Top 779 Quotes & Sayings by John F. Kennedy - Page 4

Not everyone has equal abilities, but everyone should have equal opportunity for education.

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

There are three things in life which are real: God, human folly and laughter. Since the first two are beyond our comprehension, we must do what we can with the third.

Libraries should be open to all - except the censor.

No President should fear public scrutiny of his program. For from that scrutiny comes understanding; and from that understanding comes support or opposition and both are necessary. I am not asking your newspapers to support the Administration, but I am asking your help in the tremendous task of informing and alerting the American people. For I have complete confidence in the response and dedication of our citizens whenever they are fully informed.

To those whom much is given, much is expected.

Truth is a tyrant-the only tyrant to whom we can give our allegiance. The service of truth is a matter of heroism.

The rising tide lifts all the boats.

Remember that our nation's first great leaders were also our first great scholars.

Whatever one's religion in his private life may be, for the officeholder, nothing takes precedence over his oath to uphold the Constitution and all its parts - including the First Amendment and the strict separation of church and state.

Anyone who can solve the problems of water will be worthy of two Nobel prizes - one for peace and one for science.

Peace does not rest in the charters and covenants alone. It lies in the hearts and minds of all people. So let us not rest all our hopes on parchment and on paper, let us strive to build peace, a desire for peace, a willingness to work for peace in the hearts and minds of all of our people. I believe that we can. I believe the problems of human destiny are not beyond the reach of human beings.

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.

If somebody harbours delusions, I think that should disqualify them from office, regardless whether the delusions are religious. Letting someone who thinks the god Jehovah will bail him out serve in public office is like letting a man who believes in Santa Claus run a Toys 'R Us. The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie - deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

History will never accept difficulties as an excuse.

Persons are judged to be great because of the positive qualities they possess, not because of the absence of faults.

The only valid test of leadership is the ability to lead, and lead vigorously.

Wealth is the means, and people are the ends. All our material riches will avail us little if we do not use them to expand the opportunities of our people.

It is increasingly clear that no matter what party is in power, so long as our national security needs keep rising, an economy hampered by restrictive tax rates will never produce enough jobs or enough profits.

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

After visiting these places, you can easily understand how that within a few years Hitler will emerge from the hatred that surrounds him now as one of the most significant figures who ever lived. He had boundless ambition for his country which rendered him a menace to the peace of the world, but he had a mystery about him in the way that he lived and in the manner of his death that will live and grow after him. He had in him the stuff of which legends are made.

I would rather be accused of breaking precedents than breaking promises.

Sincerity is always subject to proof.

It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high and tax revenues are too low and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now Cutting taxes now is not to incur a budget deficit, but to achieve the more prosperous, expanding economy which can bring a budget surplus.

It is insane that two men, sitting on opposite sides of the world, should be able to decide to bring an end to civilization.

There is only one rule by which to judge if God is near us or is far away - the rule that God's word is giving us today: everyone concerned for the hungry, the naked, the poor, for those who have vanished in police custody, for the tortured, for prisoners, for all flesh that suffers, has God close at hand. We have the ability, we have the means, and we have the capacity to eliminate hunger from the face of the earth. We need only the will.

The future promise of any nation can be directly measured by the present prospects of its youth.

Only in winter can you tell which trees are truly green. Only when the winds of adversity blow can you tell whether an individual or a country has steadfastness.

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

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.'

This nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened ... It ought to to be possible, in short, for every American to enjoy the privileges of being American without regard to his race or his color.

For one true measure of a nation is its success in fulfilling the promise of a better life for each of its members. Let this be the measure of our nation.

Compromise does not mean cowardice.

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

I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, human liberty as the source of national action, the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas

The only reason to give a speech is to change the world.

Political action is the highest responsibility of a citizen.

The war against hunger is truly mankind's war of liberation.

Never before has man had such a great capacity to control his own environment, to end hunger, poverty and disease, to banish illiteracy and human misery. We have the power to make the best generation of mankind in the history of the world.

If I don't have a woman every three days or so I get a terrible headache.

For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe -- the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.

Each success brings with it the potential of failure and each failure brings with it the potential of success.

Peaceful circulation has been interupted by barbed wire and concrete blocks. For a city or a people to be truly free, they must have the secure right, without economic, political or police pressure, to make their own choices and live their own lives.

The US Airforce assures me that UFO's pose no threat to National Security.

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

We stand for freedom. That is our conviction for ourselves; that is our only commitment to others.

It is in the American tradition to stand up for one's rights--even if the new way to stand up for one's rights is to sit down.

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 for they determine whether we use power or power uses us.

Those who do nothing are inviting shame as well as violence. Those who act boldly are recognizing right as well as reality.

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

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

Democracy is never a final achievement. It is a call to an untiring effort.

It is not our wealth that built our roads, but it is our roads that built our wealth.

There is danger that totalitarian governments, not subject to vigorous popular debate, will underestimate the will and unity of democratic societies where vital interests are concerned.

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.

We do not want an official state church. If ninety-nine percent of the population were Catholics, I would still be opposed to it. I do not want civil power combined with religious power. I want to make it clear that I am committed as a matter of deep personal conviction to separation.

Our labor unions are not narrow, self-seeking groups. They have raised wages, shortened hours, and provided supplemental benefits. Through collective bargaining and grievance procedures, they have brought justice and democracy to the shop floor.

No President should fear public scrutiny of his program. For from that scrutiny comes understanding; and from that understanding comes support or opposition and both are necessary.

... the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy.

A medical revolution has extended the life of our elder citizens without providing the dignity and security those later years deserve.