John F. Kennedy

Every American ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as one would wish his children to be treated. this is not the case.

— John F. Kennedy

We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed.

— John F. Kennedy

I see little of more importance to the future of our country and of civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist. If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.

— John F. Kennedy

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

— John F. Kennedy

In free society art is not a weapon. Artists are not engineers of the soul.

— John F. Kennedy

You never know what's hit you. A gunshot is the perfect way.

— John F. Kennedy

All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first thousand days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.

— John F. Kennedy

The one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is unchangeable or certain.

— John F. Kennedy

The New Frontier I speak of 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 intent to ask of them.

— John F. Kennedy

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

— John F. Kennedy

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

— John F. Kennedy

A child miseducated is a child lost.

— John F. Kennedy

Washington is a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm.

— John F. Kennedy

We will neglect our cities to our peril, for in neglecting them we neglect the nation.

— John F. Kennedy

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

— John F. Kennedy

Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.

— John F. Kennedy

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

— John F. Kennedy

We want to be first; not first if, not first but; but first!

— John F. Kennedy

Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all.

— John F. Kennedy

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

— John F. Kennedy

Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.

— John F. Kennedy

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

— John F. Kennedy

The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of the final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy.

— John F. Kennedy

Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is also true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on.

— John F. Kennedy

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

— John F. Kennedy

Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.

— John F. Kennedy

People have not been horrified by war to a sufficient extent... War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige as the warrior does today.

— John F. Kennedy

A young man who does not have what it takes to perform military service is not likely to have what it takes to make a living.

— John F. Kennedy

It is our task in our time and in our generation to hand down undiminished to those who come after us, as was handed down to us by those who went before, the natural wealth and beauty which is ours.

— John F. Kennedy

Economic growth without social progress lets the great majority of people remain in poverty, while a privileged few reap the benefits of rising abundance.

— John F. Kennedy

Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation.

— John F. Kennedy

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

— John F. Kennedy

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.

— John F. Kennedy

In the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding on the back of the tiger ended up inside.

— John F. Kennedy

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

— John F. Kennedy

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.

— John F. Kennedy

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

— John F. Kennedy

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.

— John F. Kennedy

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

— John F. Kennedy

The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways.

— John F. Kennedy

Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.

— John F. Kennedy

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.

— John F. Kennedy

The unity of freedom has never relied on uniformity of opinion.

— John F. Kennedy

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.

— John F. Kennedy

The basis of effective government is public confidence.

— John F. Kennedy

True happiness is the full use of your powers along lines of excellence in a life affording scope.

— John F. Kennedy

I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we, too, will be remembered not for victories or defeats in battle or in politics, but for our contribution to the human spirit.

— John F. Kennedy

Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.

— John F. Kennedy

The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds.

— John F. Kennedy

It is time for a new generation of leadership, to cope with new problems and new opportunities. For there is a new world to be won.

— John F. Kennedy

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

— John F. Kennedy

There is always inequity in life. Some men are killed in a war, and some men are wounded, and some men are stationed in the Antarctic and some are stationed in San Francisco. It's very hard in military or personal life to assure complete equality. Life

— John F. Kennedy

We would like to live as we once lived, but history will not permit it.

— John F. Kennedy

Life is unfair.

— John F. Kennedy

There is a terrific disadvantage in not having the abrasive quality of the press applied to you daily. Even though we never like it, and even though we wish they didn't write it, and even though we disapprove, there isn't any doubt that we could not do the job at all in a free society without a very, very active press.

— John F. Kennedy

The human mind is our fundamental resource.

— John F. Kennedy

Written in Chinese, the word crisis, is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represent opportunity.

— John F. Kennedy

When you have seven percent unemployed, you have ninety-three percent working.

— John F. Kennedy

... ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

— John F. Kennedy

But peace does not rest in the charters and covenants alone. It lies in the hearts and minds of all people. So let us not rest all our hopes on parchment and on paper, let us strive to build peace, a desire for peace, a willingness to work for peace in the hearts and minds of all of our people. I believe that we can. I believe the problems of human destiny are not beyond the reach of human beings.

— John F. Kennedy

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

— John F. Kennedy

Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.

— John F. Kennedy

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.

— John F. Kennedy

We hold the view that the people make the best judgment in the long run.

— John F. Kennedy

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

— John F. Kennedy

When power leads man towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.

— John F. Kennedy

Most of us are conditioned for many years to have a political viewpoint -- Republican or Democratic, liberal, conservative, or moderate. The fact of the matter is that most of the problems that we now face are technical problems, are administrative problems. They are very sophisticated judgments, which do not lend themselves to the great sort of passionate movements which have stirred this country so often in the past. [They] deal with questions which are now beyond the comprehension of most men.

— John F. Kennedy

When we got into office, the thing that surprised me most was to find that things were just as bad as we'd been saying they were.

— John F. Kennedy

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.

— John F. Kennedy

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.

— John F. Kennedy

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

— John F. Kennedy

I never know when I press these whether I am going to blow up Massachusetts or start the project.

— John F. Kennedy

The supreme reality of our time is the vulnerability of this planet.

— John F. Kennedy

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

— John F. Kennedy

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

— John F. Kennedy

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.

— John F. Kennedy

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.

— John F. Kennedy

Failure has no friends.

— John F. Kennedy

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

— John F. Kennedy

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.

— John F. Kennedy

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

— John F. Kennedy

We stand today on the edge of a new frontier -- the frontier of the 1960s, a frontier of unknown opportunities and perils, a frontier of unfulfilled hopes and threats. The new frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises -- it is a set of challenges.

— John F. Kennedy

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

— John F. Kennedy

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.

— John F. Kennedy

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

— John F. Kennedy

The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring this endeavor will light our bounty and all who serve it, and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

— John F. Kennedy

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

— John F. Kennedy

The margin is narrow, but the responsibility is clear.

— John F. Kennedy

There is no city in the United States in which I can get a warmer welcome and fewer votes than Columbia, Ohio.

— John F. Kennedy

You can milk a cow the wrong way once and still be a farmer, but vote the wrong way on a water tower and you can be in trouble.

— John F. Kennedy

Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind. War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.

— John F. Kennedy

This country cannot afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor.

— John F. Kennedy

I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of grace and beauty.

— John F. Kennedy

There is always inequity in life. Some men are killed in a war and some men are wounded, and some men never leave the country, and some men are stationed in the Antarctic and some are stationed in San Francisco. Its very hard in military or in personal life to assure complete equality. Life is unfair.

— John F. Kennedy

Lobbyists are in many cases expert technicians and capable of explaining complex and difficult subjects in a clear, understandable fashion. They engage in personal discussions with Members of Congress in which they can explain in detail the reasons for positions they advocate. Because our congressional representation is based on geographical boundaries, the lobbyists who speak for the various economic, commercial, and other functional interests of this country serve a very useful purpose and have assumed an important role in the legislative process.

— John F. Kennedy

War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.

— John F. Kennedy

A young man who does not have what it takes to perform military service is not likely to have what it takes to make a living. Todays military rejects include tomorrows hard core unemployed.

— John F. Kennedy

Dante once said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality.

— John F. Kennedy

For the great enemy of the 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 opinions without the discomfort of thought.

— John F. Kennedy

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. These libraries should be open to allexcept the censor. We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors. For the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our liberty.

— John F. Kennedy