Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
| NUMBER: | 1864 |
| AUTHOR: | Robert Francis Kennedy (1925–68) |
| QUOTATION: | What we need in the United States is not division. What we need in the United States is not hatred. What we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness, but love and wisdom and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country whether they be white or they be black. Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: To tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. Let us dedicate ourselves to that and say a prayer for our country and our people. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Senator These words are taken from his extemporaneous eulogy of Martin Luther King, Jr., given at the airport in Indianapolis, Indiana, April 4, 1968.—Robert F. Kennedy: Promises to Keep, sel. Arthur Wortman and Richard Rhodes, p. 33 (1969) The printed version lacks the first two sentences above and a few words of the third, and there are other minor variations in wording. The quotation from the Greeks has been attributed to Aeschylus but has not been found in his works. |
| SUBJECTS: | Unity |