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Acceptance
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"History will never accept difficulties as an excuse."
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Albert W. Daw Collection
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Action(s)
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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
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America
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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
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Danger
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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
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Education
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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
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"The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth."
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
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Faith
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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
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Forgiveness
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"Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names."
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
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Gratitude
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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
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History
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"We would like to live as we once lived, but history will not permit it."
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
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"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
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Humanity
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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
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Ideas
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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
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Liberty
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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
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Oceans
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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
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Patriotism
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 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—I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it—and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask 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.
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
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Politics
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"My brother Bob doesn't want to be in government -- he promised Dad he'd go straight."
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
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Presidency
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"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
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Revolution
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"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violen trevolution inevitable."
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
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Technology
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"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
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Truth
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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
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Variety
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"If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity."
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
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War
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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
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Books by and about John Fitzgerald Kennedy
