If freedom makes social progress possible, so social progress strengthens and enlarges freedom. The two are inseparable partners in the great adventure of humanity.
Robert KennedyRead
Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is equally true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Society's values shape both its criminals and law enforcement.
This quote by Robert Kennedy suggests that the nature of crime and the effectiveness of law enforcement are reflective of the society that produces them. It implies that both the criminals who emerge and the laws that are enforced are a product of the collective attitudes and beliefs of the community, highlighting a mutual responsibility between citizens and their societal structures.
Themes
SocietyLaw EnforcementCriminalsCommunityResponsibility
In practice
Example use cases
During a community meeting discussing crime rates, this quote can be used to emphasize the need for active citizen engagement.
More from Robert Kennedy
All quotes βElections remind us not only of the rights but the responsibilities of citizenship in a democracy.
Robert KennedyRead
Within the United States, we have put great emphasis upon political freedoms. Because it has been our experience that these freedoms can lead to others.
Robert KennedyRead
It is one thing to open job opportunities. It is another to train people to fill them, or to persuade American enterprise to seek Negro as well as white applicants.
Robert KennedyRead
Our attitude towards immigration reflects our faith in the American ideal. We have always believed it possible for men and women who start at the bottom to rise as far as the talent and energy allow. Neither race nor place of birth should affect their chances.
Robert KennedyRead
The Gross National Product measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile, and it can tell us everything about America - except whether we are proud to be Americans.
Robert KennedyRead
Similar quotes
Dawn: When men of reason go to bed.
Ambrose BierceRead
You can know all there is to know about life and mankind, but what do you really know about yourself?
Yasmina KhadraRead
Metaphysics is almost always an attempt to prove the incredible by an appeal to the unintelligible.
H. L. MenckenRead
Don't believe the hype; don't believe what it tells you on your driver's license. You are an extension of the power that created this whole universe.
RupaulRead
One thing only do I know for certain and that is that man's judgments of value follow directly his wishes for happiness-that, accordingly, they are an attempt to support his illusions with arguments. [p.111]
Sigmund FreudRead
Yes, in my life, since we must call it so, there were three things, the inability to speak, the inability to be silent, and solitude, thatβs what Iβve had to make the best of.
Samuel BeckettRead