John F. Kennedy – 77 Quotes

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77 Quotes by John F. Kennedy

We prefer world law in the age of self-determination to world war in the age of mass extermination.

– John F. Kennedy

Unconditional war can no longer lead to unconditional victory. It can no longer serve to settle disputes… can no longer be of concern to great powers alone.

– John F. Kennedy

I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House – with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.

– John F. 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 F. Kennedy

The best road to progress is freedom’s road.

– John F. Kennedy

It might be said now that I have the best of both worlds. A Harvard education and a Yale degree.

– John F. Kennedy

We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world or to make it the last.

– John F. Kennedy

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.

– John F. Kennedy

For time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.

– John F. Kennedy

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.

– John F. Kennedy

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.

– John F. Kennedy

A nation which has forgotten the quality of courage which in the past has been brought to public life is not as likely to insist upon or regard that quality in its chosen leaders today – and in fact we have forgotten.

– John F. Kennedy

My brother Bob doesn’t want to be in government – he promised Dad he’d go straight.

– John F. Kennedy

The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth.

– John F. Kennedy

Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource.

– John F. Kennedy

Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.

– John F. Kennedy

A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.

– John F. Kennedy

Our growing softness, our increasing lack of physical fitness, is a menace to our security.

– John F. Kennedy

Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.

– John F. Kennedy

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.

– John F. Kennedy

Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.

– John F. Kennedy

We cannot expect that all nations will adopt like systems, for conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.

– John F. 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 F. 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 – I welcome it.

– John F. Kennedy

The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all paths are. 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 F. Kennedy

Israel was not created in order to disappear – Israel will endure and flourish. It is the child of hope and the home of the brave. It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success. It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom.

– John F. 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 F. 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 F. Kennedy

Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.

– John F. Kennedy

I look forward to a great future for America – a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose.

– John F. Kennedy

To state the facts frankly is not to despair the future nor indict the past. The prudent heir takes careful inventory of his legacies and gives a faithful accounting to those whom he owes an obligation of trust.

– John F. Kennedy

Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners, and necessity has made us allies. Those whom God has so joined together, let no man put asunder.

– John F. Kennedy

The pay is good and I can walk to work.

– John F. Kennedy

Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.

– John F. Kennedy

The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.

– John F. Kennedy

There are many people in the world who really don’t understand-or say they don’t-what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin!

– John F. Kennedy

We would like to live as we once lived, but history will not permit it.

– John F. Kennedy

If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.

– John F. Kennedy

I hope that no American will waste his franchise and throw away his vote by voting either for me or against me solely on account of my religious affiliation. It is not relevant.

– John F. Kennedy

I don’t think the intelligence reports are all that hot. Some days I get more out of the New York Times.

– John F. Kennedy

The greater our knowledge increases the more our ignorance unfolds.

– John F. Kennedy

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

– John F. Kennedy

Once you say you’re going to settle for second, that’s what happens to you in life.

– John F. Kennedy

There is always inequality in life. Some men are killed in a war and some men are wounded and some men never leave the country. Life is unfair.

– John F. Kennedy

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 F. Kennedy

I am sorry to say that there is too much point to the wisecrack that life is extinct on other planets because their scientists were more advanced than ours.

– John F. Kennedy

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 F. Kennedy

My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

– John F. Kennedy

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.

– John F. Kennedy

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 F. Kennedy

All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin. And therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words ‘Ich bin ein Berliner!’

– John F. Kennedy

The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were.

– John F. Kennedy

Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.

– John F. 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 F. Kennedy

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 to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

– John F. Kennedy

It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war.

– John F. Kennedy

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

– John F. Kennedy

Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.

– John F. Kennedy

The world knows that America will never start a war. This generation of Americans has had enough of war and hate… we want to build a world of peace where the weak are secure and the strong are just.

– John F. Kennedy

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.

– John F. Kennedy

When power leads man toward 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 F. Kennedy

Politics is like football if you see daylight, go through the hole.

– John F. Kennedy

I’m always rather nervous about how you talk about women who are active in politics, whether they want to be talked about as women or as politicians.

– John F. Kennedy

Now we have a problem in making our power credible, and Vietnam is the place.

– John F. Kennedy

Communism has never come to power in a country that was not disrupted by war or corruption, or both.

– John F. Kennedy

Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce.

– John F. Kennedy

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

– John F. Kennedy

The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings.

– John F. Kennedy

The tax on capital gains directly affects investment decisions, the mobility and flow of risk capital… the ease or difficulty experienced by new ventures in obtaining capital, and thereby the strength and potential for growth in the economy.

– John F. Kennedy

We must use time as a tool, not as a couch.

– John F. Kennedy

The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.

– John F. Kennedy

We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.

– John F. Kennedy

Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.

– John F. Kennedy

The basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a military solution.

– John F. Kennedy

War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.

– John F. Kennedy

When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.

– John F. Kennedy

In a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.

– John F. Kennedy