 |
(no category)
|
|
The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve itand the glow from that fire can truly light the world.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for youask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
Before my term has ended, we shall have to test anew whether a nation organized and governed such as ours can endure. The outcome is by no means certain.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth Gods work must truly be our own.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
For if Freedom and Communism were to compete for mans allegiance in a world at peace, I would look to the future with ever increasing confidence.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolutewhere no Catholic prelate would tell the President how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to votewhere no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preferenceand where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him. I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewishwhere no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical sourcewhere no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officialsand where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all. For while this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been, and may someday be again, a Jewor a Quakeror a Unitarianor a Baptist. It was Virginias harassment of Baptist preachers, for example, that helped lead to Jeffersons statute of religious freedom. Today I may be the victimbut tomorrow it may be youuntil the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped at a time of great national peril. Finally, I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday endwhere all men and all churches are treated as equalwhere every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choicewhere there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote, no bloc voting of any kindand where Catholics, Protestants and Jews, at both the lay and pastoral level, will refrain from those attitudes of disdain and division which have so often marred their works in the past, and promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood. That is the kind of America in which I believe. And it represents the
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
We in this country, in this generation, areby destiny rather than choicethe watchmen on the walls of world freedom. We ask, therefore, that we may be worthy of our power and responsibility, that we may exercise our strength with wisdom and restraint, and that we may achieve in our time and for all time the ancient vision of peace on earth, good will toward men. That must always be our goal, and the righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength. For as was written long ago: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
The purpose of foreign policy is not to provide an outlet for our own sentiments of hope or indignation; it is to shape real events in a real world.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
To those peoples in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is requirednot because the communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
Is this Nation stating it cannot afford to spend an additional $600 million to help the developing nations of the world become strong and free and independentan amount less than this countrys annual outlay for lipstick, face cream, and chewing gum?
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
All my life Ive known better than to depend on the experts. How could I have been so stupid, to let them go ahead?
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
Never before has man had such capacity to control his own environment, to end thirst and hunger, to conquer poverty and disease, to banish illiteracy and massive human misery. We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the worldor to make it the last.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
Now the trumpet summons us againnot as a call to bear arms, though arms we neednot as a call to battle, though embattled we arebut a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulationa struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
We cannot expect that everyone, to use the phrase of a decade ago, will talk sense to the American people. But we can hope that fewer people will listen to nonsense. And the notion that this Nation is headed for defeat through deficit, or that strength is but a matter of slogans, is nothing but just plain nonsense.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
I ask that you offer to the political arena, and to the critical problems of our society which are decided therein, the benefit of the talents which society has helped to develop in you. I ask you to decide, as Goethe put it, whether you will be an anvilor a hammer. The question is whether you are to be a hammerwhether you are to give to the world in which you were reared and educated the broadest possible benefits of that education.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
Without belittling the courage with which men have died, we should not forget those acts of courage with which men have lived. The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy. A man does what he mustin spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressuresand that is the basis of all human morality. In whatever arena of life one may meet the challenge of courage, whatever may be the sacrifices he faces if he follows his consciencethe loss of his friends, his fortune, his contentment, even the esteem of his fellow meneach man must decide for himself the course he will follow. The stories of past courage can define that ingredientthey can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
This increase in the life span and in the number of our senior citizens presents this Nation with increased opportunities: the opportunity to draw upon their skill and sagacityand the opportunity to provide the respect and recognition they have earned. It is not enough for a great nation merely to have added new years to lifeour objective must also be to add new life to those years.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
I do not think it altogether inappropriate to introduce myself to this audience. I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris, and I have enjoyed it.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
Somebody once said that Washington was a city of Northern charm and Southern efficiency.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
I dont think that unless a greater effort is made by the Government to win popular support that the war can be won out there. In the final analysis, it is their war. They are the ones who have to win it or lose it. We can help them, we can give them equipment, we can send our men out there as advisers, but they have to win it, the people of Viet-Nam, against the Communists.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
Theres an old saying that victory has 100 fathers and defeat is an orphan.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
In its knowledges light, we must think and act not only for the moment but for our time. I am reminded of the great French Marshal Lyautey, who once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardener objected that the tree was slow-growing and would not reach maturity for a hundred years. The Marshal replied, In that case, there is no time to lose, plant it this afternoon.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said Because it is there. Well, space is there, and were going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. I believe we should go to the moon. But there is no sense in agreeing or desiring that the United States take an affirmative position in outer space, unless we are prepared to do the work and bear the burdens to make it successful.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
And we must face the fact that the United States is neither omnipotent or omniscientthat we are only 6 percent of the worlds populationthat we cannot impose our will upon the other 94 percent of mankindthat we cannot right every wrong or reverse every adversityand that therefore there cannot be an American solution to every world problem.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
As they say on my own Cape Cod, a rising tide lifts all the boats. And a partnership, by definition, serves both partners, without domination or unfair advantage. Together we have been partners in adversitylet us also be partners in prosperity.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
For of those to whom much is given, much is required. And when at some future date the high court of history sits in judgment on each of usrecording whether in our brief span of service we fulfilled our responsibilities to the stateour success or failure, in whatever office we hold, will be measured by the answers to four questions:First, were we truly men of couragewith the courage to stand up to ones enemiesand the courage to stand up, when necessary, to ones associatesthe courage to resist public pressure, as well as private greed?Secondly, were we truly men of judgmentwith perceptive judgment of the future as well as the pastof our mistakes as well as the mistakes of otherswith enough wisdom to know what we did not know and enough candor to admit it. Third, were we truly men of integritymen who never ran out on either the principles in which we believed or the men who believed in usmen whom neither financial gain nor political ambition could ever divert from the fulfillment of our sacred trust?Finally, were we truly men of dedicationwith an honor mortgaged to no single individual or group, and comprised of no private obligation or aim, but devoted solely to serving the public good and the national interest?Couragejudgmentintegritydedicationthese are the historic qualities which, with Gods help will characterize our Governments conduct in the 4 stormy years that lie ahead.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
And if we are to open employment opportunities in this country for members of all races and creeds, then the Federal Government must set an example. The President himself must set the key example. I am not going to promise a Cabinet post or any other post to any race or ethnic group. That is racism in reverse at its worst. So I do not promise to consider race or religion in my appointments if I am successful. I promise only that I will not consider them.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
According to the ancient Chinese proverb, A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
Well, I am reading more and enjoying it lesslaughterand so on, but I have not complained nor do I plan to make any general complaints. I read and talk to myself about it, but I dont plan to issue any general statement on the press. I think that they are doing their task, as a critical branch, the fourth estate. And I am attempting to do mine. And we are going to live together for a period, and then go our separate ways. Laughter.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
I am deeply touchednot as deeply touched as you have been coming to this dinner, but nevertheless it is a sentimental occasion.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
And so it is that I carry with me from this State to that high and lonely office to which I now succeed more than fond memories and fast friendships. The enduring qualities of Massachusettsthe common threads woven by the Pilgrim and the Puritan, the fisherman and the farmer, the Yankee and the immigrantwill not be and could not be forgotten in the Nations Executive Mansion. They are an indelible part of my life, my convictions, my view of the past, my hopes for the future.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
Dont teach my boy poetry, an English mother recently wrote the Provost of Harrow. Dont teach my boy poetry; he is going to stand for Parliament. Well, perhaps she was rightbut if more politicians knew poetry, and more poets knew politics, I am convinced the world would be a little better place to live on this Commencement Day of 1956.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
Sometimes party loyalty asks too much.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
Of course, both major parties today seek to serve the national interest. They would do so in order to obtain the broadest base of support, if for no nobler reason. But when party and officeholder differ as to how the national interest is to be served, we must place first the responsibility we owe not to our party or even to our constituents but to our individual consciences.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
So let us here resolve that Dag Hammarskjold did not live, or die, in vain. Let us call a truce to terror. Let us invoke the blessings of peace. And, as we build an international capacity to keep peace, let us join in dismantling the national capacity to wage war.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books in more public libraries. These libraries should be open to allexcept the censor. We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors. For the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our liberty.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
Dante once said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
A young man who does not have what it takes to perform military service is not likely to have what it takes to make a living. Todays military rejects include tomorrows hard core unemployed.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
Lobbyists are in many cases expert technicians and capable of explaining complex and difficult subjects in a clear, understandable fashion. They engage in personal discussions with Members of Congress in which they can explain in detail the reasons for positions they advocate. Because our congressional representation is based on geographical boundaries, the lobbyists who speak for the various economic, commercial, and other functional interests of this country serve a very useful purpose and have assumed an important role in the legislative process.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
There is always inequity in life. Some men are killed in a war and some men are wounded, and some men never leave the country, and some men are stationed in the Antarctic and some are stationed in San Francisco. Its very hard in military or in personal life to assure complete equality. Life is unfair.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of grace and beauty.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
I look forward to an America which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft. I look forward to an America which will steadily raise the standards of artistic accomplishment and which will steadily enlarge cultural opportunities for all of our citizens. And I look forward to an America which commands respect throughout the world not only for its strength but for its civilization as well.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
There is a connection, hard to explain logically but easy to feel, between achievement in public life and progress in the arts. The age of Pericles was also the age of Phidias. The age of Lorenzo de Medici was also the age of Leonardo da Vinci. The age of Elizabeth was also the age of Shakespeare. And the New Frontier for which I campaign in public life, can also be a New Frontier for American art.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
To further the appreciation of culture among all the people, to increase respect for the creative individual, to widen participation by all the processes and fulfillments of artthis is one of the fascinating challenges of these days.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Acceptance
|
|
History will never accept difficulties as an excuse.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Albert W. Daw Collection
|
|
Action(s)
|
|
|
There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
America
|
|
|
Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans -- born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961
|
|
|
Every American ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as one would wish his children to be treated. this is not the case.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Art
|
|
|
I see little of more importance to the future of our country and of civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist. If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
In free society art is not a weapon. Artists are not engineers of the soul.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Assassination
|
|
|
You never know what's hit you. A gunshot is the perfect way.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Beginnings
|
|
|
All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first thousand days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Bravery
|
|
|
For without belittling the courage with which men have died, we should not forget those acts of courage with which men have lived.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of the final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Certainty
|
|
|
The one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is unchangeable or certain.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Challenges
|
|
|
The New Frontier I speak of is not a set of promises -- it is a set of challenges. It sums up not what I intend to offer the American people, but what I intent to ask of them.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Change
|
|
|
Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
Let us resolve to be masters, not the victims, of our history, controlling our own destiny without giving way to blind suspicions and emotions.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Children
|
|
|
A child miseducated is a child lost.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
City Life, Cities
|
|
|
Washington is a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
We will neglect our cities to our peril, for in neglecting them we neglect the nation.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Commitment
|
|
|
Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Communism
|
|
|
Communism has never come to power in a country that was not disrupted by war or corruption, or both.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Competition
|
|
|
We want to be first; not first if, not first but; but first!
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Computers
|
|
|
Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Conformity & Nonconformity
|
|
|
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Conservation
|
|
|
It is our task in our time and in our generation to hand down undiminished to those who come after us, as was handed down to us by those who went before, the natural wealth and beauty which is ours.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Crime
|
|
|
Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is also true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Danger
|
|
|
The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis.' One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger - but recognize the opportunity.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Difficulty
|
|
|
A man does what he must -- in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers -- and this is the basis of all human morality.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Economics
|
|
|
Economic growth without social progress lets the great majority of people remain in poverty, while a privileged few reap the benefits of rising abundance.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Education
|
|
|
Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
It might be said now that I have the best of both worlds: a Harvard education and a Yale degree.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. Our requirements for world leadership, our hopes for economic growth, and the demands of citizenship itself in an era such as this all require the maximum development of every young American's capacity. The human mind is our fundamental resource.
http://www.jfklink.com/speeches/jfk/publicpapers/1961/jfk46_61.html
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Special Message to the Congress on Education, February 20, 1961
|
|
|
The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Effort
|
|
|
Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
In the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding on the back of the tiger ended up inside.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Exercise
|
|
|
Our growing softness, our increasing lack of physical fitness, is a menace to our security.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
We are under exercised as a nation. We look instead of play. We ride instead of walk. Our existence deprives us of the minimum of physical activity essential for healthy living.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Expectation
|
|
|
Once you say you're going to settle for second, that's what happens to you in life.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Faith
|
|
|
I know there is a God--and I see a storm coming; if He has a place for me, I believe that I am ready.
(Words found written on a slip of paper by Evelyn Lincoln, Kennedy's secretary, following a disappointing meeting with Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev in Vienn in June 1961)
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Farming
|
|
|
The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Fate & Destiny
|
|
|
Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Fear
|
|
|
Let us never negotiate out of fear but let us never fear to negotiate.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Forgiveness
|
|
|
Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Freedom
|
|
|
The unity of freedom has never relied on uniformity of opinion.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Government
|
|
|
The basis of effective government if public confidence.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Gratitude
|
|
|
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Happiness
|
|
|
True happiness is the full use of your powers along lines of excellence in a life affording scope.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Help
|
|
|
To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required, not because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
History
|
|
|
We would like to live as we once lived, but history will not permit it.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Humanity
|
|
|
I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we, too, will be remembered not for victories or defeats in battle or in politics, but for our contribution to the human spirit.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Ideas
|
|
|
A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on. Ideas have endurance without death.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Address Greenville N.C., February 8, 1963
|
|
Ideology
|
|
|
The great battleground for the defense and expansion of freedom today is the whole southern half of the globe... the lands of the rising peoples. Their revolution is the greatest in human history. They seek an end to injustice, tyranny and exploitation. More than an end, they seek a beginning.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Knowledge
|
|
|
The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Leadership
|
|
|
It is time for a new generation of leadership, to cope with new problems and new opportunities. For there is a new world to be won.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Liberty
|
|
|
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Life
|
|
|
There is always inequity in life. Some men are killed in a war, and some men are wounded, and some men are stationed in the Antarctic and some are stationed in San Francisco. It's very hard in military or personal life to assure complete equality. Life
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
Life is unfair.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Media
|
|
|
There is a terrific disadvantage in not having the abrasive quality of the press applied to you daily. Even though we never like it, and even though we wish they didn't write it, and even though we disapprove, there isn't any doubt that we could not do the job at all in a free society without a very, very active press.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Military, the
|
|
|
People have not been horrified by war to a sufficient extent... War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige as the warrior does today.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
A young man who does not have what it takes to perform military service is not likely to have what it takes to make a living.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Nation, Nationality, Nationalism
|
|
|
We prefer world law, in the age of self-determination, to world war in the age of mass extermination.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Oceans
|
|
|
I really don't know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except I think it is because in addition to the fact that the sea changes and the light changes, and ships change, it is because we all came from the sea. And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have, in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it, we are going back from whence we came.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Remarks at the Australian Ambassador's Dinner for the America's Cup Crews, The Breakers, Newport, Rhode Island, September 14, 1962
|
|
Opportunity
|
|
|
Written in Chinese, the word crisis, is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represent opportunity.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Optimism
|
|
|
When you have seven percent unemployed, you have ninety-three percent working.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Patriotism
|
|
|
... ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
 In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility
http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres56.html precedents to this quotation can be found under Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Warren Harding, and Kahlil Gibran
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961
|
|
Peace
|
|
|
But peace does not rest in the charters and covenants alone. It lies in the hearts and minds of all people. So let us not rest all our hopes on parchment and on paper, let us strive to build peace, a desire for peace, a willingness to work for peace in the hearts and minds of all of our people. I believe that we can. I believe the problems of human destiny are not beyond the reach of human beings.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
World peace, like community peace, does not require that each man love his neighbor -- it requires only that they live together with mutual tolerance, submitting their disputes to a just and peaceful settlement.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
People
|
|
|
We hold the view that the people make the best judgment in the long run.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Planning
|
|
|
The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shinning.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Poetry
|
|
|
When power leads man towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Politics
|
|
|
Most of us are conditioned for many years to have a political viewpoint -- Republican or Democratic, liberal, conservative, or moderate. The fact of the matter is that most of the problems that we now face are technical problems, are administrative problems. They are very sophisticated judgments, which do not lend themselves to the great sort of passionate movements which have stirred this country so often in the past. They deal with questions which are now beyond the comprehension of most men.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
Don't buy a single vote more than necessary. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for a landslide.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
When we got into office, the thing that surprised me most was to find that things were just as bad as we'd been saying they were.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
My brother Bob doesn't want to be in government -- he promised Dad he'd go straight.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Poverty
|
|
|
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Presidency
|
|
|
As far as the job of President goes, its rewarding and I've given before this group the definition of happiness for the Greeks. I'll define it again: the full use of your powers along lines of excellence. I find, therefore, that the Presidency provides some happiness.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
Mothers all want their sons to grow up to be president, but they don't want them to become politicians in the process.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Problems
|
|
|
The day before my inauguration President Eisenhower told me, You'll find that no easy problems ever come to the President of the United States. If they are easy to solve, somebody else has solved them. I found that hard to believe, but now I know it is true.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Progress
|
|
|
The United States has to move very fast to even stand still.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Prophecy
|
|
|
The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring this endeavor will light our bounty and all who serve it, and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Public
|
|
|
I never know when I press these whether I am going to blow up Massachusetts or start the project.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Reality
|
|
|
The supreme reality of our time is the vulnerability of this planet.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Revolution
|
|
|
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violen trevolution inevitable.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Right, Rightness
|
|
|
In giving rights to others which belong to them, we give rights to ourselves and to our country.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Sacrifice
|
|
|
If anyone is crazy enough to want to kill a president of the United States, he can do it. All he must be prepared to do is give his life for the president s.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Teamwork
|
|
|
I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Technology
|
|
|
The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty, and all forms of human life.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Inaugural Address
|
|
Time
|
|
|
We must use time as a tool, not as a couch.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Trouble, Troubles
|
|
|
When written in Chinese, the word crisis is composed of two characters -- one represents danger, and the other represents opportunity.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Truth
|
|
|
The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie--diliberate, contrived, and dishonest--but the myth--persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Twentieth Century
|
|
|
We stand today on the edge of a new frontier -- the frontier of the 1960s, a frontier of unknown opportunities and perils, a frontier of unfulfilled hopes and threats. The new frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises -- it is a set of challenges.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Tyranny
|
|
|
A police state finds that it cannot command the grain to grow.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Variety
|
|
|
If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Voting
|
|
|
I have just received the following wire from my generous Daddy. It says, Dear Jack: Don't buy a single vote more than is necessary. I'll be damned if I am going to pay for a landslide.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
The margin is narrow, but the responsibility is clear.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
There is no city in the United States in which I can get a warmer welcome and fewer votes than Columbia, Ohio.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
You can milk a cow the wrong way once and still be a farmer, but vote the wrong way on a water tower and you can be in trouble.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
War
|
|
|
Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind. War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
|
Unconditional war can no longer lead to unconditional victory. It can no longer serve to settle disputes. It can no longer concern the Great Powers alone. For a nuclear disaster, spread by wind and water and fear, could well engulf the great and the small, the rich and the poor, the committed and the uncommitted alike. Mankind must put an end to war--or war will put an end to mankind.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy, The Role of the United Nations, Address Before the General Assembly of the United Nations, September 25, 1961
|
|
Wealth
|
|
|
This country cannot afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
|
Work
|
|
|
We believe that if men have the talent to invent new machines that put men out of work, they have the talent to put those men back to work.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
|
Books by and about John Fitzgerald Kennedy
