Quotes from John F. Kennedy

There are costs and risks to a program of action, but they are far less than the long range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.

A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers.

I was born an American, I live like an American, I will die an American.

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.

If more politicians knew poetry, and more poets knew politics, I am convinced the world would be a little better place in which to live.

If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.

Our problems are manmade--therefore, they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Man's reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable--and we believe they can do it again.

The interaction of disparate cultures, the vehemence of the ideals that led the immigrants here, the opportunity offered by a new life, all gave America a flavor and a character that make it as unmistakable and as remarkable to people today as it was to Alexis de Tocqueville in the early part of the nineteenth century.

The ancient Greek definition of happiness was the full use of your powers along lines of excellence.

Just because we cannot see clearly te end of the road, that is no reason for not setting out on the essential journey.

probably the greatest concentration of talent and genius in this house except for perhaps those times when Thomas Jefferson ate alone.

Whether they be young in spirit, or young in age, the members of the Democratic Party must never lose that youthful zest for new ideas and for a better world, which has made us great.

Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.

The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were.

We must face the fact that the United States is neither omnipotent nor omniscient, that we cannot impose our will upon the other 94 percent of mankind, that we cannot right every wrong or reverse every adversity, and that therefore there cannot be an American solution to every world problem.

Every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day when this planet may no longer be habitable .. The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us.

With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.

To those peoples in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required - not because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

The great French Marshall Lyautey once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardner objected that the tree was slow growing and wouldn't reach maturity for 100 years. The Marshall replied, In that case, there is no time to lose; plant it this afternoon!

And is not peace, in the last analysis, basically a matter of human rights -- the right to live out our lives without fear of devastation – the right to breathe air as nature provided it -- the right of future generations to a healthy existence? (John F. Kennedy, June 10, 1963, American University speech)

Above all, we are coming to understand that the arts incarnate the creativity of a free people. When the creative impulse cannot flourish, when it cannot freely select its methods and objects, when it is deprived of spontaneity, then society severs the root of art.

Time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life.

A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.

And so it is to the printing press--to the recorder of man's deeds, the keeper of his conscience, the courier of his news--that we look for strength and assistance, confident that with your help man will be what he was born to be: free and independent.