Top 87 Edward Kennedy Quotes
#1. I hope for an America where neither "fundamentalist" nor "humanist" will be a dirty word, but a fair description of the different ways in which people of good will look at life and into their own souls.
Edward Kennedy
#2. It's disgraceful that year after year, Congress has bowed to the tobacco lobby and refused to act.
Edward Kennedy
#3. Do we operate under a system of equal justice under law? Or is there one system for the average citizen and another for the high and mighty?
Edward Kennedy
#4. From the windows of my office in Boston ... I can see the Golden Stairs from Boston Harbor where all eight of my great-grandparents set foot on this great land for the first time. That immigrant spirit of limitless possibility animates America even today.
Edward Kennedy
#5. I think a child calling for his mother is the most beautiful sound in the world.
Edward Kennedy
#7. Don't sacrifice your political convictions for the convenience of the hour.
Edward Kennedy
#8. What we have in the United States is not so much a health-care system as a disease-care system.
Edward Kennedy
#9. As we have seen from Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's example, even one justice can profoundly alter the meaning of those words for our citizens. Even one justice can deeply affect the rights and liberties of the American people.
Edward Kennedy
#10. Democrats may be in the minority in Congress, but we speak for the majority of Americans.
Edward Kennedy
#11. The Republicans are looking after the financial interests of the wealthiest individuals in this country.
Edward Kennedy
#12. It's now clear that from the very moment President Bush took office, Iraq was his highest priority as unfinished business from the first Bush Administration. His agenda was clear: find a rationale to get rid of Saddam.
Edward Kennedy
#13. There was no imminent threat. This was made up in Texas, announced in January to the Republican leadership that war was going to take place and was going to be good politically. This whole thing was a fraud.
Edward Kennedy
#14. The core values of our constitution are at the heart of our nation's progress.
Edward Kennedy
#15. We know the future will outlast all of us, but I believe that all of us will live on in the future we made.
Edward Kennedy
#16. I had the privilege of chairing Judge Samuel Alito confirmation hearing in 1990. And at that time, he had practiced law for 14 years, but only represented one client, the United States government.
Edward Kennedy
#17. I hope for an America where no president, no public official, no individual will ever be deemed a greater or lesser American because of religious doubt - or religious belief.
Edward Kennedy
#18. I favor access to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
Edward Kennedy
#19. Today, we say the only thing we have to fear is four more years of George Bush.
Edward Kennedy
#20. We were taught never to give up, never to passively accept fate, but to exhaust every last ounce of will and hope in the face of any challenge.
Edward Kennedy
#21. As Justice Sandra Day O'Connor stated, even a state of war is not a blank check for a president to do whatever he wants.
Edward Kennedy
#22. We have to respect that any nominee to the Supreme Court would have to defer any comments on any matters, which are either before the court or very likely to be before the court.
Edward Kennedy
#23. Frankly, I don't mind not being President. I just mind that someone else is.
Edward Kennedy
#24. The Supreme Court must serve as an independent check on abuses by the executive branch and the protector of our liberties, not a cheerleader for an imperial presidency.
Edward Kennedy
#25. If I can leave a single message with the younger generation, it is to lash yourself to the mast, like Ulysses if you must, to escape the siren calls of complacency and indifference.
Edward Kennedy
#26. I hope for an America where we can all contend freely and vigorously, but where we will treasure and guard those standards of civility which alone make this nation safe for both democracy and diversity.
Edward Kennedy
#27. Health care is not just another commodity. It is not a gift to be rationed based on the ability to pay. It is time to make universal health insurance a national priority, so that the basic right to health care can finally become a reality for every American.
Edward Kennedy
#28. For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end. For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.
Edward Kennedy
#29. 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.
Edward Kennedy
#30. Make no mistake about it! There is an organized movement against organized labor and it's called the Bush Administration.
Edward Kennedy
#31. We are giving assurance to the American families that help is on its way.
Edward Kennedy
#32. The demand of our people in 1980 is not for smaller government or bigger government but for better government.
Edward Kennedy
#33. Our struggle is not with some monarch named George who inherited the crown. Although it often seems that way.
Edward Kennedy
#34. Never listen to a phone call that isn't meant for you. Never read a letter that isn't meant for you. Never pay attention to a comment that isn't meant for you. Never violate people's privacy. You will save yourself a lot of anguish.
Edward Kennedy
#35. Will a nominee embrace and uphold the essential meaning of the four words inscribed above the entrance of the Supreme Court building: Equal justice under law?
Edward Kennedy
#36. If confirmed, Judge [Samuel] Alito could serve on the court for generation or more. And the decisions he will make as justice will have a direct impact on the lives and liberties of our children, our grandchildren, and even our great-grandchildren.
Edward Kennedy
#37. She's a wonderful, wonderful person, and we're looking to a happy and wonderful night - ah, life.
Edward Kennedy
#38. What divides us pales in comparison to what unites us.
Edward Kennedy
#40. As a society, we've learned that we're all better off
when everyone is included in the opportunities of this great nation.
Edward Kennedy
#41. I applaud the fact that the president has reached out to the members of Judiciary Committee. And I applaud. the fact that he has been meeting with members of the Judiciary Committee. He's been seeking out Republicans as well as Democrats.
Edward Kennedy
#42. There is no safety in hiding. Like my brothers before me, I pick up a fallen standard. Sustained by the memory of our priceless years together, I shall try to carry forward that special commitment to justice, excellence and courage that distinguished their lives.
Edward Kennedy
#43. [W]ords are fine, but it has to be what a generation reads into those words.
Edward Kennedy
#44. The Constitution does not just protect those whose views we share; it also protects those with whose views we disagree.
Edward Kennedy
#45. The tax system is stacked against the average taxpayer.
Edward Kennedy
#46. That is a pretty big deal from a commitment standpoint.
Edward Kennedy
#47. I hate to see a young man get ahead on the basis of a famous family name.
Edward Kennedy
#48. Dad, I'm in some trouble. There's been an accident and you're going to hear all sorts of things about me from now on. Terrible things.
Edward Kennedy
#49. I won't yield to anyone about guns in our society. I know enough about it.
Edward Kennedy
#50. Under the Bush administration, openness and accountability have been replaced by secrecy and evasion of responsibility. They abuse their power, conceal their actions from the American people, and refuse to hold officials accountable.
Edward Kennedy
#51. Violence is an admission that one's ideas and goals cannot prevail on their own merits.
Edward Kennedy
#52. Supreme Court nominations are an occasion to pause and reflect on the values that make our nation strong, just and fair. And we must determine whether a nominee has a demonstrated commitment to those basic values.
Edward Kennedy
#53. In decision after decision on the bench, Judge [Samuel] Alito has excused abusive actions by the authorities that intrude on the personal privacy and freedoms of average Americans.
Edward Kennedy
#54. In an era when America is still too divided by race and by riches, Judge [Samuel] Alito has not written one single opinion on the merits in favor of a person of color alleging race discrimination on the job: in 15 years on the bench, not one.
Edward Kennedy
#55. Immigration reforms are always controversial. Our Congress was created to muster political will to answer such challenges. Today we didn't, but tomorrow we will. I yield the floor.
Edward Kennedy
#56. With Barack Obama, we will turn the page on the old politics of misrepresentation and distortion. With Barack Obama we will close the book on the old politics of race against race, gender against gender, ethnic group against ethnic group, and straight against gay.
Edward Kennedy
#57. Justice Lewis Powell spoke for all of us when he said: Equal justice under law is perhaps the most inspiring idea of our society. It is one of the ends for which our entire legal system exists.
Edward Kennedy
#58. I don't think you're going to be a success in anything if you think about losing, whether it's in sports or in politics.
Edward Kennedy
#59. Use every tool in our arsenal to ensure that his nomination is rejected again this year.
Edward Kennedy
#60. It appears that legal positions that you have supported have been used by the administration, the military, and the CIA to justify torture and Geneva Convention violations by military and civilian personnel.
Edward Kennedy
#61. There is no morality in the mushroom cloud. The black rain of nuclear ashes will fall alike on the just and the unjust. And then it will be too late to wish that we had done the real work of this atomic age, which is to seek a world that is neither red nor dead.
Edward Kennedy
#62. Sometimes a party must sail against the wind. We cannot heed the call of those who say it is time to furl the sail. The party that tore itself apart over Vietnam in the 1960s cannot afford to tear itself apart today over budget cuts in basic social programs.
Edward Kennedy
#63. As you know so well, the passage of time never really heals the tragic memory of such a great loss, but we carry on, because we have to, because our loved one would want us to, and because there is still light to guide us in the world from the love they gave us.
Edward Kennedy
#64. I get up very early in the morning. I enjoy the quietness, the stillness, the rawness in the winter and fall. It's a special time.
Edward Kennedy
#65. It's better to send in the Peace Corps than the Marine Corps.
Edward Kennedy
#66. No one who works for a living should live in poverty.
Edward Kennedy
#67. We want to support our troops because they didn't make the decision to go there ... but I don't think it should be open-ended. We ought to have a benchmark where the administration has to come back and give us a report.
Edward Kennedy
#68. Floating screw - that's what people used to call me.
Edward Kennedy
#69. We need the breast and the brightest to- umm the best and the brightest ...
Edward Kennedy
#70. I hope for an America where the power of faith will always burn brightly, but where no modern inquisition of any kind will ever light the fires of fear, coercion, or angry division.
Edward Kennedy
#71. In fact, the legal system is in part responsible for their very size and growth. And too often when the individual finds himself in conflict with these forces, the legal system sides with the giant institution, not the small businessman or private citizen.
Edward Kennedy
#72. Judges are appointed by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. And it is our duty to ask questions on great issues that matter to the American people and to speak for them.
Edward Kennedy
#73. Keep your tax-cutting, greedy hands off our medicare
Edward Kennedy
#74. My brother need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered 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
#75. Thus, the controversy about the Moral Majority arises not only from its views, but from its name - which, in the minds of many, seems to imply that only one set of public policies is moral and only one majority can possibly be right.
Edward Kennedy
#76. Even one justice can advance or reverse the progress of our journey.
Edward Kennedy
#77. The great adventures which our opponents offer is a voyage into the past. Progress is our heritage, not theirs. What is right for us as Democrats is also the right way for Democrats to win.
Edward Kennedy
#78. The Republican program is the profit-protection program for the insurance industry It's a bill of goods, it's a bill of wrongs. Ours is a patients' bill of rights.
Edward Kennedy
#79. The more our feelings diverge, the more deeply felt they are, the greater is our obligation to grant the sincerity and essential decency of our fellow citizens on the other side.
Edward Kennedy
#80. The city of Hiroshima stands as more than a monument to massive death and destruction. It stands as a living testament to the necessity for progress toward nuclear disarmament.
Edward Kennedy
#81. We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction.
Edward Kennedy
#82. Individual faults and frailties are no excuse to give in - and no exemption from the common obligation to give of ourselves.
Edward Kennedy
#83. Shamefully we now learn that Saddam's torture chambers reopened under new management, U.S. management.
Edward Kennedy
#84. There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein's regime is a serious danger, that he is a tyrant, and that his pursuit of lethal weapons of mass destruction cannot be tolerated. He must be disarmed.
Edward Kennedy
#85. Separation of church and state cannot mean an absolute separation between moral principles and political power.
Edward Kennedy
#86. A good marriage is loving someone in a lot of different circumstances. Respect for them and their views and ideas and the life that they're leading with you. Shared values and interests. A good sense of humour. And a little volatility along the way.
Edward Kennedy
#87. Ultimately, the courts will make the final judgment whether the White House has gone too far. Independent and impartial judges must assess the proper balance between protecting our liberties and protecting our national security.
Edward Kennedy
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