Political Quotes

“I wish to extend my wife's and my deepest sympathy to our colleague, the senior Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. Kennedy], on the death of his mother, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. I extend condolences also to two of her grandsons, my Rhode Island colleague Representatives Patrick Kennedy and Representative Joseph Kennedy of Massachusetts. No other woman in American history can match the distinction of Rose Kennedy in nurturing progeny for distinguished service to the Nation. Three sons who became U.S. Senators, one of them a President, and now in the next generation two grandsons in the House of Representatives, a granddaughter who is a Lieutenant Governor, and another grandson in a State legislature. History will look back in wonder and admiration at such a family and especially at the woman who instilled it with so much vitality and high sense of purpose. Rose Kennedy was privileged to savor the highest of life's triumphs but she also had to bear the burdens of tragedy of almost unbearable weight. Where lesser mortals would have been crushed by such adversity, Rose Kennedy remarkably kept on course, guided, as it were by some strong inner compass. We know now that the compass was steadied by her own great faith and religious commitment, and that these were the sure cornerstones on which she built her extraordinary family. Rose Kennedy left a legacy like no other to the Nation, and the Nation will always be grateful.”