and for those who cannot fight for themselves.
Here are a few quotations about idealism:
“Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one”
John Lennon
“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.”
Robert Kennedy
“There is some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.”
J. R. R. Tolkien
Quotations on Immigration
StandardGiven the political climate of the times, I thought I would offer some quotations from past leaders on the issue of immigration.
“It says something about our country that people around the world are willing to leave their homes and leave their families and risk everything to come to America. Their talent and hard work and love of freedom have helped make America the leader of the world. And our generation will ensure that America remains a beacon of liberty and the most hope fill society this world has ever known.”
George W. Bush
“Our attitude towards immigration reflects our faith in the American ideal. We have always believed it possible for men and women who start at the bottom to rise as far as the talent and energy allow. Neither race nor place of birth should affect their chances.”
Robert F. Kennedy
“Remember, remember always, that all of us, you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt
“The United States should be an asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty.”
Thomas Paine
I want to point out that all of us, except for those who are 100 percent Native American, have either immigrated or descended from immigrants to the United States of America. To believe that we are under invasion from immigrants is a mistake, and those spreading that misinformation are cons and liars. This is not a time to be quiet. Writers need to speak.
Quotations on Success
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“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
Winston Churchill
“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”
Theodore Roosevelt
“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”
Robert F. Kennedy
Quotations From A Generation of Lost Leaders
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“If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.”
John F. Kennedy
“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
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.
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy Remembered
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50 years ago today, Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. He was a Senator and a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the U. S. Presidency. The 1960s, and especially 1968, were a time of great turmoil in our country and the world. Robert Kennedy was a man who had grown into a compassionate and powerful liberal figure, one who offered hope to a divided country in despair.
RFK had won the primary in California and seemed poised to win the nomination, which would have made him a powerful candidate to become President. Then his life was brutally ended, and the country lost possibilities.
Like his brother, President John F. Kennedy and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he would be killed, and America would lose great potential for change and decency. I was a young teenager when this happened, and I remember feeling a terrible sense of loss and grief. As I grew older, I would realize just what the country lost.
I end with a quotation from his campaign, which was based on the earlier quotation from George Bernard Shaw. In his speech at the University of Kansas
March 18, 1968 RFK said:
“George Bernard Shaw once wrote,
‘Some people see things as they are and say why? I
dream things that never were and say, why not?'”
(Robert F. Kennedy)
Senator Ted Kennedy spoke of his brother at his funeral and said,
“My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.” (Edward Kennedy)
I hope we, as a nation, can remember Robert F. Kennedy’s sense of optimism and justice and that we move towards a just and inclusive society. We must think of what might be.
Works Cited
“Edward M. Kennedy Address at the Public Memorial Service for Robert F. Kennedy.”
American Rhetoric Top 100 Speeches. Online. http://www.americanrhetoric.com
/speeches/ekennedytributetorfk.html.
“Robert F. Kennedy Speeches Remarks at the University of Kansas, March 18, 1968.” John
F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Online. https://www.jfklibrary.org
/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/RFK-Speeches/Remarks-of-Robert-
F-Kennedy-at-the-University-of-Kansas-March-18-1968.aspx.
Quotations on Hope
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“Some men see things as they are and say, why; I dream things that never were and say, why not.”
Robert F. Kennedy
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”
Anne Frank
“There is some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Quotations on Success
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“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
Winston Churchill
“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”
Theodore Roosevelt
“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”
Robert F. Kennedy
Quotations On Hope and Idealism
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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.
Robert Kennedy
“You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.”
Pablo Neruda
(https://commons.wikimedia.org)
“One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.”
Malala Yousafzai
