Top 100 John F. Kennedy Quotes
#1. The physical fitness of our citizens is a vital prerequisite to America's realization of its full potential as a nation, and to the opportunity of each individual citizen to make full and fruitful use of his capacities.
John F. Kennedy
#2. For one true measure of a nation is its success in fulfilling the promise of a better life for each of its members. Let this be the measure of our nation.
John F. Kennedy
#3. Never let your fears hold you back from pursuing your hopes.
John F. Kennedy
#4. If (my grandfather) hadn't left, I'd be working over here at the Albatross Company.
John F. Kennedy
#5. When asked what I am most proud of, I stick out my chest, hold my head high and state proudly, 'I served in the United States Navy!'
John F. Kennedy
#7. History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.
John F. Kennedy
#8. No one gains from fair employment law and legislation if there is no employment to be had.
John F. Kennedy
#9. All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talent.
John F. Kennedy
#10. Let us resolve to be masters, not the victims, of our history, controlling our own destiny without giving way to blind suspicions and emotions.
John F. Kennedy
#11. Just because we cannot see clearly te end of the road, that is no reason for not setting out on the essential journey.
John F. Kennedy
#12. In a time of domestic crisis, men of goodwill and generosity should be able to unite regardless of party or politics.
John F. Kennedy
#15. Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.
John F. Kennedy
#16. 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.
John F. Kennedy
#17. Political sovereignty is but a mockery without the means of meeting poverty and illiteracy and disease. Self-determination is but a slogan if the future holds no hope.
John F. Kennedy
#18. Every president has taken comfort and courage when told ... that the Lord "will be with thee. He will not fail thee nor forsake thee. Fear not-neither be thou dismayed."
John F. Kennedy
#19. The leadership of the American Legion has not had a constructive thought for the benefit of this country since 1918.
John F. Kennedy
#20. I would not look with favor upon a President working to subvert the First Amendment's guarantees of religious liberty ... Neither do I look with favor upon those who would work to subvert Article VI of the Constitution by requiring a religious test - even by indirection.
John F. Kennedy
#21. Anyone who can solve the problems of water will be worthy of two Nobel prizes - one for peace and one for science.
John F. Kennedy
#23. Don't pray for an easy life, pray to be a stronger man.
John F. Kennedy
#24. Our growing softness, our increasing lack of physical fitness, is a menace to our security.
John F. Kennedy
#25. The ancient Greek definition of happiness was the full use of your powers along lines of excellence.
John F. Kennedy
#26. 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.
John F. Kennedy
#27. Everywhere immigrants have enriched and strengthened the fabric of American life.
John F. Kennedy
#28. Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.
John F. Kennedy
#29. There's an old saying. Never send a boy to do a man's job, send a lady.
John F. Kennedy
#30. The deadly arms race, and the huge resources it absorbs, have too long overshadowed all else we must do. We must prevent that arms race from spreading to new nations, to new nuclear powers and to the reaches of outer space.
John F. Kennedy
#31. A tired nation, said David Lloyd George, is a Tory nation, and the United States today cannot afford to be either tired or Tory.
John F. Kennedy
#32. We can have faith in the future only if we have faith in ourselves.
John F. Kennedy
#33. Sailing has given me some of the most pleasant and exciting moments of my life. It also has taught me something of the courage, resourcefulness, and strength of men who sail the seas in ships.
John F. Kennedy
#34. The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.
John F. Kennedy
#35. Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.
John F. Kennedy
#36. There is nothing more certain and unchanging than uncertainty and change.
John F. Kennedy
#37. The state is the servant of the citizen, and not his master.
John F. Kennedy
#38. Last year, more Americans went to symphonies than went to baseball games. This may be viewed as an alarming statistic, but I think that both baseball and the country will endure.
John F. Kennedy
#39. All of us in the Senate live in an iron lung-the iron lung of politics, and it is no easy task to emerge from that rarified atmosphere in order to breathe the same fresh air our constituents breathe.
John F. Kennedy
#40. It is insane that two men, sitting on opposite sides of the world, should be able to decide to bring an end to civilization.
John F. Kennedy
#41. The most effective means of upholding the law is not the State policeman or the marshals or the National Guard. It is you. It lies in your courage to accept those laws with which you
disagree as well as those with which you agree.
John F. Kennedy
#42. I am the one person who can truthfully say, I got my job through the New York Times.
John F. Kennedy
#44. Now let me make it clear that I believe there can only be one defense policy for the United States and that is summed up in the word 'first.' I do not mean first, but. I do not mean first, when. I do not mean first, if. I mean first -period.
John F. Kennedy
#45. If at times our actions seem to make life difficult for others, it is only because history has made life difficult for us all.
John F. Kennedy
#46. 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.
John F. Kennedy
#47. Art establishes the basic human truths which must serve as the touchstone of our judgement.
John F. Kennedy
#48. The New Frontier of which I speak 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 intend to ask of them.
John F. Kennedy
#50. [High income tax rates] not only check consumption but discourage investment and encourage ... the avoidance of taxes [rather] than the production of goods.[ ... ]Our present tax system ... reduces the financial incentives for personal effort, investment, and risk-taking.
John F. Kennedy
#51. The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.
John F. Kennedy
#52. There are only two realities in life: death and laughter. We can do nothing to change the former, so we might as well do all we can to save the latter.
John F. Kennedy
#53. Unless liberty flourishes in all lands, it cannot flourish in one.
John F. Kennedy
#54. I have asked the secretary of the treasury to report by April 1 on whether present tax laws may be stimulating in undue amounts the flow of American capital to the industrial countries abroad through special preferential treatment.
John F. Kennedy
#55. If my church attempted to influence me in a way which was improper or which affected adversely my responsibilities as a public servant sworn to uphold the Constitution, then I would reply to them that this was an improper action on their part. It was one to which I could not subscribe.
John F. Kennedy
#56. If we could ever competitively, at a cheap rate, get fresh water from saltwater, ..(this) would be in the long-range interests of humanity which could really dwarf any other scientific accomplishments.
John F. Kennedy
#57. Our national conservation effort must include the complete spectrum of resources: air, water, and land; fuels, energy, and minerals; soils, forests, and forage; fish and wildlife. Together they make up the world of nature which surrounds us- of the American heritage.
John F. Kennedy
#58. 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.
John F. Kennedy
#59. The margin is narrow, but the responsibility is clear.
John F. Kennedy
#60. We shall be judged more by what we do at home than what we preach abroad.
John F. Kennedy
#61. Disarmament without checks is but a shadow - and a community without law is but a shell.
John F. Kennedy
#62. Modern cynics and skeptics ... see no harm in paying those to whom they entrust the minds of their children a smaller wage than is paid to those to whom they entrust the care of their plumbing.
John F. Kennedy
#63. 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.
John F. Kennedy
#64. I can evade questions without help; what I need is answers
John F. Kennedy
#65. Voters are more than Catholics, Protestants or Jews. They make up their minds for many diverse reasons, good and bad. To submit the candidates to a religious test is unfair enough - to apply it to the voters is divisive, degrading and wholly unwarranted.
John F. Kennedy
#66. Harvard gave me an education, but Junior Chamber gave me an education for life.
John F. Kennedy
#67. I would encourage every American to walk as often as possible. It's more than healthy; it's fun.
John F. Kennedy
#68. 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.
John F. Kennedy
#69. We will neglect our cities to our peril, for in neglecting them we neglect the nation.
John F. Kennedy
#70. Peaceful circulation has been interupted by barbed wire and concrete blocks. For a city or a people to be truly free, they must have the secure right, without economic, political or police pressure, to make their own choices and live their own lives.
John F. Kennedy
#71. There is inherited wealth in this country and also inherited poverty.
John F. Kennedy
#72. Philanthropy, charity, giving voluntarily and freely ... call it what you like, but it is truly a jewel of an American tradition.
John F. Kennedy
#73. And a revolution of automation finds machines replacing men in the mines and mills of America, without replacing their incomes or their training or their needs to pay the family doctor, grocer and landlord.
John F. Kennedy
#74. Politics is a jungle-torn between doing the right thing and staying in office.
John F. Kennedy
#75. So let us persevere. Peace need not be impracticable, and war need not be inevitable. By defining our goal more clearly, by making it seem more manageable and less remote, we can help all peoples to see it, to draw hope from it, and to move irresistibly toward it.
John F. Kennedy
#76. Automation does not need to be our enemy. I think machines can make life easier for men, if men do not let the machines dominate them.
John F. Kennedy
#77. Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.
John F. Kennedy
#78. I think it is appropriate that we pay tribute to this great constitutional principle which is enshrined in the First Amendment of the Constitution: the principle of religious independence, of religious liberty, of religious freedom.
John F. Kennedy
#79. Today our concern must be with the future. For the world is changing. The old era is ending. The old ways will not do.
John F. Kennedy
#80. While it may be theoretically possible to demonstrate the risks inherent in any treaty ... the far greater risk to our security are the risks of unrestricted testing, the risks of a nuclear arms race, the risks of new nuclear powers ...
John F. Kennedy
#81. A technological revolution on the farm has led to an output explosion
but we have not yet learned to harness that explosion usefully, while protecting our farmers' right to full parity income
John F. Kennedy
#82. 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 independentan amount less than this countrys annual outlay for lipstick, face cream, and chewing gum?
John F. Kennedy
#83. It is not always easy. Your successes are unheralded
your failures are trumpeted. I sometimes have that feeling myself.
[Speech at CIA Headquarters, November 28, 1961]
John F. Kennedy
#85. 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
#86. Forbidden fruit tastes sweet, but its aftertaste is bitter.
John F. Kennedy
#87. Those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside
John F. Kennedy
#88. Divided, there is little we can do. Together, there is little we cannot do.
John F. Kennedy
#89. United, there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do-for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and
split asunder.
John F. Kennedy
#90. I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end ... where every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choice.
John F. Kennedy
#91. Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.
John F. Kennedy
#92. 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
#93. The United States has to move very fast to even stand still.
John F. Kennedy
#94. It is true that my predecessor did not object, as I do, to pictures of one's golf skill in action. But neither, on the other hand, did he ever bean a Secret Serviceman.
John F. Kennedy
#95. There is, of course, a legitimate argument for some limitation upon immigration. We no longer need settlers for virgin lands, and our economy is expanding more slowly than in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
John F. Kennedy
#96. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
[Inaugural Address, January 20 1961]
John F. Kennedy
#97. Our economy today depends upon women in the labor force. One out of three workers is a woman. Today, there are almost 25 million women employed, and their number is rising faster than the number of men in the labor force.
John F. Kennedy
#98. Mothers all want their sons to grow up to be president, but they don't want them to become politicians in the process.
John F. Kennedy
#99. The highest duty of the writer, the composer, the artist, is to remain true to himself and to let the chips fall where they may.
John F. Kennedy
#100. 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 earth.
John F. Kennedy
Famous Authors
Popular Topics
Scroll to Top
