Welcome

Welcome
John William Tuohy lives in Washington DC

Quotes from the life and times John F. Kennedy


Economic growth without social progress lets the great majority of people remain in poverty, while a privileged few reap the benefits of rising abundance.
 Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation.
Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource.
Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.
In the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding on the back of the tiger ended up inside.
Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
Once you say you're going to settle for second, that's what happens to you in life.
Let us never negotiate out of fear but let us never fear to negotiate.
In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility -- I welcome it.
The unity of freedom has never relied on uniformity of opinion.
The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.
To those people 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.
Every American ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as one would wish his children to be treated. This is not the case.
                         The basis of effective government is public confidence.
True happiness is the full use of your powers along lines of excellence in a life affording scope.
I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we, too, will be remembered not for victories or defeats in battle or in politics, but for our contribution to the human spirit.
The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds.
It is time for a new generation of leadership, to cope with new problems and new opportunities. For there is a new world to be won.
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
We would like to live as we once lived, but history will not permit it.
We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed.
There is a terrific disadvantage in not having the abrasive quality of the press applied to you daily. Even though we never like it, and even though we wish they didn't write it, and even though we disapprove, there isn't any doubt that we could not do the job at all in a free society without a very, very active press.
The human mind is our fundamental resource.
A man does what he must -- in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers -- and this is the basis of all human morality.
Written in Chinese, the word crisis, is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represent opportunity.
When you have seven percent unemployed, you have ninety-three percent working.
But 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.
It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war.
Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.
World peace, like community peace, does not require that each man love his neighbor -- it requires only that they live together with mutual tolerance, submitting their disputes to a just and peaceful settlement.
We hold the view that the people make the best judgment in the long run.
When power leads man towards 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 see little of more importance to the future of our country and of civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist. If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.
If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.
In free society art is not a weapon. Artists are not engineers of the soul.
Most of us are conditioned for many years to have a political viewpoint -- Republican or Democratic, liberal, conservative, or moderate. The fact of the matter is that most of the problems that we now face are technical problems, are administrative problems. They are very sophisticated judgments, which do not lend themselves to the great sort of passionate movements which have stirred this country so often in the past. [They] deal with questions which are now beyond the comprehension of most men.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
As far as the job of President goes, its rewarding and I've given before this group the definition of happiness for the Greeks. I'll define it again: the full use of your powers along lines of excellence. I find, therefore, that the Presidency provides some happiness.
The United States has to move very fast to even stand still.
I never know when I press these whether I am going to blow up Massachusetts or start the project. (On the many buttons on his telephone)
The supreme reality of our time is the vulnerability of this planet.
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
In giving rights to others which belong to them, we give rights to ourselves and to our country.
There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.
All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first thousand days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.
The one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is unchangeable or certain.
The New Frontier I speak of is not a set of promises -- it is a set of challenges. It sums up not what I intend to offer the American people, but what I intent to ask of them.
Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.
Let us resolve to be masters, not the victims, of our history, controlling our own destiny without giving way to blind suspicions and emotions.
I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.
The great battleground for the defense and expansion of freedom today is the whole southern half of the globe... the lands of the rising peoples. Their revolution is the greatest in human history. They seek an end to injustice, tyranny and exploitation. More than an end, they seek a beginning.
The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie -- deliberate, contrived, and dishonest -- but the myth -- persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.
We stand today on the edge of a new frontier -- the frontier of the 1960s, a frontier of unknown opportunities and perils, a frontier of unfulfilled hopes and threats. The new frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises -- it is a set of challenges.
A police state finds that it cannot command the grain to grow.
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.
 Our growing softness, our increasing lack of physical fitness, is a menace to our security.
We prefer world law, in the age of self-determination, to world war in the age of mass extermination.
The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring this endeavor will light our bounty and all who serve it, and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.
The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.
The margin is narrow, but the responsibility is clear.
There is no city in the United States in which I can get a warmer welcome and fewer votes than Columbia, Ohio.
You can milk a cow the wrong way once and still be a farmer, but vote the wrong way on a water tower and you can be in trouble.
Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind. War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.
This country cannot afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor.
A child miseducated is a child lost.
We will neglect our cities to our peril, for in neglecting them we neglect the nation.
Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.
We want to be first; not first if, not first but; but first
Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all.
If we cannot end our differences at least we can make the world safe for diversity.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.
 For without belittling the courage with which men have died, we should not forget those acts of courage with which men have lived.
The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of the final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy.
Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is also true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on.
The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.
Before my term has ended, we shall have to test anew whether a nation organized and governed such as ours can endure. The outcome is by no means certain.
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 Gods work must truly be our own.
We in this country, in this generation, are by destiny rather than choice the watchmen on the walls of world freedom. We ask, therefore, that we may be worthy of our power and responsibility, that we may exercise our strength with wisdom and restraint, and that we may achieve in our time and for all time the ancient vision of peace on earth, good will toward men. That must always be our goal, and the righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength. For as was written long ago: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility I welcome it.
The purpose of foreign policy is not to provide an outlet for our own sentiments of hope or indignation; it is to shape real events in a real world.
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.
Is this Nation stating it cannot afford to spend an additional $600 million to help the developing nations of the world become strong and free and independent an amount less than this country’s annual outlay for lipstick, face cream, and chewing gum?
All my life I’ve known better than to depend on the experts. How could I have been so stupid, to let them go ahead?
Never before has man had such capacity to control his own environment, to end thirst and hunger, to conquer poverty and disease, to banish illiteracy and massive human misery. We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world or to make it the last.
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.
We cannot expect that everyone, to use the phrase of a decade ago, will talk sense to the American people. But we can hope that fewer people will listen to nonsense. And the notion that this Nation is headed for defeat through deficit, or that strength is but a matter of slogans, is nothing but just plain nonsense.
I ask that you offer to the political arena, and to the critical problems of our society which are decided therein, the benefit of the talents which society has helped to develop in you. I ask you to decide, as Goethe put it, whether you will be an anvil or a hammer. The question is whether you are to be a hammer whether you are to give to the world in which you were reared and educated the broadest possible benefits of that education.
 So, let us not be blind to our differences but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.
Without belittling the courage with which men have died, we should not forget those acts of courage with which men have lived. 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. 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. In whatever arena of life one may meet the challenge of courage, whatever may be the sacrifices he faces if he follows his conscience the loss of his friends, his fortune, his contentment, even the esteem of his fellow men each man must decide for himself the course he will follow. The stories of past courage can define that ingredient they can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul.
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.
Somebody once said that Washington was a city of Northern charm and Southern efficiency.
I don’t think that unless a greater effort is made by the Government to win popular support that the war can be won out there. In the final analysis, it is their war. They are the ones who have to win it or lose it. We can help them, we can give them equipment, we can send our men out there as advisers, but they have to win it, the people of Viet-Nam, against the Communists.
There’s an old saying that victory has 100 fathers and defeat is an orphan.
In its [acknowledges] light, we must think and act not only for the moment but for our time. I am reminded of the great French Marshal Lyautey, who once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardener objected that the tree was slow-growing and would not reach maturity for a hundred years. The Marshal replied, In that case, there is no time to lose, plant it this afternoon.
And we must face the fact that the United States is neither omnipotent or omniscient that we are only 6 percent of the world’s population 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.
As they say on my own Cape Cod, a rising tide lifts all the boats. And a partnership, by definition, serves both partners, without domination or unfair advantage. Together we have been partners in adversity let us also be partners in prosperity.
 For of those to whom much is given, much is required. And when at some future date the high court of history sits in judgment on each of us recording whether in our brief span of service we fulfilled our responsibilities to the state our success or failure, in whatever office we hold, will be measured by the answers to four questions: First, were we truly men of courage with the courage to stand up to ones enemies and the courage to stand up, when necessary, to ones associates the courage to resist public pressure, as well as private greed? Secondly, were we truly men of judgment with perceptive judgment of the future as well as the past of our mistakes as well as the mistakes of others with enough wisdom to know what we did not know and enough candor to admit it. Third, were we truly men of integrity men who never ran out on either the principles in which we believed or the men who believed in us men whom neither financial gain nor political ambition could ever divert from the fulfillment of our sacred trust? Finally, were we truly men of dedication with an honor mortgaged to no single individual or group, and comprised of no private obligation or aim, but devoted solely to serving the public good and the national interest?
Courage, judgment, integrity dedication….these are the historic qualities which, with God’s help will characterize our Governments conduct in the 4 stormy years that lie ahead.
And if we are to open employment opportunities in this country for members of all races and creeds, then the Federal Government must set an example. The President himself must set the key example. I am not going to promise a Cabinet post or any other post to any race or ethnic group. That is racism in reverse at its worst. So I do not promise to consider race or religion in my appointments if I am successful. I promise only that I will not consider them.
Well, I am reading more and enjoying it less and so on, but I have not complained nor do I plan to make any general complaints. I read and talk to myself about it, but I don’t plan to issue any general statement on the press. I think that they are doing their task, as a critical branch, the fourth estate. And I am attempting to do mine. And we are going to live together for a period, and then go our separate ways.
I am deeply touched not as deeply touched as you have been coming to this dinner, but nevertheless it is a sentimental occasion.
And so it is that I carry with me from this State to that high and lonely office to which I now succeed more than fond memories and fast friendships. The enduring qualities of Massachusetts the common threads woven by the Pilgrim and the Puritan, the fisherman and the farmer, the Yankee and the immigrant will not be and could not be forgotten in the Nations Executive Mansion. They are an indelible part of my life, my convictions, my view of the past, my hopes for the future.
Don’t teach my boy poetry, an English mother recently wrote the Provost of Harrow. Don’t teach my boy poetry; he is going to stand for Parliament. Well, perhaps she was right but if more politicians knew poetry, and more poets knew politics, I am convinced the world would be a little better place to live on this
Sometimes party loyalty asks too much.
Of course, both major parties today seek to serve the national interest. They would do so in order to obtain the broadest base of support, if for no nobler reason. But when party and officeholder differ as to how the national interest is to be served, we must place first the responsibility we owe not to our party or even to our constituents but to our individual consciences.
So let us here resolve that Dag Hammarskjold did not live, or die, in vain. Let us call a truce to terror. Let us invoke the blessings of peace. And, as we build an international capacity to keep peace, let us join in dismantling the national capacity to wage war.
If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books in more public libraries. These libraries should be open to all except the censor. We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors. For the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our liberty.
For the great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie deliberate, contrived, and dishonest but the myth persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the clichés of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinions without the discomfort of thought.
Dante once said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality.
War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.
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 tomorrows hard core unemployed.
Lobbyists are in many cases expert technicians and capable of explaining complex and difficult subjects in a clear, understandable fashion. They engage in personal s with Members of Congress in which they can explain in detail the reasons for positions they advocate. Because our congressional representation is based on geographical boundaries, the lobbyists who speak for the various economic, commercial, and other functional interests of this country serve a very useful purpose and have assumed an important role in the legislative process.
There is always inequity in life. Some men are killed in a war and some men are wounded, and some men never leave the country, and some men are stationed in the Antarctic and some are stationed in San Francisco. Its very hard in military or in personal life to assure complete equality. Life is unfair.
I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of grace and beauty.
I look forward to an America which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft. I look forward to an America which will steadily raise the standards of artistic accomplishment and which will steadily enlarge cultural opportunities for all of our citizens. And I look forward to an America which commands respect throughout the world not only for its strength but for its civilization as well.
 There is a connection, hard to explain logically but easy to feel, between achievement in public life and progress in the arts. The age of Pericles was also the age of Phidias. The age of Lorenzo de Medici was also the age of Leonardo da Vinci. The age of Elizabeth was also the age of Shakespeare. And the New Frontier for which I campaign in public life, can also be a New Frontier for American art.
To further the appreciation of culture among all the people, to increase respect for the creative individual, to widen participation by all the processes and fulfillments of art this is one of the fascinating challenges of these days.
There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.
The White House was designed by Hoban, a noted Irish-American architect, and I have no doubt that he believed by incorporating several features of the Dublin style he would make it more homelike for any President of Irish descent. It was a long wait, but I appreciate his efforts.
When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his experience. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. For art establishes the basic human truths which must serve as the touchstones of our judgment. The artist. . . faithful to his personal vision of reality, becomes the last champion of the individual mind and sensibility against an intrusive society and an offensive state.
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 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. 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 morality.
Once you say you're going to settle for second, that's what happens to you in life, I find.
All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet.
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.
The Family of Man is more than three billion strong. It lives in more than one hundred nations. Most of its members are not white. Most of them are not Christians. Most of them know nothing about free enterprise, or due process of law, or the Australian ballot.
 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.
I am not so much concerned with the right of everyone to say anything he pleases as I am about our need as self-governing people to hear everything relevant.
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, proud of our ancient heritage - and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world. Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty. All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be finished in the first 1,000 days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. 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. And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country . My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
Too often we . . . enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.
If we are strong, our strength will speak for itself. If we are weak, words will be no help.
I just received the following wire from my generous Daddy Dear Jack: Don't buy a single vote more than necessary. I'll be damned if I am going to pay for a landslide.
 If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
I am sorry to say there is too much point to the wise crack that life is extinct on other planets because their scientists were more advanced than ours.
The complacent, the self-indulgent, the soft societies are about to be swept away with the debris of history.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.
Anyone who is honestly seeking a job and can't find it, deserves the attention of the United States government, and the people.
We must use time as a tool, not as a crutch.
We should not let our fears hold us back from pursuing our hopes.
Every area of trouble gives out a ray of hope, and the one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is certain or unchangeable.
The one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is certain or unchangeable.
Everything changes but change itself.
Change is the law of life.
 Once you say you're going to settle for second, that's what happens to you.
We should not let our fears hold us back from pursuing our hopes.
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. 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 morality.
There is, in addition to a courage with which men die, a courage by which men must live.
There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.
When power narrows the area of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence.
When written in Chinese, the word crisis is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.
If we are strong, our strength will speak for itself. If we are weak, words will be no help.
Ladies and gentlemen, I was warned to be out of here in plenty of time to permit those who are going to the Green Bay Packers game to leave. I don't mind running against Mr. Nixon but I have the good sense not to run against the Green Bay Packers.
We had an interesting convention at Los Angeles and we ended with a strong Democratic platform which we called 'The Rights of Man.' The Republican platform has also been presented. I do not know its title, but it has been referred to as 'The Power of Positive Thinking.
Those of you who regard my profession of political life with distain should remember that it made it possible for me to move from being an obscure lieutenant in the United States Navy to Commander-in-Chief in fourteen years with very little technical competence.
Politics is an astonishing profession. It has enabled me to go from being an obscure member of the junior varsity at Harvard to being an honorary member of the Football Hall of Fame.
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.
Mr. Nixon in the last seven days has called me an economic ignoramus, a Pied Piper, and all the rest. I've just confined myself to calling him a Republican, but he says that is getting low.
It has recently been suggested that, whether I serve one or two terms in the Presidency, I will find myself at the end of that period at what might be called the awkward age -- too old to begin a new career and too young to write my memoirs.
When President Roosevelt was running for a second term. . .some garment workers unfolded a great sign that said, 'We love him for the enemies he has made.' Well, I have been making some good enemies lately.
Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.
Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation.
Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource.
The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.
The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways.
Let us resolve to be masters, not the victims, of our history, controlling our own destiny without giving way to blind suspicions and emotions.
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! Because that challenge is one we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone and one we intend to win!
 Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.
Now I understand why Henry VIII started his own church.  Comment after the Vatican scolded him for supporting separation between church and state during his campaign
 If I am to die, this is the week for it. -- To aide John McClone in response to a CIA report about rumors of an assassination plot, June 1962.
 Too often we... enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.
It is our task in our time and in our generation to hand down undiminished to those who come after us, as was handed down to us by those who went before, the natural wealth and beauty which is ours.
I believe this nation should commit itself, to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.
And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country.
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.
Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is also true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on.
Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom, and the enemy of growth.
We stand for freedom. That is our conviction for ourselves; that is our only commitment to others.
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.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
 The ancient Greek definition of happiness was the full use of your powers along lines of excellence.
 There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.
 Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable.
 We don’t see the end of the tunnel but I must say I don’t think it is darker than it was a year ago, and in some ways lighter.
 We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth.
 But 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.
Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain.
The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.
Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation.
Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.
Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource.
The quality of American life must keep pace with the quantity of American goods. This country cannot afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor.
The greatest 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.
We believe that an artist, in order to be true to himself and his work, must be a free man.
Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.
 Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
 There will always be dissident voices heard in the land expressing opposition without alternatives, finding fault but never favor, perceiving gloom on every side, and seeking influence without responsibility.
Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.
The men who create power make an indispensable contribution to the Nation? greatness, but the men who question power make a contribution just as indispensable, especially when that questioning is disinterested, for they determine whether we use power or power uses us.
Too often we...enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.
Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.
We need men who can dream of things that never were.
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
 All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be finished in the first 1,000 days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.
A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.
The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.
 Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty.
My father always told me that all businessmen were sons of bitches, but I never believed it till now. -- Made in reaction to news that U.S. Steel was raising prices by $6 per ton, right after the unions negotiated a modest new contract under pressure from JFK to keep inflation down.

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
 Change is the law of life; and those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.
 Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.
Hungry men and women cannot wait for economic s or diplomatic meetings -- and their hunger rests heavily on the consciences of their fellow men.
Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer but the right answer.
Man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life.
While we shall negotiate freely, we shall not negotiate freedom.
 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.
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.
We seek not the world-wide victory of one nation or system but a world-wide victory of man. The modern globe is too small, its weapons too destructive, and its disorders too contagious to permit any other kind of victory.
 I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it -- and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.
….the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.
Let the word go forth.....that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.
Let every nation know... that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
The world is very, 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.
Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.
Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country
For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed.
All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be finished in the first 1,000 days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.
...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
Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation.
Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain.
 Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.
 So, let us not be blind to our differences - but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved.
The American, by nature, is optimistic. He is experimental, an inventor and a builder who builds best when called upon to build greatly.
The ancient Greek definition of happiness was the full use of your powers along lines of excellence.
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.
The great French Marshall Lyautey once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardener objected that the tree was slow growing and would not reach maturity for 100 years. The Marshall replied, 'In that case, there is no time to lose; plant it this afternoon!'
The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.
There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.
Washington is a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm.
We must use time as a tool, not as a crutch.
 We set sail on this new sea because there is knowledge to be gained.
We stand for freedom. That is our conviction for ourselves; that is our only commitment to others.
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, especially when that questioning is disinterested, for they determine whether we use power or power uses us.
Before my term has ended, we shall have to test anew whether a nation organized and governed such as ours can endure. The outcome is by no means certain.
Probably the greatest concentration of talent and genius in this house except for perhaps those times when Thomas Jefferson ate alone. Describing a dinner for Nobel Prize winners, 1962
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.
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.
We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth.
This nation was founded by many 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.
I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of grace and beauty. Remarks upon receiving an honorary degree, Amherst College, October 26, 1963
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. Speech at The American University, Washington, D.C., June 10, 1963
Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.
If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.
We need men who can dream of things that never were.
A warning to the American people not to fall into the same trap as the Soviets, not to see only a distorted and desperate view of the other side, not to see conflict as inevitable, accommodation as impossible and communication as nothing more than an exchange of threats.
Let us call a truce to terror. Let us invoke the blessings of peace. And as we build an international capacity to keep peace, let us join in dismantling the national capacity to wage war.
Our primary long-range interest in Geneva, however, is general and complete disarmament -- designed to take place by stages, permitting parallel political developments to build the new institutions of peace which would take the place of arms.
It is therefore our intention to challenge the Soviet Union, not to an arms race, but to a peace race- -to advance together step by step, stage by stage, until general and complete disarmament has been achieved. We invite them now to go beyond agreement in principle to reach agreement on actual plans.
I believe in an America... where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source Address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, September 12, 1960
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich
In this serious hour in our Nation's history when we are confronted with grave crises in Berlin and Southeast Asia, when we are devoting our energies to economic recovery and stability, when we are asking reservists to leave their homes and their families for months on end and servicemen to risk their lives--and four were killed in the last two days in Viet Nam and asking union members to hold down their wage requests at a time when restraint and sacrifice are being asked of every citizen, the American people will find it hard, as I do, to accept a situation in which a tiny handful of steel executives whose pursuit of private power and profit exceeds their sense of public responsibility can show such utter contempt for the interests of 185 million Americans.
In short, at a time when they could be exploring how more efficiency and better prices could be obtained... a few gigantic corporations have decided to increase prices in ruthless disregard of their public responsibilities.
I realize that there are some businessmen who feel only they want to be left alone, that Government and politics are none of their affairs, that the balance sheet and profit rate of their own corporation are of more importance than the worldwide balance of power or the Nationwide rate of unemployment. But I hope it is not rushing the season to recall to you the passage from Dickens' Christmas Carol in which Ebenezer Scrooge is terrified by the ghosts of his former partner, Jacob Marley, and Scrooge, appalled by Marley's story of ceaseless wandering, cries out, But you were always a good man of business, Jacob. And the ghost of Marley, his legs bound by a chain of ledger books and cash boxes, replied, Business? Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business. Charity, mercy, forbearance and benevolence were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!
Ladies and gentlemen, I was warned to be out of here in plenty of time to permit those who are going to the Green Bay Packers game to leave. I don't mind running against Mr. Nixon but I have the good sense not to run against the Green Bay Packers.
We had an interesting convention at Los Angeles and we ended with a strong Democratic platform which we called 'The Rights of Man.' The Republican platform has also been presented. I do not know its title, but it has been referred to as 'The Power of Positive Thinking.
Those of you who regard my profession of political life with distain should remember that it made it possible for me to move from being an obscure lieutenant in the United States Navy to Commander-in-Chief in fourteen years with very little technical competence.
Politics is an astonishing profession. It has enabled me to go from being an obscure member of the junior varsity at Harvard to being an honorary member of the Football Hall of Fame.
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. (May 27, 1961)
I never know when I press these whether I am going to blow up Massachusetts or start the project. Pulling the switch to activate the generators at the Green River in the Colorado River basin 150 miles away.
While listening to the loudspeaker for the announcement that generators had successfully started:
If we don't hear from him, it's back to the drawing board.
Several nights ago, I dreamed that the good Lord touched me on the shoulder and said, 'Don't worry, you'll be the Democratic presidential nominee in 1960. What's more, you'll be elected.' I told Stu Symington about my dream. 'Funny thing,' said Stu, 'I had the same dream myself.' We both told our dreams to Lyndon Johnson, and Johnson said, 'That's funny. For the life of me, I can't remember tapping either of you two boys for the job.'
Mr. Nixon in the last seven days has called me an economic ignoramus, a Pied Piper, and all the rest. I've just confined myself to calling him a Republican, but he says that is getting low.
It has recently been suggested that, whether I serve one or two terms in the Presidency, I will find myself at the end of that period at what might be called the awkward age -- too old to begin a new career and too young to write my memoirs.
When President Roosevelt was running for a second term. . .some garment workers unfolded a great sign that said, 'We love him for the enemies he has made.' Well, I have been making some good enemies lately.
I have consulted Bobby about it, to my dismay, the idea appeals to him. The President reply to an attorney who wrote to say that Attorney General Robert Kennedy would be an effective President because of his racket-busting activities
I was almost late here today, but I had a very good taxi driver who brought me through the traffic jam. I was going to give him a very large tip and tell him to vote Democratic and then I remembered some advice  Senator Green had given me, so I gave him no tip at all and told him to vote Republican.
At a $100-a-plate luncheon in Denver: I could say I am deeply touched, but not as deeply touched as you have been in coming to this luncheon.
Nor finally are the remarks intended to examine the proper degree of privacy which the press should allow to any President and his family. If in the last few months your White House reporters and photographers have been attending church services with regularity, that has surely done them no harm. On the other hand I realize that staff and wire service photographers may be complaining that they do not enjoy the same greens privileges at the local golf courses which they once did. It is true that my predecessor did not object as I do to pictures of one's golfing skill in action, but neither on the other hand did he ever bean a Secret Service man.
I don't think the intelligence reports are all that hot. Some days I get more out of the New York Times.
I got where I am by not trusting experts. But this time I put all my faith in the experts and look what happened. To Ted Sorensen, after the Bay of Pigs fiasco
I know there are some Republicans and some Democrats who say that they have now developed a wonderful arrangement in Washington. The congress is Democratic and the President is Republican and nothing happens, and isn't it wonderful?
The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways.
I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute where no Catholic prelate would tell the President how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him. I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all. For while this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been, and may someday be again, a Jew or a Quaker or a Unitarian or a Baptist. It was Virginias harassment of Baptist preachers, for example, that helped lead to Jefferson’s statute of religious freedom. Today I may be the victim but tomorrow it may be you until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped at a time of great national peril. Finally, I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end where all men and all churches are treated as equal where every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choice where there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote, no bloc voting of any kind and where Catholics, Protestants and Jews, at both the lay and pastoral level, will refrain from those attitudes of disdain and division which have so often marred their works in the past, and promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood. That is the kind of America in which I believe. And it represents the kind of Presidency in which I believe a great office that must neither be humbled by making it the instrument of any one religious group nor tarnished by arbitrarily withholding its occupancy from the members of any one religious group. 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.
I'm not going to appoint ambassadors on the basis of campaign contributions. (In a subsequent speech) Ever since I said that, I haven't gotten a single cent from my father.
During my fourteen years in Congress I have had an opportunity to observe and to admire the high quality of our Career Civil Service. In meeting the grave problems confronting us at home and abroad it is my intention that the Career Civil Service be a full partner. Together we can lead our Nation to new peaks of achievement. (Excerpt from President Kennedy's Message to the Federal service published in the Civil Service Journal, January-March 1961)
When I called, at the very outset of my administration, for initiative, responsibility and energy in serving the public interest, the response from the career service was enthusiastic and eager. Federal career managers and employees have proved in the past 12 months that they are not wedded to static methods, that they welcome constructive change, and that they can contribute in full measure to the reshaping of our organizations and processes in the interest of greater effectiveness.
Much has already been accomplished and many things are in the process of change as we move toward the lean, fit and efficient establishment which I have set as a goal....
Today our concern with man's environment ranges from the ocean floor to the stars. Since there are virtually no limits to the physical dimensions of the tasks set for us, we must identify and unshackle limitless creativity in the Government's career service. In every phase of Government operations we must be certain that we provide today's solution to today's problem.
Let me express my personal appreciation to the men and women of the Government's career work force as one eventful year ends and we enter upon a new year of challenge and opportunity...'' (Excerpt from President Kennedy's Message to the Federal service published in the Civil Service Journal, January-March 1962)
The success of this Government, and thus the success of our Nation, depends in the last analysis upon the quality of our career services. The legislation enacted by the Congress, as well as the decisions made by me and by the department and agency heads, must all be implemented by the career men and women in the Federal service. In foreign affairs, national defense, science and technology, and a host of other fields, they face problems of unprecedented importance and perplexity. We are all dependent on their sense of loyalty and responsibility as well as their competence and energy.
War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.
The supreme reality of our time is our indivisibility as children of God and the common vulnerability of this planet. Speech to a joint session of the Dail and the Seanad, Dublin, Ireland June 28, 1963
And any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worth -while, I think can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction: I served in the United States Navy. Remarks at the U.S. Naval Academy August 1, 1963
11 ALIVE NEED SMALL BOAT NAURO NATIVE KNOWS POSIT   HE CAN PILOT   11 ALIVE   NEED SMALL BOAT   KENNEDY Message carved into a coconut after the wreck of PT-109 (6 August 1943
Little Boy: Mr. President, how did you become a war hero?
President Kennedy: It was absolutely involuntary. They sank my boat.
 I can imagine a no more rewarding career. And any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile, I think can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction: 'I served in the United States Navy.' Remarks to the US Naval Academy 1962
 It was a very spasmodic courtship, conducted mainly at long distance with a great clanking of coins in dozens of phone booths. Jackie on her romance with John F. Kennedy
 I have just received the following wire from my generous Daddy. It says, Dear Jack: Don't buy a single vote more than is necessary. I'll be damned if I am going to pay for a landslide.
 Harry Truman once said there are 14 or 15 million Americans who have the resources to have representatives in Washington to protect their interests, and that the interests of the great mass of other people, the hundred and fifty or sixty million, is the responsibility of the President of the United States. And I propose to fulfill it.
I have sent him [former President Harry S. Truman] the following wire: 'Dear Mr. President: I have noted with interest your suggestion as to where those who vote for my opponent should go. While I understand and sympathize with your deep motivation, I think it is important that our side try to refrain from raising the religious issue.
 And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
 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.'
 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.
 The day before my inauguration President Eisenhower told me, You'll find that no easy problems ever come to the President of the United States. If they are easy to solve, somebody else has solved them. I found that hard to believe, but now I know it is true.
 Mythology distracts us everywhere. For the great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie: deliberate, contrived and dishonest. But the myth: persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.

Washington is a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm.
May you live all the days of your life. Irish proverb
Children are the world's most valuable resource and its best hope for the future.
 The children have been a wonderful gift to me, and I’m thankful to have once again seen our world through their eyes. They restore my faith in the family’s future. Jackie
We are under exercised as a nation. We look instead of play. We ride instead of walk. Our existence deprives us of the minimum of physical activity essential for healthy living.
“I leaned across the asparagus and asked her for a date. “ On meeting Jackie
 'O God, thy sea is so great and my boat is so small' Remarks at dedication of the East Coast Memorial to the Missing at Sea , May 23, 1965
I really don't know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except I think it's because in addition to the fact that the sea changes, and the light changes, and ships change, it's because we all came from the sea. And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have, in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea - whether it is to sail or to watch it - we are going back from whence we came. Newport, RI at a dinner for America's Cup Crews
A newspaper reported I spend $30,000 a year buying Paris clothes and that women hate me for it. I couldn’t spend that much unless I wore sable underwear. Jacqueline Kennedy, The New York Times September 15, 1960
  Now, I think that I should have known that he was magic all along. I did know it — but I should have guessed that it would be too much to ask to grow old with and see our children grow up together. So now, he is a legend when he would have preferred to be a man. Jacqueline Kennedy 1964
  A camel makes an elephant feel like a jet plane. Jackie on a 1962 visit to India
  Whenever I was upset by something in the papers, [Jack] always told me to be more tolerant, like a horse flicking away flies in the summerJackie
 It looks like it’s been furnished by discount stores. Jackie on the White House
 The one thing I do not want to be called is First Lady. It sounds like a saddle horse. Jackie
 What is sad for women of my generation is that they weren’t supposed to work if they had families. What were they to do when the children were grown — watch raindrops coming down the windowpane? Jackie
The trouble with me is that I’m an outsider. And that’s a very hard thing to be in American life. Jackie
We should all do something to right the wrongs that we see and not just complain about them.  Jackie
 I do not think it altogether inappropriate to introduce myself to this audience. I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris, and I have enjoyed it. 
I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone. Address at a White House dinner honoring Nobel Prize winners  April 29, 1962
 First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. I believe we should go to the moon. But there is no sense in agreeing or desiring that the United States take an affirmative position in outer space, unless we are prepared to do the work and bear the burdens to make it successful. John F. Kennedy
I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. Speech to Special Joint Session of Congress May 25 1961
 Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said Because it is there. Well, space is there, and were going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. John F. Kennedy
This nation has tossed its cap over the wall of space, and we have no choice but to follow it. Remarks at San Antonio at dedication of the Aerospace Medical Health Center, November 21, 1963.
 We go into space because whatever mankind must undertake, free men must fully share...I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs, May 22, 1961
 We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of preeminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war. Address at Rice University in Houston, September 12, 1962
 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, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today, at home and around the world
 Our Irish blunders are never blunders of the heart.  Maria Edgeworth on the Irish
Failure has no friends. JFK, 1962
We will not prematurely or unnecessarily risk the costs of a worldwide nuclear war in which even the fruits of victory would be ashes in our mouth — but neither shall we shrink from that risk any time it must be faced. Radio address about the Cuban missile crisis October 22, 1962

  
JFK IN IRELAND
 Pointing at a nearby fertilizer plant he told them that had his great grandfather not left Wexford, I myself could be working at the plant today. He then turned to his aide Dave Powers and whispered to himself “Shoveling shit”
“We will do no such thing. If its brass and copper he wants, let him stay on Wall Street” The Mayor of Dunganstown, New Ross, Co. Wexford after he was directed by the national government to remove piles of manure from the nearby road side. When Kennedy was told what the Mayor said, he threw back his head and laughed. “God damn right” he said.




 “Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures. And however undramatic the pursuit of peace, the pursuit must go on.”
It is our task in our time and in our generation to hand down undiminished to those who come after us, as was handed down to us by those who went before, the natural wealth and beauty which is ours. John F. Kennedy
It takes two to make peace.
We know that freedom has many dimensions. It is the right of the man who tills the land to own the land; the right of the workers to join together to seek better conditions of labor the right of businessmen to use ingenuity and foresight to produce and distribute without arbitrary interference in a truly competitive economy. It is the right of government to protect the weak; it is the right of the weak to find in their courts fair treatment before the law. It is the right of all our citizens to engage without fear or constraint in the  and debate of the great issues which confront us all. We understand this regardless of the extent to which we may differ in our political views. We know that argument in the open is one of the sources of our national strength. John F. Kennedy Address, Seattle World's Fair, August 7, 1962.
 This increase in the life span and in the number of our senior citizens presents this Nation with increased opportunities: the opportunity to draw upon their skill and sagacity and the opportunity to provide the respect and recognition they have earned. It is not enough for a great nation merely to have added new years to life our objective must also be to add new life to those years. John F. Kennedy
 The unity of freedom has never relied on uniformity of opinion. John F. Kennedy
 All that praying you made us do, complained Maggie. And making us go to Mass. And starving us on Good Friday...And making us feeling ashamed of our bodies and guilty about absolutely everything. No, Ma, you were the pits.  Nuala glowed with pride, truly she had been the best of Catholic mothers.  The Last Chance Saloon
 I'm like old wine. They don't bring me out very often, but I'm well preserved. Rose F. Kennedy
 There are three things which are real; God, Human Folly and Laughter. The first two are beyond our comprehension so we must do what we can with the third.
 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. There are some who say that communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin. And there are some who say in Europe and elsewhere we can work with the Communists. Let them come to Berlin. And there are even a few who say that it is true that communism is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress. Lass' sie nach Berlin kommen. Let them come to Berlin. Speech in Berlin June 26, 1963
 But peace does not rest in charters and covenants alone. It lies in the hearts and minds of all people. And if it is cast out there, then no act, no pact, no treaty, no organization can hope to preserve it without the support and the wholehearted commitment of all people. The world has not escaped from the darkness. The long shadows of conflict and crisis envelop us still. But we meet today in an atmosphere of rising hope, and at a moment of comparative calm. My presence here today is not a sign of crisis, but of confidence. I am not here to report on a new threat to the peace or new signs of war. I have come to salute the United Nations and to show the support of the American people for your daily deliberations. For the value of this body's work is not dependent on the existence of emergencies--nor can the winning of peace consist only of dramatic victories. Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures. And however undramatic the pursuit of peace, that pursuit must go on.
  Finally, in a field where the United States and the Soviet Union have a special capacity - in the field of space - there is room for new cooperation, for further joint efforts in the regulation and exploration of space. I include among these possibilities a joint expedition to the moon. Space offers no problems of sovereignty; by resolution of this Assembly, the members of the United Nations have foresworn any claim to territorial rights in outer space or on celestial bodies, and declared that international law and the United Nations Charter will apply. Why, therefore, should man's first flight to the moon be a matter of national competition?
 We choose to go to the moon. 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, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
 Who can tell who will be the President a year from now? -- John F. Kennedy, speaking to the president of Harvard about why he did not want to delay signing documents relating to a future JFK Presidential Library, 2 October 1963.
“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 presidents.”
 You never know what's hit you.  A gunshot is the perfect way. John F. Kennedy, on assassination
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. John F. Kennedy - speech prepared for delivery in Dallas the day of his assassination, November 22, 1963
  Jackie, on the trip to Dallas: The sun was so strong in our faces. I couldn't put on sunglasses... Then we saw this tunnel ahead, I thought it would be cool in the tunnel...
 “They were gunning the motorcycles. There were these little backfires. There was one noise like that. I thought it was a backfire”
“Every time we got off the plane that day, three times they gave me the yellow roses of Texas. But in Dallas they gave me red roses. I thought how funny, red roses — so all the seat was full of blood and red roses”
“... We all lay down in the car ... And I kept saying, Jack, Jack, Jack, and someone was yelling he's dead, he's dead. All the ride to the hospital I kept bending over him, saying Jack, Jack, can you hear me, I love you, Jack.”
“These big Texas interns kept saying, Mrs. Kennedy, you come with us, they wanted to take me away from him... But I said I'm not leaving... Dave Powers came running to me at the hospital, crying when he saw me, my legs, my hands were covered... When Dave saw this he burst out weeping... I said I'm not going to leave him, I'm not going to leave him... I was standing outside in this narrow corridor... ten minutes later this big policeman brought me a chair.”
Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. The advancement of learning depends on community leadership for financial and political support -- and the products of that learning, in turn, are essential to the leadership's hopes for continued progress and prosperity... To have been delivered at Dallas, Texas, November 22, 1963.
 “One must not let oneself be overwhelmed by sadness.” Jacqueline Kennedy
“I said, I want to be in there when he dies... so (Secret Service Agent)  Burkeley forced his way into the operating room and said, It's her prerogative, it's her prerogative... and I got in, there were about forty people there. Dr. Perry wanted to get me out. But I said It's my husband, his blood, his brains are all over me.”
“ I held his hand all the time the priest was saying extreme unction.”
“The ring was all blood-stained... so I put the ring on Jack's finger... and then I kissed his hand...”
“To think that I very nearly didn’t go... What if I’d been here — out riding in Virginia or somewhere — Thank God I went with him.”
 “I have always believed that God never gives a cross to bear larger than we can carry”. Rose F. Kennedy
  “...there is always inequity in life. Some men are killed in a war and some men are wounded, and some men never leave the country, and some men are stationed in the Antarctic and some are stationed in San Francisco. It's very hard in the military or personal life to assure complete equality. Life is unfair.” John F. Kennedy