Top 102 Quotes & Sayings by Kerry Kennedy
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American activist Kerry Kennedy.
Last updated on September 16, 2024.
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.
I married a politician. But I thought it would be tough for my children to have two parents as politicians.
I think there are many Democrats who are good, strong leaders. The person I like the most is my nephew, Congressman Joe Kennedy.
When I was younger, I had so many people in my family die. In my mind, heaven was as physical a place as home or school, and I knew that everyone I loved was together, enormously happy, and watching over me and awaiting my coming to this extraordinary place.
I'm not the most organized person.
As mothers, women are often the first to know when the food they feed their children is tainted with pollutants or impurities, because they can see it in the tears of their children and hear it in their babies' cries.
My earliest memories are of visiting the justice department.
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.
Those who suffer profoundly are granted profound wisdom.
Over the decades people from all walks of life have told me, 'When your father died, so did my hope.'
In a sense, all of us have the capacity to be courageous.
Daddy was never ruthless but he was tough.
The result of being a Kennedy is that I have extraordinary opportunities that I wouldn't otherwise have.
I appreciate that Marco Rubio has called for immigration reform but he goes back and forth on it a little bit.
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.
At the moment of greatest love, there is greatest fear, and at the moment of enormous repression, there is resistance, and therefore a chance at revolutionary change.
So when people say how horrible it is that Donald Trump is president, well, yeah, but we've faced a lot worse than this and our country went on to go from the world of 'Mad Men' to the world it is today, and that's what's going to happen now. That's what's going to happen in the next 50 years. We're going to be fine.
My earliest memories are when my father was the attorney general at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. We would go to visit him at the Justice Department and take the tunnel over to the FBI building and watch the sharpshooters at practice.
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.
I loved that television show Mad Men because it really was a reminder of what reality was back then.
My father loved democracy. He loved the ancient Greeks because they invented democracy, and he shared their contempt for those who refused to participate in the political process.
The way we need to view aid is as a fulfillment of rights, and Mexico, as other countries around the world, have agreed and signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the covenants of Human Rights and that includes the right to food, the right to water, the right to housing and the right to education.
In planes, I used to try to look behind the clouds to see if I saw an angel.
In fact, most people who are bullies are people who have been abused in one way or the other in some other part of their life, and somebody who is bullied at school might come home and bully their younger siblings or their cousins or other people in their neighborhood, or in cyberspace.
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.
The struggle for human rights is at its core a struggle for human dignity.
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.
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 went to the Convent of the Sacred Heart for four years. It was interesting to me because, in a family where men were clearly favored over women, this was an atmosphere, a world, run by strong, determined, smart women in leadership, who had high expectations of the girls, and this tremendous sense of love and commitment to the wider world.
I love presidential campaigns. It is a time when people are feeling what is going on in the heart of our country.
There were times I should have been completely emotionally available to my kids and I wasn't there, even for reading a book with them or watching TV or tucking my daughter into bed.
We've got to pass legislation which will allow people to have access to competent counsel no matter who they are.
It's important to reach out to people who are marginalized.
I have 10 brothers and sisters. My mother raised us because my father died when I was 8.
Elective office is one of many ways to serve the community and the country. It's one that I would consider at some point.
When people ask me what's really important about my father, I think the most important thing about him was his moral imagination.
Having a sense of humor is a part of being courageous. It's a source of strength.
I think of myself as a human-rights advocate and as a mother.
Look, my mother's not a welfare woman. She certainly had plenty of help. But there's no substitute for a husband and partner.
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.
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.
Dr. King gave his life to peace and justice and reconciliation between people, black and white, rich and poor, and he was a great hero for not only people who were oppressed in our country but for people who believed in justice both here and around the world.
I think that on the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders talks about income inequality and poverty alleviation, and those issues are so important.
Wangari Maathai was a mighty woman, creative, fearless, and full of love.
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.
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.
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.
There are no wealthy people on Rikers Island because if you are wealthy, you go free because you make bail.
There was no sense of burden, like, 'I now must carry on Robert Kennedy's unfinished work.' Absolutely not.
After my father died, we went to church for a long time every day, and then every other day during the summer.
You don't need a passport to work on human rights.
In my human-rights work, perhaps the most important thing is gaining the trust of the victims.
I myself am a soccer mom, a volleyball mom and a basketball mom.
It's hard to have both parents involved in elective office at the same time.
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.
A mentor is someone with a willingness to help others, who has a capacity to inspire, a determination to work hard, a clear sense of vision, an inspiring purpose, a deep sense of integrity and an appreciation for joy.
So I think that having Donald Trump as president of our country, and also his impact around the world, would have left my father in dismay.
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.
I thought of running for office when I was in law school, but I wanted to work on human rights.
Forgiveness is a gift, and central to faith.
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