A Tiny Ripple Of Hope ...

" Few will have the greatness to bend history;
  but each of us can work to change a small portion of the events,
  and in the total of all these acts will be written the history of this generation …
  It is from numberless diverse acts of courage such as these
  (that the belief) that human history is thus shaped. 

  Each time a man stands up for an ideal,
  or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice,
  he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope,
  and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring
  those ripples build a current which can sweep down
  the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. " 

Robert F. Kennedy
United States Senator and Attorney General
20 November 1925 - 6 June 1968
Excerpts from Annual Day of Affirmation address, 6 June 1966 

http://www.rfkmemorial.org/lifevision/dayofaffirmation/
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/rfkcapetown.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_Affirmation_speech