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.