Top 60 John F. Kennedy Quotes

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.

When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

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

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.

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

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

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.

I’m an idealist without illusions.

I just received the following wire from my generous Daddy; Dear Jack, Don’t buy a single vote more than is necessary. I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay for a landslide.

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.

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

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.

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.

The basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a military solution.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I hope that no American will waste his franchise and throw away his vote by voting either for me or against me solely on account of my religious affiliation. It is not relevant.

Communism has never come to power in a country that was not disrupted by war or corruption, or both.

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

Once you say you’re going to settle for second, that’s what happens to you in life.

Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.

No one has been barred on account of his race from fighting or dying for America, there are no white or colored signs on the foxholes or graveyards of battle.

The pay is good and I can walk to work.

Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all.

There are many people in the world who really don’t understand-or say they don’t-what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin!

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.

There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.

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.

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.

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.

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

America has tossed its cap over the wall of space.

Too often we… enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

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

The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy.

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

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

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.

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.

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

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.

It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war.

When we got into office, the thing that surprised me most was to find that things were just as bad as we’d been saying they were.

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.

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

War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.

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

The human mind is our fundamental resource.

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

I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris, and I have enjoyed it.

A young man who does not have what it takes to perform military service is not likely to have what it takes to make a living. Today’s military rejects include tomorrow’s hard-core unemployed.

Do you realize the responsibility I carry? I’m the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House.

A nation which has forgotten the quality of courage which in the past has been brought to public life is not as likely to insist upon or regard that quality in its chosen leaders today – and in fact we have forgotten.

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