Quotes from Robert Kennedy and His Times

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. ·  1088 pages

Rating: (2K votes)


“What would have happened had he not been killed? He would certainly have had a rocky road to the nomination. The power of the Johnson administration and much of the party establishment was behind Humphrey. Still, the dynamism was behind Kennedy, and he might well have swept the convention. If nominated, he would most probably have beaten the Republican candidate, Richard M. Nixon. Individuals do make a difference to history. A Robert Kennedy presidency would have brought a quick end to American involvement in the Vietnam War. Those thousands of Americans—and many thousands more Vietnamese and Cambodians—who were killed from 1969 to 1973 would have been at home with their families. A Robert Kennedy presidency would have consolidated and extended the achievements of John Kennedy’s New Frontier and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. The liberal tide of the 1960s was still running strong enough in 1969 to affect Nixon’s domestic policies. The Environmental Protection Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act with its CETA employment program were all enacted under Nixon. If that still fast-flowing tide so influenced a conservative administration, what signal opportunities it would have given a reform president! The confidence that both black and white working-class Americans had in Robert Kennedy would have created the possibility of progress toward racial reconciliation. His appeal to the young might have mitigated some of the under-thirty excesses of the time. And of course the election of Robert Kennedy would have delivered the republic from Watergate, with its attendant subversion of the Constitution and destruction of faith in government. RRK”
― Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., quote from Robert Kennedy and His Times


“For Robert the experience was another step in education. He was learning in particular that patriotic declarations did not make due process of law superfluous and that he owed a debt to his own inner standards.”
― Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., quote from Robert Kennedy and His Times


About the author

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.
Born place: in Columbus, Ohio, The United States
Born date October 15, 1917
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“...infirmity alone makes us take notice and learn, and enables us to analyse mechanisms of which otherwise we should know nothing. A man who falls straight into bed night after night, and ceases to live until the moment when he wakes and rises, will surely never dream of making, I don't say great discoveries, but even minor observations about sleep. He scarcely knows that he is asleep. A little insomnia is not without its value in making us appreciate sleep, in throwing a ray of light upon that darkness. An unfailing memory is not a very powerful incentive to the study of the phenomena of memory.”
― Marcel Proust, quote from Sodom and Gomorrah


“I don't need to kill goats to say things. I CAN talk.”
― L.J. Smith, quote from Daughters of Darkness


“If there's one thing I learned from the playlist, it's how important listening to people can be. I”
― Michelle Falkoff, quote from Playlist for the Dead


“It is always best when discussing serious matters to do so around a teapot.”
― Gordon Dahlquist, quote from The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters


“Their eyes were usually open, and they stared up at the moon that had killed them.”
― Susan Beth Pfeffer, quote from The Dead and the Gone


Interesting books

Sweet Reckoning
(26.9K)
Sweet Reckoning
by Wendy Higgins
Moving Pictures
(53.7K)
Moving Pictures
by Terry Pratchett
Olive Kitteridge
(117.2K)
Olive Kitteridge
by Elizabeth Strout
The Invisible Game: Mindset of a Winning Team
(126)
The Invisible Game:...
by Zoltan Andrejkovics
Thinking, Fast and Slow
(174.9K)
Thinking, Fast and S...
by Daniel Kahneman
Trust: A New Beginning
(534)
Trust: A New Beginni...
by Cristiane Serruya

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.