Sargent Shriver Quotes

If education does not create a need for the best in life, then we are stuck in an undemocratic, rigid caste society.

I want to warn anyone who sees the Peace Corps as an alternative to the draft that life may well be easier at Fort Dix or at apost in Germany than it will be with us.

Peace requires the simple but powerful recognition that what we have in common as human beings is more important and crucial than what divides us.

Do the job first. Worry about the clearance later.

What can change the world today is the same thing that has changed it in the past-an idea and the service of dedicated, committed individuals to that idea.

It is not what you get out of life that counts. It's what you give and what is given from the heart.

It is well to be prepared for life as it is, but it is better to be prepared to make life better than it is.

Serve, serve, serve. Because in the end, it will be the servants who save us all.

The Peace Corps is guilty of enthusiasm and a crusading spirit. But we're not apologetic about it.

Any idealist who tries to join the Peace Corps must realize he is not going to change the world overnight.

Respect for another man's opinion is worthy. It is the realization that any opinion is valuable, for it is the sign of a rational being.

Does politics have to be injected into everything?

Just to travel is rather boring, but to travel with a purpose is educational and exciting.

As far as I was concerned, the Depression was an ill wind that blew some good. If it hadn't occurred, my parents would have given me my college education. As it was, I had to scrabble for it.

In the Peace Corps, the volunteer must be a fully developed, mature person. He must not join to run abroad or escape problems.

Shatter the glass. In our society that is so self-absorbed, begin to look less at yourself and more at each other. Learn more about the face of your neighbor and less about your own.

The only genuine elite is the elite of those men and women who gave their lives to justice and charity.

I never ride just to ride. I ride to catch a fox. I play baseball to make the team.

The Peace Corps would give thousands of young Americans a chance to see at first hand the conditions in remote areas of the world.

Racists are irrational and illogical in their attempts to justify their prejudices.

My parents had always preached the virtues of hard work. But hard work is one thing; economic struggle is another.

We must treat the disease of racism. This means we must understand the disease.

Racism cannot be cured solely by attacking some of the results it produces, like discrimination in housing or in education.

Jews have suffered persecution from misguided Christians who tortured the Jews for their part in killing Christ. These Christians forgot that Christ died because of the sins of all men.

Being accused of enthusiasm is something I'll never live down.

Working in an underdeveloped land for two or three years, the volunteer will often find that his work is routine and full of frustration.

When Roosevelt came along, I approved of his program, generally. I figured an economic system should work for people, not vice versa.

The natural idealism of youth is an idealism, alas, for which we do not always provide as many outlets as we should.

I don't think the Gallup Poll technique is going to be very helpful in determining the goals of our educational system.

I don't have to run the Peace Corps. I could live without seeing my picture in the newspapers and without being interviewed.

I can remember at college, living on 30-cent meals.

A line has to be drawn somewhere between what is essential and what is peripheral.

My parents were second cousins. That is enough to explain all of my peculiarities.

I do not think that the educational program of our schools should be determined by what the community thinks it needs.

It's the most rewarding thing to be a civil servant.

The roots of racism lie deep in man's nature, wounded and bruised by original sin.

One of the things Mr. Kennedy taught me was that in laying out a new project, you shouldn't try to cope with every little problem.

He who knows all things and believes nothing is damned.

It is precisely our job as Catholics to speak the truth as plainly and precisely as we can.

Joe Kennedy isn't in the habit of having incompetents around. I wouldn't have lasted three months if I didn't have some ability.

If a young person has any idealism at all, it's strongest about the time he finishes college.

Christian virtues unite men. Racism separates them.