Moral Crisis Quotes
Kennedy said that he was quoting Dante. However, he or his speechwriter, got the quote wrong. In the Devine Comedy, Dante had a hot place in hell for the neutral, but the hottest place was reserved for traitors. Many people since then use this quote and attribute incorrectly to Dante because Kennedy’s version is the only one with which they have come in contact.
Full quote: “We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living.”
Even some who bought the party line that the Emperor had personally not started the war or the other incursions, blamed the Emperor for his inaction.
Kennedy was introducing a Civil Rights Act. He was assassinated thereafter. Much of the content was passed by President Lyndon Johnson as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.