John F. Kennedy quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from John F. Kennedy on Wise Famous Quotes.

First I believe that this Nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon.

Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors.

So much depends on my actions, so I am seeing fewer people, simplifying my life, organizing it so that I am not always on the edge of irritability.

We celebrate the past to awaken the future.

No one gains from fair employment law and legislation if there is no employment to be had.

There is, in addition to a courage with which men die; a courage by which men must live.

I can evade questions without help; what I need is answers

Anyone who is honestly seeking a job and can't find it, deserves the attention of the United States government, and the people.

The business of the government is the business of the people.

I strongly believe in Scouting ... It's a source of great strength to us.

Freedom is not merely a word or an abstract theory, but the most effective instrument for advancing the welfare of man.

The very word Secrecy is repugnant in a free and open society.

A great change is at hand, and our task, our obligation, is to make that revolution, that change, peaceful and constructive for all.

We must abolish nuclear weapons, or they will abolish us.

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

The American Labor Movement has consistently demonstrated its devotion to the public interest. It is, and has been, good for all America.

The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.
[State of the Union Address January 11 1962]

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.

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

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

A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers.

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.

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

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.

Democracy is the superior form of government, because it is based on a respect for man as a reasonable being.

The freedom of the city is not negotiable. We cannot negotiate with those who say, 'What's mine is mine and what's yours is negotiable.'

A country is as strong, really, as its citizens. And I think that mental and physical health - mental and physical vigor - go hand in hand.

A life of complete leisure is the hardest work of all.

We dare not forget that we are the heirs of that first revolution.

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

My call is not to those who believe they belong to the past. My call is to those who believe in the future.

Here on earth, God's work must surely be our own.

Peace need not be impracticable, and war need not be inevitable.

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

We are inclined to think that if we watch a football game or a baseball game, we have taken part in it.

I'm an idealist without illusions.
[Ca. 1953, attributed to John F. Kennedy by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. in 'A Thousand Days'

It's only when they join together in a forward movement that this country moves ahead ...

Change is the law of life.

Unless liberty flourishes in all lands, it cannot flourish in one.

Liberty without Learning is always in peril and Learning without Liberty is always in vain.

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

If you face a man's job, find a woman!

We have come too far, we have sacrificed too much, to disdain future now.

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

Every dollar released from taxation, that is spent or invested, will create a new job and a new salary.

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

Peace is a process - a way of solving problems.

Civility is not a sign of weakness.

Someone always needs rescuing, yet there's only one person who ever seems to understand you. It's a lot like being Lassie.

Libraries should be open to all - except the censor.
[Response to questionnaire in Saturday Review, October 29 1960]

Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet.

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

I do not belive that Washington should do for the people wha they can do for themselves through local and private effort.

There can be no progress if people have no faith in tomorrow.

A tired nation, said David Lloyd George, is a Tory nation, and the United States today cannot afford to be either tired or Tory.

In America there must be only citizens, not divided by grade, first and second, but citizens, east, west, north, and south.

Life in freedom is not easy, and democracy is not perfect.

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

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.
[Undelivered remarks for Dallas Trade Mart, November 22 1963]

Children are the world's most valuable resource and its best hope for the future.

The only significance of analyzing the past is that it does give us some key to the future.

The Greeks understood that mind and body must develop in harmounious proportions to produce a creative intelligence.

I'm an idealist without illusions.

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.

If (my grandfather) hadn't left, I'd be working over here at the Albatross Company.

Once you say you're going to settle for second, that's what happens to you in life, I find.
[Quoted by Theodore Sorensen in 'Kennedy']

Don't pray for an easy life, pray to be a stronger man.

A wall is a hell of a lot better than a war.

Life's not fair but not always to your disadvantage.

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

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.

I'm shadowboxing in a match the shadow is always going to win. (as a young man battling his deceased brother's heroic legacy)

We can have faith in the future only if we have faith in ourselves.

Hold fast to the best of the past and move fast to the best of the future.

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

Arms alone are not enough to keep the peace. It must be kept by men.

The best road to progress is freedom's road.

Political action is the highest responsibility of a citizen.

History will never accept difficulties as an excuse.

We support the security of both Israel and her neighbors.

What's the use of being Irish if the world doesn't break your heart?

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

Everywhere immigrants have enriched and strengthened the fabric of American life.

Freedom is being allowed to think your own thoughts and live your own life.

Partnership is not a posture but a process-a continuous process that grows stronger each year as we devote ourselves to common tasks.

Wherever there is smoke there is a good smoke machine.

If men and women are in chains anywhere in the world, then freedom is endangered everywhere.

Only three things are real: God, human folly, and laughter. Since we can do nothing with the first two, we must do what we can with the third.

A Canadian newspaperman said yesterday that this is the President's "Easter egghead roll on the White House lawn." I want to deny that!

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

Ask not that the journey be easy; ask instead that it be worth it.

In a time of domestic crisis, men of goodwill and generosity should be able to unite regardless of party or politics.

The best way to progress is the path of freedom.

I suppose if you could have only one thing, it would be that-energy. Without it, you haven't got a thing.

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

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

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

To each of us is entrusted the heavy responsibility of guiding the affairs of a democratic nation founded on Christian ideals.

Word to the Nation: Guard zealously your right to serve in the Armed Forces, for without them, there will be no other rights to guard.

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