Top 779 Quotes & Sayings by John F. Kennedy
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American president John F. Kennedy.
Last updated on September 16, 2024.
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.
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.
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.
The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.
My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.
Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.
The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.
Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.
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.
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.
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.
There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.
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.
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.
Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.
It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war.
I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris, and I have enjoyed it.
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.
A child miseducated is a child lost.
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.
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 pay is good and I can walk to work.
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.
Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.
Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all.
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.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.
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.
Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.
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.
The greater our knowledge increases the more our ignorance unfolds.
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.
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.
A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.
When written in Chinese, the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.
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 human morality.
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.
If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.
If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.
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.
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.
Too often we... enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.
The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.
The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth.
Communism has never come to power in a country that was not disrupted by war or corruption, or both.
War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.
Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.
Washington is a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm.
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.
Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.
Domestic policy can only defeat us; foreign policy can kill us.
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.
Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.
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.
Mothers all want their sons to grow up to be president, but they don't want them to become politicians in the process.
Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
Related Authors
Abraham Lincoln Quotes
American
President
Barack Obama Quotes
American
President
Donald Trump Quotes
American
President
Dwight D. Eisenhower Quotes
American
President
Franklin D. Roosevelt Quotes
American
President
George W. Bush Quotes
American
President
George Washington Quotes
American
President
James Madison Quotes
American
President
Joe Biden Quotes
American
President
Mike Pence Quotes
American
President
Ronald Reagan Quotes
American
President
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes
American
President
Thomas Jefferson Quotes
American
President
Vladimir Putin Quotes
Russian
President
William J. Clinton Quotes
American
President
Woodrow Wilson Quotes
American
President