Selected Quotes By JFK- John F. Kennedy
"A boy spends his time finding a girl to sleep with. A real man spends his time looking for the one worth waking up to."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Sex, Love
"The supreme reality of our time is the vulnerability of our planet."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Science
"I look forward to 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."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Government, Society
"All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days . . .nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Work
"Those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Power
"For while this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been, and may someday be again, a Jew--or a Quaker--or a Unitarian--or a Baptist. It was Virginia's harassment of Baptist preachers, for example, that helped lead to Jefferson's statute of religious freedom. Today I may be the victim- -but tomorrow it may be you--until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped at a time of great national peril.
Finally, I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end--where all men and all churches are treated as equal--where every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choice--where there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote, no bloc voting of any kind--and where Catholics, Protestants and Jews, at both the lay and pastoral level, will refrain from those attitudes of disdain and division which have so often marred their works in the past, and promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood.
That is the kind of America in which I believe. And it represents the kind of Presidency in which I believe--a great office that must neither be humbled by making it the instrument of any one religious group nor tarnished by arbitrarily withholding its occupancy from the members of any one religious group. 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. ...
This is the kind of America I believe in--and this is the kind I fought for in the South Pacific, and the kind my brother died for in Europe. No one suggested then that we may have a "divided loyalty," that we did "not believe in liberty," or that we belonged to a disloyal group that threatened the "freedoms for which our forefathers died."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Freedom, Belief
"A child miseducated is a child lost."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Intelligence/Wisdom
"The rising tide lifts all the boats."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Society
"We need men who can dream of things that never were."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Society
"The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Government
"I can imagine no more rewarding a career. And any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile, I think can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction: 'I served in the United States Navy."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Work
"Art is the great democrat, calling forth creative genius from every sector of society, disregarding race or religion or wealth or color."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Art
"Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Success
"I'm an idealist without illusions."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Intelligence/Wisdom
"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. A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures - and that is the basis of all morality."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Goals, Courage, Life
"If not us, who? If not now, when?"
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Work
"Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures. And however undramatic the pursuit of peace, that pursuit must go on."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Goals, Anger and Fighting
"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, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world. 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."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Freedom
"Without debate, without criticism no administration and no country can succeed and no republic can survive."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Government, Society, Criticism
"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. "
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Government, Goals
"We cannot negotiate with people who say what's mine is mine and what's yours is negotiable."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Management
"The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Problems
"I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute - where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote - where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference - and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.
I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish - where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source - where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials - and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Belief, Government
"Mankind must put an end to war - or war will put an end to mankind."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Anger and Fighting
"Liberty without Learning is always in peril and Learning without Liberty is always in vain."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Freedom, Intelligence/Wisdom
"Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Management
"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."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Truth
"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Life
"If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. 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 future. And we are all mortal."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Society
"A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on. Ideas have endurance without death."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Ideas
"One person can make a difference, and everyone should try."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Goals
"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 all—except 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."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Intelligence/Wisdom, Government
"Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Belief
"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Management, Intelligence/Wisdom
"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Science
"Victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Success
"The great enemy of 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 opinion without the discomfort of thought."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Truth
"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Goals
"Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Freedom, Life
"I really don't know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except I think it's because in addition to the fact that the sea changes, and the light changes, and ships change, it's because we all came from the sea. And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea - whether it is to sail or to watch it - we are going back from whence we came."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Life
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Society
"We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Time
"Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Society
"The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Freedom
"Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Forgive
"If by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people-their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties-someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal", then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."
JFK- John F. Kennedy, Government
"The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis.' One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger--but recognize the opportunity."