Kerry Kennedy Quotes

Dr. [Martin Luther] King’s dream places demands on each of us.

As an American people, what is greatest about our history are the many times we have led this world away from hate, towards hope.

If you want peace, work for justice.

Freedom and opportunity are precious gifts and the purpose of our politics is to expand them, for all our people.

I have always striven to raise the voice of hope for a world where hate gives way to respect and oppression to liberation.

Exclusion is never the way forward on our shared paths to freedom and justice.

I stand for simple justice, equal opportunity and human rights. The indispensable elements in a democratic society - and well worth fighting for.

I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.

Just look at the great Nelson Mandela. He came out of prison and saved his entire country. Some of the best people in the world have spent time in prison.

For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

We do believe that freedom, the right to choose, the right to vote, respect and justice is the fundamental right of all people. All people must obtain these rights.

When all of us are acknowledged as the human equals that we really are, there will be no space left for bullying. It will no longer be wrong to choose one thing over another.

One of the greatest men to ever walk this land was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His life exemplified unity by bringing people together for the good of all. In any small way I hope to someday bring people together like Dr. King.

For all my years in public life, I have believed that America must sail toward the shores of liberty and justice for all. There is no end to that journey, only the next great voyage. We know the future will outlast all of us, but I believe that all of us will live on in the future we make.

Abraham Lincoln because he was a man filled with great compassion who believed that all men are created free and equal, and was not afraid to stand on that platform. The way Lincoln lived his life has served me well in mine.

The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.

The goal of the EU is to form a region of freedom, security and justice. Freedom in this connection cannot be just the freedom of the strong, but it must be combined with fraternity and equality.

You supposed to be able to do anything in this world. That's what Martin Luther King told me.

Minority rights have to be protected. That is America’s great contribution to the world.

If freedom makes social progress possible, so social progress strengthens and enlarges freedom.

Freedom demands conditions of an economic, social, political and cultural kind which makes possible its full exercise.

The language is, "We the people"; not we the white people, not even we the citizens, not we the privileged class, not we the high, not we the low, but we the people; not we the horses, sheep, and swine, and wheelbarrows, but we the people, we the inhabitants [of America; and if Negroes are people, they are included in the benefits for which the Constitution of America was ordained and established.

Our country has, in my judgment, thus far fulfilled its highest duty to suffering humanity. It has spoken and will continue to speak, not only by its words, but by its acts, the language of sympathy, encouragement, and hope to those who earnestly listen to tones which pronounce for the largest rational liberty.

What does the American Negro want? Full citizen status in our American democracy. How shall he reach that goal? By the inward power of the masses. And how shall that power be acquired? Fundamentally, on the highest plane and on the humblest, by a leadership motivated by a world-encompassing philosophy which is rooted in the will of God—a leadership which, itself a vital part of the force of events, is consecrated in humility to the immediate and practical education of the people.

Democracy is not the end product, but the means to the end, which is the enjoyment of human rights by all.