No just cause is futile, even if it's lost. What matters is to keep going, no matter what. Keep going.
Hillary Clinton
Yale University Class Day 2018, 2018
Video starts at 26:58 — the moment this quote was spoken
The Story Behind This Quote
Clinton attributes the first part to John McCain and uses it to close her charge to the graduates. The message threads together every form of resilience she's discussed — personal, community, and democratic. She's told them to pace themselves, lean on each other, look for the good, celebrate heroes, encourage children, and find ways to disagree respectfully. She's warned them they will lose some fights. But losing a fight doesn't make the cause futile. The repetition of 'keep going' — delivered twice — carries the weight of someone who has personally experienced the most public political loss in modern American history and is still, by her own testimony, showing up to fight every day.