Popular

Browse Popular Topics

Quotes by John F. Kennedy

Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. Our requirements for world leadership, our hopes for economic growth, and the demands of citizenship itself in an era such as this all require the maximum development of every young American's capacity. The human mind is our fundamental resource.
– John F. Kennedy
Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
– 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, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
– John F. Kennedy
Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.
– John F. Kennedy
Unconditional war can no longer lead to unconditional victory. It can no longer serve to settle disputes. It can no longer concern the Great Powers alone. For a nuclear disaster, spread by wind and water and fear, could well engulf the great and the small, the rich and the poor, the committed and the uncommitted alike. Mankind must put an end to war--or war will put an end to mankind.
– 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
Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain.
– John F. Kennedy
The American, by nature, is optimistic. He is experimental, an inventor and a builder who builds best when called upon to build greatly.
– John F. Kennedy
The ancient Greek definition of happiness was the full use of your powers along lines of excellence.
– John F. Kennedy
The great French Marshall Lyautey once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardener objected that the tree was slow growing and would not reach maturity for 100 years. The Marshall replied, 'In that case, there is no time to lose; plant it this afternoon!'
– John F. Kennedy
We must use time as a tool, not as a crutch.
– John F. Kennedy
We stand for freedom. That is our conviction for ourselves; that is our only commitment to others.
– John F. Kennedy
When we got into office, the thing that surprised me the most was that things were as bad as we'd been saying they were.
– John F. Kennedy
The men who create power make an indispensable contribution to the Nation’s greatness, but the men who question power make a contribution just as indispensable, especially when that questioning is disinterested, for they determine whether we use power or power uses us.
– John F. Kennedy
We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth.
– John F. Kennedy
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.
– John F. Kennedy
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.
– John F. Kennedy
We must use time as a tool, not as a couch.
– 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
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
– John F. Kennedy
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.
– John F. Kennedy
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.
– John F. Kennedy
The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.
– 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
Our growing softness, our increasing lack of physical fitness, is a menace to our security.
– John F. Kennedy
Now we have a problem in making our power credible, and Vietnam is the place.
– John F. Kennedy
Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.
– John F. Kennedy
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.
– 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