You live in one of the most privileged nations on earth. You are the most privileged citizens of that privileged nation for you have been given the opportunity to study and learn, to take your place among the tiny minority of the world's educated men and women. By coming to this school you have been lifted onto a tiny, sunlit island, while all around you lies an ocean of human misery, injustice, violence, and fear.

You can use your enormous privilege and opportunity to seek purely private pleasure and gain. But history will judge you, and, as the years pass, you will ultimately judge yourself, on the extent to which you have used your gifts to lighten and enrich the lives of your fellow man. In your hands, not with president's or leaders', is the future of your world and the fulfillment of the best qualities of your own spirit.

Robert F. Kennedy

Speech to Students: A Speech on Race
University of California at Berkeley
October 10, 1966