Quotes from John F. Kennedy

In the years since man unlocked the power stored up within the atom, the world has made progress, halting, but effective, toward bringing that power under human control. The challenge may be our salvation. As we begin to master the destructive potentialities of modern science, we move toward a new era in which science can fulfill its creative promise and help bring into existence the happiest society the world has ever known.

Science contributes to our culture in many ways, as a creative intellectual activity in its own right, as the light which has served to illuminate man's place in the universe, and as the source of understanding of man's own nature.

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

For the great enemy of truth is very often not the lie--deliberate, contrived, and dishonest--but the myth--persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.

we will do this not because it is easy, but because it is hard ...

But let us begin. Now the trumpet summons us again - not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need - not as a call to battle, though embattled we are - but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, 'rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation'- a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.

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. (20 January 1961).

We are all 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.

I'm shadowboxing in a match the shadow is always going to win. (as a young man battling his deceased brother's heroic legacy)

If we fail to meet the challenge of either Soviet or Western imperialism, then no amount of foreign aid, no aggrandizement of armaments, no new pacts or doctrines or high-level conferences can prevent further setbacks to our course and to our security.

The new and terrible dangers which man has created can only be controlled by man.

I love her deeply and have done everything for her. I've no feeling of letting her down because I've put her foremost in everything.

The high courage and the supreme sacrifice of Americans who gave their lives in battle have made it possible for our land to flourish under freedom and justice.

Freedom is being allowed to think your own thoughts and live your own life.

Ask not what your Joe Montaperto can do for you - but rather - what you can do for your Joe Montaperto.

Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.

To be courageous, these stories make clear, requires no exceptional qualifications, no magic formula, no special combination of time, place and circumstance.

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 future. And we are all mortal.

And finally, at age seventy, having distinguished himself as a brilliant Secretary of State, an independent President and an eloquent member of Congress, he was to record somberly that his "whole life has been a succession of disappointments. I can scarcely recollect a single instance of success in anything that I ever undertook." Yet

Daniel Webster prefirió arriesgar su carrera y su reputación en lugar de poner en riesgo a la Unión.

Señor presidente, comenzó, quiero hablar hoy, no como un hombre de Massachusetts, ni como un hombre del Norte, sino como un estadounidense y un miembro del Senado de Estados Unidos... Hablo hoy por la preservación de la Unión. Escuchen mis razones.

The fierce beauty and proud independence of this great bird symbolizes the strength and freedom of America. But as latter-day citizens we shall fail our trust if we permit the eagle to disappear.

The artist, however faithful to his personal vision of reality, becomes the last champion of the individual mind and sensibility against an intrusive society and an officious state… In pursuing his perceptions of reality, he must often sail against the currents of his time. This is not a popular role…

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