Quotes by John F. Kennedy
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In a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.

I just received the following wire from my generous Daddy; Dear Jack, Don't buy a single vote more than is necessary. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for a landslide.

The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings.

The human mind is our fundamental resource.

When written in Chinese, the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.

Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource.

Why should man's first flight to the moon be a matter of national competition? Why should the United States and the Soviet Union, in preparing for such expeditions, become involved in immense duplications of research, construction and expenditure?

There is always inequality in life. Some men are killed in a war and some men are wounded and some men never leave the country. Life is unfair.

I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House -- with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.

Communism has never come to power in a country that was not disrupted by war or corruption, or both.

Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.

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

Unconditional war can no longer lead to unconditional victory. It can no longer serve to settle disputes... can no longer be of concern to great powers alone.

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

A nation which has forgotten the quality of courage which in the past has been brought to public life is not as likely to insist upon or regard that quality in its chosen leaders today -- and in fact we have forgotten.

The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.

We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.

To state the facts frankly is not to despair the future nor indict the past. The prudent heir takes careful inventory of his legacies and gives a faithful accounting to those whom he owes an obligation of trust.

The basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a military solution.

Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans -- born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace.

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty, and all forms of human life.

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.

We believe that if men have the talent to invent new machines that put men out of work, they have the talent to put those men back to work.

No one has been barred on account of his race from fighting or dying for America, there are no white or colored signs on the foxholes or graveyards of battle.

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

I'm an idealist without illusions.

The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were.

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

The pay is good and I can walk to work.

If anyone is crazy enough to want to kill a president of the United States, he can do it. All he must be prepared to do is give his life for the president's.

Mothers all want their sons to grow up to be president, but they don't want them to become politicians in the process.

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

Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.

The best road to progress is freedom's road.

Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.

There are many people in the world who really don't understand-or say they don't-what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin!

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

I hope that no American will waste his franchise and throw away his vote by voting either for me or against me solely on account of my religious affiliation. It is not relevant.

Sure it's a big job; but I don't know anyone who can do it better than I can.

Modern cynics and skeptics... see no harm in paying those to whom they entrust the minds of their children a smaller wage than is paid to those to whom they entrust the care of their plumbing.

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.

Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.

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

We must use time as a tool, not as a couch.

The greater our knowledge increases the more our ignorance unfolds.

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility -- I welcome it.

The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth.

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.

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