John F. Kennedy's Quotes

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

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

John F. Kennedy

Israel was not created in order to disappear - Israel will endure and flourish. It is the child of hope and the home of the brave. It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success. It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom.

John F. Kennedy

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

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

Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all.

John F. Kennedy

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.

John F. Kennedy

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

John F. Kennedy

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.

John F. Kennedy

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

John F. Kennedy

The best road to progress is freedom's road.

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

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!'

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 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.

John F. Kennedy

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

John F. Kennedy

Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.

John F. Kennedy

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

John F. Kennedy

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

John F. Kennedy

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.

John F. Kennedy

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

John F. Kennedy

A child miseducated is a child lost.

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

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

John F. Kennedy

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.

John F. Kennedy

We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us thru that darkness to a safe and sane future.

John F. Kennedy

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.

John F. Kennedy

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.

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

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.

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

History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.

John F. Kennedy

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.

John F. Kennedy

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.

John F. Kennedy

Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.

John F. Kennedy

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

John F. Kennedy

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

John F. Kennedy

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.

John F. Kennedy

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

John F. Kennedy

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.

John F. Kennedy

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

John F. Kennedy

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

John F. Kennedy

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.

John F. Kennedy

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

John F. Kennedy

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.

John F. Kennedy

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

John F. Kennedy

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

John F. Kennedy

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

John F. Kennedy

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

John F. Kennedy

The greater our knowledge increases the more our ignorance unfolds.

John F. Kennedy