John F. Kennedy Quotes

No sane society chooses to commit national suicide.

The Jewish people, ever since David slew Goliath, have never considered youth as a barrier to leadership.

If you look throughout human history ... the central epiphany of every religious tradition always occurs in the wilderness.

The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society. ... There is little value in ensuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it.

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.

In whatever area in life one may meet the challenges of courage, whatever may be the sacrifices he faces if he follows his conscience - the loss of his friends, his fortune, his contentment, even the esteem of his fellow men - each man must decide for himself the course he will follow. The stories of past courage can define that ingredient - they 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.

For in a democracy, every citizen, regardless of his interest in politics, "hold office"; every one of us is in a position of responsibility; and, in the final analysis, the kind of government we get depends upon how we fulfill those responsibilities. We, the people, are the boss, and we will get the kind of political leadership, be it good or bad, that we demand and deserve.

Only in the case of the Negro has the melting pot failed to bring a minority into the full stream of American life.

No man who enters upon the office to which I have succeeded can fail to recognize how every president of the United States has placed special reliance upon his faith in God.

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.

Great crises produce great men, and great deeds of courage.

The Federal Government is the people and the budget is a reflection of their need.

Since the time of the ancient Greeks, we have always felt that there was a close relationship between a strong, vital mind and physical fitness.

The freedom of the city is not negotiable. We cannot negotiate with those who say, 'What's mine is mine and what's yours is negotiable.'

I think 'Hail to the Chief' has a nice ring to it.

Let us not be blind to our differences-but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.

The United States of America has no intention of finishing second in space. This effort is expensive-but it pays its way for freedom and for America.

A police state finds that it cannot command the grain to grow.

If there is one path above all others to war, it is the path of weakness and disunity.

If all of you had voted the other way - there's about 5500 of you here tonight - I would not be the President of the United States.

The high office of the President has been used to foment a plot to destroy the American's freedom and before I leave office, I must inform the citizens of this plight.

Student loans have been helpful to many. But they offer neither incentive nor assistance to those students who, by reason of family or other obligations, are unable or unwilling to go deeper into debt. ... It is, moreover, only prudent economic and social policy for the public to share part of the costs of the long period of higher education for those whose development is essential to our national economic and social well-being. All of us share in the benefits - all should share in the costs.

Any danger spot is tenable if men, brave men, will make it so.

There is nothing more certain and unchanging than uncertainty and change.

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.

For I can assure you that we love our country, not for what it was, though it has always been great - not for what it is, though of this we are deeply proud - but for what it someday can, and, through the efforts of us all, someday will be.

Let's not talk so much about vice. I'm against vice in all forms.

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

The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie--deliberate, contrived and dishonest--but the myth--persistent, persuasive and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the cliches of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

The physical fitness of our citizens is a vital prerequisite to America's realization of its full potential as a nation, and to the opportunity of each individual citizen to make full and fruitful use of his capacities.

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.

We don't want to be like the leader in the French Revolution who said There go my people, I must find out where they are going so I can lead them.

We stand today on the edge of a new frontier.

America has tossed its cap over the wall of space.

We believe that when men reach beyond this planet, they should leave their national differences behind them.

The United States has to move very fast to even stand still.

There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.

Freedom is not merely a word or an abstract theory, but the most effective instrument for advancing the welfare of man.

If this capsule history of our progress teaches us anything, it is that man, in his quest for knowledge and progress, is determined and cannot be deterred.

We dare not forget that we are the heirs of that first revolution.

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

And a revolution of automation finds machines replacing men in the mines and mills of America, without replacing their incomes or their training or their needs to pay the family doctor, grocer and landlord.

I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end... where every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choice.

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

An artist's working life is marked by intensive application and intense discipline.

Je me sens vraiment entre amis. (I feel that I am truly among friends.)

We have all seen these circus elephants complete with tusks, ivory in their head and thick skins, who move around the circus ring and grab the tail of the elephant ahead of them.

If my church attempted to influence me in a way which was improper or which affected adversely my responsibilities as a public servant sworn to uphold the Constitution, then I would reply to them that this was an improper action on their part. It was one to which I could not subscribe.