John F. Kennedy
678 quotes
Biography
"Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan."
"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."
"Once you say you're going to settle for second, that's what happens to you in life."
"The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis.' One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger--but recognize the opportunity."
"The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened."
"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."
"Libraries should be open to all - except the censor.[Response to questionnaire in Saturday Review, October 29 1960]"
"The great enemy of 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 cliches of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.[Commencement Address at Yale University, June 11 1962]"
"A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on. Ideas have endurance without death.[Remarks Recorded for the Opening of a USIA Transmitter, February 8 1963]"
"Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.[Quoting Reverend Phillips Brooks, during Remarks at Presidential Prayer Breakfast, February 7 1963]"
"Liberty without Learning is always in peril and Learning without Liberty is always in vain."
"Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.[Inaugural Address, January 20 1961]"
"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."
"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."
"Children are the world's most valuable resource and its best hope for the future."
"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."
"Our progress as a nation can be not swifter than our progress in education."
"In a time of turbulence and change, it is more true than ever that knowledge is power."
"War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today."
"NAURO NATIVE KNOWS POSIT HE CAN PILOT 11 ALIVE NEED SMALL BOAT KENNEDY"
"Where in the hell have you guys been? I've been at this bus stop for a whole week now.""
"After visiting these places, you can easily understand how that within a few years Hitler will emerge from the hatred that surrounds him now as one of the most significant figures who ever lived. He had boundless ambition for his country which rendered him a menace to the peace of the world, but he had a mystery about him in the way that he lived and in the manner of his death that will live and grow after him. He had in him the stuff of which legends are made."
"Regarding the Republican Party: They follow the Hitler line – no matter how big the lie, repeat it often enough and the masses will regard it as truth."
"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."
"Let us not despair but act. 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."