There is one thing about being President -- nobody can tell you when to sit down.

It is still a fact that our common frontier grows stronger every year, defended only by friendship.

The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without.

It is far more important to be able to hit the target than it is to haggle over who makes a weapon or who pulls a trigger.

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

I assure you that it is our desire and intention to keep the doors of consultation always and fully open. There must never be a final word between friends.