Quotes by John F. Kennedy

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.

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

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.

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

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.

If not us, who? If not now, when?

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

If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.

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

Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.

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.

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

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.

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.

Art establishes the basic human truths which must serve as the touchstones of our judgement. The artist... faithful to his personal vision of reality, becomes the last champion of the individual mind and sensibility against an intrusive society and an offensive state.

Art establishes the basic human truths which must serve as the touchstone of our judgement.

Compromise does not mean cowardice.

'The green beret' is again becoming a symbol of excellence, a badge of courage, a mark of distinction in the fight for freedom. I know the United States Army will live up to its reputation for imagination, resourcefulness, and spirit as we meet this challenge.

Will Rogers once said it is not the original investment in a Congressman that counts; it is the upkeep.

The function and responsibility of the President is to set before the American people the unfinished business, the things we must do if we are going to succeed as a nation.

Let us resolve to be masters, not the victims, of our history, controlling our own destiny without giving way to blind suspicions and emotions.

The labor movement is people. Our unions have brought millions of men and women together, made them members one of another, and given them common tools for common goals. Their goals are goals for all America -- and their enemies are the enemies for progress. The two cannot be separated.

I hear it said that West Berlin is militarily untenable -- and so was Bastogne, and so, in fact, was Stalingrad. Any danger spot is tenable if men -- brave men -- will make it so.

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

With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking his blessing and his help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.

The war against hunger is truly mankind's war of liberation.

In our democracy every young person should have an equal opportunity to obtain a higher education, regardless of his station in life or financial means.

A technological revolution on the farm has led to an output explosion -- but we have not yet learned to harness that explosion usefully, while protecting our farmers' right to full parity income.

Lofty words cannot construct an alliance or maintain it; only concrete deeds can do that.

So let us persevere. Peace need not be impracticable, and war need not be inevitable. By defining our goal more clearly, by making it seem more manageable and less remote, we can help all peoples to see it, to draw hope from it, and to move irresistibly toward it.

The great battleground for the defense and expansion of freedom today is the whole southern half of the globe... the lands of the rising peoples. Their revolution is the greatest in human history. They seek an end to injustice, tyranny and exploitation. More than an end, they seek a beginning.

Our Constitution wisely assigns both joint and separate roles to each branch of the government; and a President and a Congress who hold each other in mutual respect will neither permit nor attempt any trespass.

Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free.

It was involuntary. They sank my boat.

The day before my inauguration President Eisenhower told me, You'll find that no easy problems ever come to the President of the United States. If they are easy to solve, somebody else has solved them. I found that hard to believe, but now I know it is true.

We live in a hemisphere whose own revolution has given birth to the most powerful force of the modern age; the search for freedom and self fulfillment of man.

While it may be theoretically possible to demonstrate the risks inherent in any treaty... the far greater risk to our security are the risks of unrestricted testing, the risks of a nuclear arms race, the risks of new nuclear powers.

For a subject worked and reworked so often in novels, motion pictures, and television, American Indians remain probably the least understood and most misunderstood Americans of us all.

I am the one person who can truthfully say, I got my job through the New York Times.

Our way of life is under attack. Those who make themselves our enemy are advancing around the globe. The survival of our friends is in danger. And yet no war has been declared, no borders have been crossed by marching troops, no missiles have been fired.

Our nation is founded on the principal that observance of the law is the eternal safeguard of liberty and defiance of the law is the surest road to tyranny.

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

At the start of 2005 the idea of downloading a song to a mobile phone was an idea, by the end of the year it was a reality.

Sometimes it just amazes me how many people desperately want to protect my personal information.
Ten thousand reflections

hide the true gem.
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

Struggle for freedom. Where people are denied the right of choice, recourse to such struggle is the only means of achieving their liberties.

I am not so much concerned with the right of everyone to say anything he pleases as I am about our need as a self-governing people to hear everything relevant.

If we fail to encourage physical development and prowess, we will undermine our capcity for thought, for work, and for use of those skills vital to an expanding and complex America.

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.

I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish -- where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all.

I think it is appropriate that we pay tribute to this great constitutional principle which is enshrined in the First Amendment of the Constitution: the principle of religious independence, of religious liberty, of religious freedom.

I believe in a president whose religious views are his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the nation, or imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office.

National parks and reserves are an integral aspect of intelligent use of natural resources. It is the course of wisdom to set aside an ample portion of our natural resources as national parks and reserves, thus ensuring that future generations may know the majesty of the earth as we know it today.

This is a great country and requires a good deal of all of us, so I can imagine nothing more important than for all of you to continue to work in public affairs and be interested in them, not only to bring up a family, but also give part of your time to your community, your state, and your country.

If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books in more public libraries.

We are under exercised as a nation. We look instead of play. We ride instead of walk. Our existence deprives us of the minimum of physical activity essential for healthy living.

Nor problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.

It is true that my predecessor did not object, as I do, to pictures of one's golf skill in action. But neither, on the other hand, did he ever bean a Secret Serviceman.

We will not prematurely or unnecessarily risk the costs of a worldwide nuclear war in which even the fruits of victory would be ashes in our mouth -- but neither shall we shrink from that risk any time it must be faced.

That is why the Aethenian law makers so decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy. I am asking your help in the tremendous task of informing and alerting the American people. Confident that with your help, man will be what he was born to be, free and independent.

There is, of course, a legitimate argument for some limitation upon immigration. We no longer need settlers for virgin lands, and our economy is expanding more slowly than in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask; why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?

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

I have seen in many places housing which has been developed under government influences, but I have never seen any projects in which governments have played their part which have fountains and statues and grass and trees, which are as important to the concept of the home as the roof itself.

Let us make it clear that we will never turn our backs on our steadfast friends in Israel, whose adherence to the democratic way must be admired by all friends of freedom.

All over the world, particularly in the newer nations, young men are coming to power -- men who are not bound by the traditions of the past -- men who are not blinded by the old fears and hates and rivalries -- young men who can cast off the old slogans and delusions and suspicions.

Political sovereignty is but a mockery without the means of meeting poverty and illiteracy and disease. Self-determination is but a slogan if the future holds no hope.

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.