Quotes by John F. Kennedy

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

Be aware of danger-but recognize the opportunity.

American history is not something dead and over. It is always alive, always growing, always unfinished.

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.

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.

We are tied to the ocean, and when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch, we are going back from whence we came.

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

We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch, we are going back from whence we came.

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

Somebody once said that Washington was a city of Northern charm and Southern efficiency.

The important principle which...this country has learned is that agriculture cannot be controlled successfully or dominated by the National government. It requires very dedicated work by the individual on the farm and it requires extensive cooperative and community work.

The people who line on our farms make it possible for this country to progress as it has.

Agriculture is one of our best dollar earners. The balance of trade in our favor in agriculture is a tremendous source of dollars-- and therefore gold--to this country at a very important time.

The tremendous increase in productivity in American farms is really the most astonishing phenomenon in the free world.

A strong America...depends on its farms and natural resources.

For of those to whom much is given, much is required.

It was like dealing with Dad-- all give and no take.

I speak of peace, therefore, as the necessary rational end of rational men. I realize the pursuit of peace is not as dramatic as the pursuit of war? But we have no more urgent task.

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

Children are the world's most valuable resource
and its best hope for the future.

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.

Those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.

Life is never easy. There is work to be done and obligations to be met -- obligations to truth, to justice, and to liberty.

Irrational barriers and ancient prejudices fall quickly when the question of survival itself is at stake.

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 we're going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there.

Automation does not need to be our enemy. I think machines can make life easier for men, if men do not let the machines dominate them.

War and hunger and ignorance and despair know no religious barriers.

The highest duty of the writer, the composer, the artist, is to remain true to himself and to let the chips fall where they may.

In giving rights to others which belong to them, we give rights to ourselves and to our country.

Science contributes to our culture in many ways, as a creative intellectual activity in its own right, as the light which has served to illuminate man's place in the universe, and as the source of understanding of man's own nature.

My experience in government is that when things are non-controversial and beautifully coordinated, there is not much going on.

Happiness is the full use of one's talents along lines of excellence.

This is not the land of my birth, but it is the land for which I hold the greatest affection, and I certainly will come back in the springtime.

Irrational barriers and ancient prejudices fall quickly when the question of survival itself is at stake.

The time is not far off when many nations in many parts of the world of many political shades and commitments will possess nuclear or even thermonuclear weapons.

The deadly arms race, and the huge resources it absorbs, have too long overshadowed all else we must do. We must prevent that arms race from spreading to new nations, to new nuclear powers and to the reaches of outer space.

We must seek, above all, a world of peace; a world in which peoples dwell together in mutual respect and work together in mutual regard.

We support the security of both Israel and her neighbors.

I suppose if you could have only one thing, it would be that-energy. Without it, you haven't got a thing.

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.

We must create world-wide law and law enforcement as we outlaw world-wide war and weapon.

If the self-discipline of the free cannot match the iron discipline of the mailed fist, in economic, political, scientific, and all the other kinds of struggles, as well as the military, then the peril to freedom will continue to rise.

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

To sound the alarm is not to panic but to seek action from an aroused public.

An economy hampered by restrictive tax rates will never produce enough jobs or enough profits.

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.

It is no contradiction -- the most important single thing we can do to stimulate investment in today's economy is to raise consumption by major reduction of individual income tax rates.

Disarmament without checks is but a shadow -- and a community without law is but a shell.

Voters are more than Catholics, Protestants or Jews. They make up their minds for many diverse reasons, good and bad. To submit the candidates to a religious test is unfair enough -- to apply it to the voters is divisive, degrading and wholly unwarranted.

Race has no place in American life or law.

We must live our lives in such a way that our children, and their children after them, will form a natural and lasting commitment to the vigorous life. Only in this way can we be assured that the spirit and strength of America will be constantly replenished.

The only significance of analyzing the past is that it does give us some key to the future.

If I had to live my life over again, I would have a different father, a different wife and a different religion.

The Federal Budget can and should be made an instrument of prosperity and stability, not a deterrent to recovery.

A wall is a hell of a lot better than a war.

Blight has descended on our regulatory agencies -- and a dry rot, beginning in Washington, is seeping into every corner of America -- in the payola mentality, the expense account way of life, the confusion between what is legal and what is right.

The Civil Rights movement should thank God for Bull Connor. He's helped it as much as Abraham Lincoln.

An across-the-board, top-to-bottom cut in personal and corporate income taxes ... to expand the incentives and opportunities of private expenditures.

One-third of the world, it has been said, may be free- -but one-third is the victim of cruel repression -- and the other one- third is rocked by the pangs of poverty, hunger and envy. More energy is released by the awakening of these new nations than by the fission of the atom itself.

The present tax codes inhibit the mobility and formation of capital, add complexities and inequities which undermine the morale of the taxpayer, and make tax avoidance rather than market factors a prime consideration in too many economic decisions.

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

If (my grandfather) hadn't left, I'd be working over here at the Albatross Company.

I am flatly opposed to appointment of an ambassador to the Vatican. Whatever advantages it might have in Rome -- and I'm not convinced of these -- they would be more than offset by the divisive effect at home.

What really counts is not the immediate act of courage or of valor, but those who bear the struggle day in and day out -- not the sunshine patriots but those who are willing to stand for a long period of time.

Whether they be young in spirit, or young in age, the members of the Democratic Party must never lose that youthful zest for new ideas and for a better world, which has made us great.

The processes of growth are gradual, bearing fruit in a decade, not a day.

I do not belive that Washington should do for the people wha they can do for themselves through local and private effort.

The only unchangable certainty in life is that nothing is unchangable or certain.

Whatever the political affiliation of our next President, whatever his views may be on all the issues and problems that rush in upon us, he must above all be the chief executive in every sense of the word.

Richard Cromwell was not fit to wear the mantle of his uncle.

Our deep spiritual confidence that this nation will survive the perils of today -- which may well be with us for decades to come -- compels us to invest in our nation's future, to consider and meet our obligations to our children and the numberless generations that will follow.

We had a dog who was named Pushinka, who was given to my father by a Soviet official. And we trained that dog to slide down the slide we had in the back of the White House. Sliding the dog down that slide is probably my first memory.

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

In the dark days and darker nights when England stood alone-and most men save Englishmen despaired of England's life-he Churchill mobilized the English language and sent it into battle.

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.

The Family of Man is more than 3 billion strong. It lives in more than 100 nations. Most of its members are not white. Most of them are not Christians. Most of them know nothing about free enterprise or due process of law or the Australian ballot.

All of us in the Senate live in an iron lung-the iron lung of politics, and it is no easy task to emerge from that rarified atmosphere in order to breathe the same fresh air our constituents breathe.

A Canadian newspaperman said yesterday that this is the President's Easter egghead roll on the White House lawn. I want to deny that!

Forbidden fruit tastes sweet, but its aftertaste is bitter.

There are no 'white' or 'coloured' signs on the foxholes or graveyards of battle.

The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time, and no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in this race for space.

The guiding principle of this Nation has been, is now, and ever shall be IN GOD WE TRUST.

Neither smiles nor frowns, neither good intentions nor harsh words, are a substitute for strength.

United, there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do-for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and
split asunder.

For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed.

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.

Our economy today depends upon women in the labor force. One out of three workers is a woman. Today, there are almost 25 million women employed, and their number is rising faster than the number of men in the labor force.

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

Those whom nature hath so joined together, let no man put asunder.

I was never accepted into certain parts of New England society because my grandfather was an Irish barkeep.

The New Frontier of which I speak 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 intend to ask of them.

We stand today on the edge of a new frontier.

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.

I am fully aware of the fact that the Democratic Party, by nominating someone of my faith, has taken on what many regard as a new and hazardous risk.

The life of the arts is far from an interruption, a distraction, in the life of a nation, is close to the center of a nation's purpose-and is a test of the quality of a nations' civilization.

We do not want an official state church. If ninety-nine percent of the population were Catholics, I would still be opposed to it. I do not want civil power combined with religious power. I want to make it clear that I am committed as a matter of deep personal conviction to separation.

Knowledge of the oceans is more than a matter of curiosity. Our very survival may hinge upon it.

There's an old saying that victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan.... I'm the responsible officer of the Government.

Peace does not rest in charters and covenants alone. It lies in the hearts and minds of the people.

The great revolution in the history of man, past, present and future, is the revolution of those determined to be free.

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.

I have asked the secretary of the treasury to report by April 1 on whether present tax laws may be stimulating in undue amounts the flow of American capital to the industrial countries abroad through special preferential treatment.

This country was founded by men and women who were dedicated or came to be dedicated to two propositions; first, a strong religious conviction, and secondly a recognition that this conviction could flourish only under a system of freedom.

If I don't have a woman for three days, I get terrible headaches.

For without belittling the courage with which men have died, we should not forget those acts of courage with which men have lived.

The stories of past courage... can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul.

There is a connection, hard to explain logically but easy to feel, between achievement in public life and progress in the arts.

Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put up a wall to keep our people in.

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

Sailing has given me some of the most pleasant and exciting moments of my life. It also has taught me something of the courage, resourcefulness, and strength of men who sail the seas in ships.

If scientific discovery has not been an unalloyed blessing, if it has conferred on mankind the power not only to create but also to annihilate, it has at the same time provided humanity with a supreme challenge and a supreme testing.

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute -- where no Catholic prelate would tell the president (should he be Catholic) how to act. I do not speak for my church on public matters -- and the church does not speak for me.

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.

The first man-made satellite to orbit the earth was named Sputnik. The first living creature in space was Laika. The first rocket to the Moon carried a red flag. The first photograph of the far side of the Moon was made with a Soviet camera. If a man orbits the earth this year his name will be Ivan.

But however close we sometimes seem to that dark and final abyss, let no man of peace and freedom despair. For he does not stand alone.

The great free nations of the world must take control of our monetary problems if these problems are not to take control of us.

The complacent, the self-indulgent, the soft societies are about to be swept away with the debris of history.

Perhaps scientists have been the most international of all professions in their outlook... Every time you scientists make a major invention, we politicians have to invent a new institution to cope with it-and almost invariably, these days, it must be an international institution.

Any system of government will work when everything is going well. It's the system that functions in the pinches that survive.

The basis of self-government and freedom requires the development of character and self-restraint and perseverance and the long view. And these are qualities which require many years of training and education.

When I was growing up I had three wishes. I wanted to be a Lindbergh-type hero, learn Chinese, and become a member of The Algonquin Round Table.