Sargent Shriver Quotes

There is an alternative to war. It has been with us forever.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

The cure is care. Caring for others is the practice of peace. Caring becomes as important as curing. Caring produces the cure, not the reverse. Caring about nuclear war and its victims is the beginning of a cure for our obsession with war. Peace does not comes through strength. Quite the opposite: Strength comes through peace. The practices of peace strengthen us for every vicissitude ... The task is immense!

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

It wouldn't kill me if I were never nominated or elected to anything.

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

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

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

Does politics have to be injected into everything?

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

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.

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

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

I hate goofballs.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

The Peace Corps represents some, if not all, of the best virtues in this society. It stands for everything that America has ever stood for. It stands for everything we believe in and hope to achieve in the world.

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