US News

BACKGROUND: Ted Kennedy quotes

Aug 26, 2009, 18:14 GMT

Washington - US senator Ted Kennedy, who died late Tuesday after battling brain cancer for more than a year, served in the Senate for over 47 years.

His career and personal life included much success but also disappointment and tragedy. Below is a collection of quotes spanning the life of the celebrated senator:

'He brought to the American people ... a feeling which was so evident in the United States in the 19th century: That people really could accomplish what they set their mind about to do.' - Speaking about his assassinated brother, former president John F Kennedy (May 1964).

'I don't think that it should or would.' - On whether JFK's assassination inspired him politically (May 1964).

'My brother need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered simply 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. Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world.' - Eulogizing brother Robert F Kennedy (June 1968).

'I do not seek to escape responsibility for my actions by placing the blame either on the physical and emotional trauma brought on by the accident, or on anyone else. I regard as indefensible the fact that I did not report the accident to the police immediately.' - On the Chappaquiddick incident and his failure to contact police after the car he was driving went off a bridge (July 1969). A female passenger in the vehicle drowned.

'We have learned that it is important to take issues seriously, but never to take ourselves too seriously.' - Ending his bid for the presidency (August 1980).

'I know this decision means I may never be president. But the pursuit of the presidency is not my life. Public service is.' - Declaring in December 1985 that he would not run in the 1988 election.

'150,000 American troops are bogged down in a quagmire in Iraq because the Bush administration misrepresented and distorted the intelligence to justify a war that America never should have fought.' - On the war in Iraq (November 2005).

'He was always a good friend and a gracious foe. He wanted to defeat his opponents, but not destroy them.' - Speaking in April 2007 about the late former president Ronald Reagan, his ideological opponent (as quoted by Politico.com).

'This November the torch will be passed again to a new generation of Americans, so with Barack Obama and for you and for me, our country will be committed to his cause. The work begins anew. The hope rises again. And the dream lives on.' - Predicting an Obama victory at the Democratic convention (August 2008).