John F. Kennedy Quotes

The margin is narrow, but the responsibility is clear.

Race has no place in American life or law.

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.

To be courageous requires no exceptional qualifications, no magic formula, no special combination of time, place, and circumstance. It is an opportunity that sooner or later is presented to us all.

We stand today on the edge of a new frontier.

The human mind is our fundamental resource.

When power corrupts, poetry cleanses

We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values.

Anyone who is honestly seeking a job and can't find it, deserves the attention of the United States government, and the people.

I speak of peace, therefore, as the necessary rational end of rational men. I realize the pursuit of peace is not as dramatic as the pursuit of war... But we have no more urgent task.

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.

Unconditional war can no longer lead to unconditional victory. It can no longer serve to settle disputes... can no longer be of concern to great powers alone.

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

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!'

Harvard gave me an education, but Junior Chamber gave me an education for life.

The basis of effective government is public confidence.

The great free nations of the world must take control of our monetary problems if these problems are not to take control of us.

War and hunger and ignorance and despair know no religious barriers.

The life of the arts is far from an interruption, a distraction, in the life of a nation, is close to the center of a nation's purpose-and is a test of the quality of a nations' civilization.

Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors.

Our alliance is born, not of fear, but of hope. It is an alliance that advances what we are for, as well as opposes what we are against.

Above all, we are coming to understand that the arts incarnate the creativity of a free people.

I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party's candidate for President, who happens also to be a Catholic.

Now we have a problem in making our power credible, and Vietnam is the place.

Word to the Nation: Guard zealously your right to serve in the Armed Forces, for without them, there will be no other rights to guard.

Politics is like football; if you see daylight, go through the hole.

I strongly believe in Scouting. ... It's a source of great strength to us.

If anyone is crazy enough to want to kill a president of the United States, he can do it. All he must be prepared to do is give his life for the president's.

Of all the multitudes who throughout history have spoken for human dignity in times of great suffering and loss, no voice is more compelling than that of Anne Frank.

We want to be first; not first if, not first but; but first!

In serving his vision of the truth, the artist best serves his nation.

Libraries should be open to all - except the censor. [Response to questionnaire in Saturday Review, October 29 1960]

Acting on our own, by ourselves, we cannot establish justice throughout the world, but joined with other free nations, we can ... assist the developing nations to throw off the yoke of poverty.

[War] can no longer be of concern to great powers alone.

In a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.

Israel was not created in order to disappear. Israel will endure and flourish.

Nor problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.

For without belittling the courage with which men have died, we should not forget those acts of courage with which men have lived.

Our children and grandchildren are not merely statistics towards which we can be indifferent.

Only in the case of the Negro has the melting pot failed to bring a minority into the full stream of American life.

We prefer world law in the age of self-determination to world war in the age of mass extermination.

America has tossed its cap over the wall of space.

It might be said now that I have the best of both worlds. A Harvard education and a Yale degree.

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

Our nation is founded on the principal that observance of the law is the eternal safeguard of liberty and defiance of the law is the surest road to tyranny.

We, the people, are the boss, and we will get the kind of political leadership, be it good or bad, that we demand and deserve.

An economy hampered by restrictive tax rates will never produce enough jobs or enough profits

What's the use of being Irish if the world doesn't break your heart?

Struggle for freedom. Where people are denied the right of choice, recourse to such struggle is the only means of achieving their liberties.

In our democracy every young person should have an equal opportunity to obtain a higher education, regardless of his station in life or financial means.