John F. Kennedy's Quotes

I look forward to a great future for America - a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose.

Domestic policy can only defeat us; foreign policy can kill us.

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

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

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

For time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.

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.

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.

When power leads man toward 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.

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.

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.

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

Politics is like football; if you see daylight, go through the hole.

Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all.

We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world or to make it the last.

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

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

I think 'Hail to the Chief' has a nice ring to it.

I'm an idealist without illusions.

My brother Bob doesn't want to be in government - he promised Dad he'd go straight.

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.

All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin. And therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words 'Ich bin ein Berliner!'

Do you realize the responsibility I carry? I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House.

We cannot expect that all nations will adopt like systems, for conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.

Washington is a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm.

The human mind is our fundamental resource.

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

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.

America has tossed its cap over the wall of space.

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

The pay is good and I can walk to work.

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

I don't think the intelligence reports are all that hot. Some days I get more out of the New York Times.

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

I'm always rather nervous about how you talk about women who are active in politics, whether they want to be talked about as women or as politicians.

I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris, and I have enjoyed it.

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

Now we have a problem in making our power credible, and Vietnam is the place.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.

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 path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all paths are. 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.

I am sorry to say that there is too much point to the wisecrack that life is extinct on other planets because their scientists were more advanced than ours.

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.

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 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.

We stand today on the edge of a new frontier - the frontier of the 1960's - a frontier of unknown opportunities and perils - a frontier of unfulfilled hopes and threats.

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.

Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce.

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.

For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's futures. And we are all mortal.

Khrushchev reminds me of the tiger hunter who has picked a place on the wall to hang the tiger's skin long before he has caught the tiger. This tiger has other ideas.

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.

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!

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

Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.

My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.

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.

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

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 best road to progress is freedom's road.

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.

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.

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.

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

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

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

Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners, and necessity has made us allies. Those whom God has so joined together, let no man put asunder.