Top 66 Kerry Kennedy Quotes

There are very few women in the Senate and very few mothers.

When I started working in human rights, Eastern Europe was communist, South Africa was under apartheid and South Korea had military rule. All the changes have come about not because of the militaries or government but because small groups of people spoke out against what was unfair and unjust.

Well, I don’t think any of the Republicans have expressed any interest in supporting the vision of Robert Kennedy at all. At least I haven’t seen that.

I appreciate that Marco Rubio has called for immigration reform but he goes back and forth on it a little bit.

I loved that television show Mad Men because it really was a reminder of what reality was back then.

Every time you say ‘I don’t want to hear it’ when someone is going to tell an ethnic joke, or every time you help somebody cross the street or put money in the bucket in your place of worship, you’re making a difference.

Everyone who has had success in his or her field of endeavor has had a mentor along the way.

Demonization of people on the basis of race, religion, sexual orientation, or other criteria leads to dehumanization. The notion that some are ‘other’ is a dangerous and slippery slope.

I’m told that as a child, when my dad was alive, I’d get up, put on my coat and go sit in the back of his car. The driver would just go around the neighborhood – as long as I had my little trip, I was happy.

I think there are many Democrats who are good, strong leaders. The person I like the most is my nephew, Congressman Joe Kennedy.

It’s hard to have both parents involved in elective office at the same time.

I won’t mince words: President Donald Trump’s inauguration means it is more important than ever that Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights redouble its commitment to the full scope of our humanitarian and social justice mission.

Having a sense of humor is a part of being courageous. It’s a source of strength.

Daddy was never ruthless but he was tough.

Those who suffer profoundly are granted profound wisdom.

In my human-rights work, perhaps the most important thing is gaining the trust of the victims.

When people say there is a ‘reason’ for the depression, they insult the person who suffers, making it seem that those in agony are somehow at fault for not ‘cheering up.’ The fact is that those who suffer – and those who love them – are no more at fault for depression than a cancer patient is for a tumor.

I’ve learned powerful lessons about the nature of forgiveness from human rights defenders. For example, for the greater good of his country, Kofi Woods emerged from a torture chamber in Liberia to later defend the very men who had brutalized him.

My husband is in politics and my kids are already a campaign organ for him and I really love being their mother.

The struggle for human rights is at its core a struggle for human dignity.

We need autocracies and failing democracies alike to understand that they cannot scapegoat LGBT citizens to distract from their own shortcomings.

Over the decades people from all walks of life have told me, ‘When your father died, so did my hope.’

My father believed young people are among our nation’s most valuable resources, and so we should ensure that every child – including children and youth returning from the justice system – have access to the opportunities we would want for our own children.

In the RFK Center’s Speak Truth to Power program, we are working with schools across the United States and in countries like Italy, Cambodia and Sweden to turn every student into a defender.

Robert F. Kennedy Juvenile Justice Collaborative was formed in 2009 to improve federal youth reentry policy through advocacy, coalition building, and giving voice to youth who are directly impacted by the justice system.

I have to tell you, virtually every country I’ve gone to, the Catholic church is on the cutting edge of social change. Really extraordinary.

I think that on the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders talks about income inequality and poverty alleviation, and those issues are so important.

I thought of running for office when I was in law school, but I wanted to work on human rights.

For too long, we’ve allowed ourselves to equate targeted bullying with innocent teasing, or dismissed it as pranks and ignored the torment and long-term impact that an incident like this has on young people.

I myself am a soccer mom, a volleyball mom and a basketball mom.

We’ve got to pass legislation which will allow people to have access to competent counsel no matter who they are.

The modern military justice system is by design a body incapable of blind justice.

I grew up outside of Washington D.C., a town in which the largest industry is government and in which almost everyone I knew was involved in creating policies which impact people across our country and around the globe.

Ambien is one of the most prescribed pills in America. A lot of people take it every night or several times a week or several times a month in order to help them sleep. I’m just not one of those people. That’s the perception of me. But that’s not the reality.

Look, my mother’s not a welfare woman. She certainly had plenty of help. But there’s no substitute for a husband and partner.

My father when I was a kid was so deeply involved with Native Americans, he used to bring home these extraordinary headdresses and pipes.

The iconic life of Nelson Mandela is testament to the fact that the road to freedom is quite often long and fraught with great personal sacrifice.

I have 10 brothers and sisters. My mother raised us because my father died when I was 8.

The fact is, human rights victories are rarely won by powerful governments or well-armed militaries. More often than not, these battles are led by individuals and small groups of people determined to overcome wrong. Think King, Gandhi, Mandela.

After my father died, we went to church for a long time every day, and then every other day during the summer.

Daddy loved our country, he loved our history. He was always talking about American history and telling us stories from American history, and loved our most treasured values of freedom, democracy, justice.

I don’t believe people are moved to action when they see horror. They’re moved to action when they see courage in the face of horror.

I think of myself as a human-rights advocate and as a mother.

I’m not the most organized person.

The time of day when there was quiet and serenity was every night when we gathered in my parents’ bedroom and knelt down together and prayed.

You can’t live in the past and say, ‘if only.’ You have to pick up and move along and make the world better.

We owe our children an environment in which they can flourish, and where law enforcement, the justice system, and society as offers them a fresh start, not a jail cell.

U.S. lawmakers should take a firm and principled stand consistent with their rhetoric about the importance of human rights and democracy in Egypt.

While the One Child Policy has been effective in drastically reducing Chinese birth rates, the measures adopted in its name have required exhaustive, violent, insidious and systemic violations of human rights.

When people ask me what’s really important about my father, I think the most important thing about him was his moral imagination.

There was no quality Robert Kennedy admired more than courage.

Nelson Mandela represents an enduring example of the human spirit and he proved for eternity that the ideals of democracy and human rights can overcome even the direst of circumstances.

Throughout Africa, as in much of the world, women are responsible for tilling the fields, deciding what to plant, nurturing the crops, and harvesting the food. They are the first to be aware of environmental damage that harms agricultural production.

I married a politician. But I thought it would be tough for my children to have two parents as politicians.

Catholics want what other Americans want: access to health care and jobs that pay a living wage. They want to send their kids to good schools. They want something done about poverty.

It’s obvious that China faces a range of demographic and economic difficulties stemming from its own population growth, and that the global community has a vested interest in avoiding the worst impacts of that growth.

There are no wealthy people on Rikers Island because if you are wealthy, you go free because you make bail.

We must permanently reinstate the Assault Weapons Ban and the restrictions on high capacity magazines.

When it comes to my Uncle Jack, my father, or any other loved ones we’ve lost, I believe in honoring lives, not deaths.

I understood at a young age that administrations come and go, but laws stay. So I decided to become a lawyer in order to help create a more just and peaceful world, not just in a fleeting moment but in a way that will endure from one generation to the next.

Elective office is one of many ways to serve the community and the country. It’s one that I would consider at some point.

Forgiveness is a gift, and central to faith.

There was no sense of burden, like, ‘I now must carry on Robert Kennedy’s unfinished work.’ Absolutely not.