John F. Kennedy Quotes - 37 quotes

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John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) was the 35th President of the United States, serving from January 20, 1961, until his assassination on November 22, 1963. He was born on May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts. Kennedy was a member of the prominent Kennedy family and graduated from Harvard University... show more

quote icon I can assure you that every degree of mind and spirit that I possess will be devoted to the long-range interests of the United States and to the cause of freedom around the world.

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon Today our concern must be with that future. For the world is changing. The old era is ending. The old ways will not do. [...] It is a time, in short, for a new generation of leadership — new men to cope with new problems and new opportunities.

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon Today some would say that those struggles are all over — that all the horizons have been explored — that all the battles have been won — that there is no longer an American frontier. But I trust that no one in this vast assemblage will agree with those sentiments. For the problems are not all solved and the battles are not all won — and we stand today on the edge of a New Frontier — the frontier of the 1960's — a frontier of unknown opportunities and perils — a frontier of unfulfilled hopes and threats.

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon But 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. It appeals to their pride, not to their pocketbook — it holds out the promise of more sacrifice instead of more security.

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon But I tell you the New Frontier is here, whether we seek it or not. Beyond that frontier are the uncharted areas of science and space, unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered pockets of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of poverty and surplus.

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon But I believe the times demand new invention, innovation, imagination, decision. I am asking each of you to be pioneers on that New Frontier. My call is to the young in heart, regardless of age — to all who respond to the Scriptural call: "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed." For courage — not complacency — is our need today — leadership — not salesmanship.

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon But my promises are in the platform you have adopted — our ends will not be won by rhetoric and we can have faith in the future only if we have faith in ourselves.

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon Can a nation organized and governed such as ours endure? That is the real question. Have we the nerve and the will? Can we carry through in an age where we will witness not only new breakthroughs in weapons of destruction — but also a race for mastery of the sky and the rain, the ocean and the tides, the far side of space and the inside of men's minds? Are we up to the task — are we equal to the challenge?

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon But I believe the times demand new invention, innovation, imagination, decision. I am asking each of you to be pioneers on that New Frontier. My call is to the young in heart, regardless of age — to all who respond to the Scriptural call: "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed." For courage — not complacency — is our need today — leadership — not salesmanship.

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon In other words, if we do well here, we enhance the prestige and power and influence of the cause of freedom around the world.

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon 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.

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon 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.

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon The human mind is our fundamental resource.

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon If we fail, the cause of freedom fails. If we succeed, the cause of freedom succeeds. Our responsibility is to throw light and luster around that great cause, around the globe.

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon 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.

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon If by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties — someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us through that darkness to a safe and sane future

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon 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.

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon 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

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quote icon 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.

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon I have 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."

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon In the Chinese language, the word "crisis" is composed of two characters, one representing danger and the other, opportunity.

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon Mr. President, Senate Joint Resolution 31, concerning which there has been little, if any, public interest or knowledge, constitutes one of the most far-reaching — and I believe mistaken — schemes ever proposed to alter the American constitutional system. No one knows with any certainty what will happen if our electoral system is totally revamped as proposed by Senate Joint Resolution 31 and the various amendments which will be offered to it.

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon Today, we have a clearly Federal system of electing our President, under which the States act as units. Today, we have the two-party system, under which third parties and splinter parties are effectively discouraged from playing more than a negligible role. Today, we have a system which in all but one instance throughout our history has given us presidents elected by a plurality of the popular vote

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon And today we have an electoral vote system which gives both large States and small States certain advantages and disadvantages that offset each other.

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon Today our slowed-down economy, our overcrowded schools, our poor and our unemployed, our spreading slums and our thousands of abandoned farms are visible, tangible evidence of our failure to meet those responsibilities. And those failures are defeats for the cause of freedom.

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon For today the Communists are determined to convince the emerging and developing nations of Asia and Africa and Latin America that only Communism will eliminate their poverty and hunger and disease - that the Communist road is the only road to a better life. We know that this is not true - for our own greatness is living proof that the road to abundance is freedom's road.

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon And we intend to build a still greater America where every man has a chance to work, a decent house to live in and decent schools for his children because we believe in a decent life for all our citizens - and because we who first lit man's hope for the good life are determined that freedom shall continue to show the way to progress.

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon For only an America which is applying its full resources of imagination and thought and strength to the resolution of the world's great problems - only such an America will be able to maintain its position as the champion of peace and the protector of freedom everywhere.

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon We are faced with an enemy which now commands a vast empire from the Formosa Straits to Berlin - an enemy whose agents of subversion are penetrating into Africa, into Asia, and now stand only ninety miles from our shores in Cuba - an enemy which is convinced of its ultimate victory - which believes, to quote Mr. Khrushchev, "that the old and the rotten will always fight with the newly emerged, but it is a law of history that the new will always win." But it is freedom that is new, and despotism and tyranny that is as old as civilization is - and it is freedom that will win - not because of any law of history - but because we will have the strength and the determination that will bring the victory.

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon I think the basic problem facing the United States is to maintain the peace, maintain our vital interest in our national security, serve as the leader of the cause of freedom around the globe, and attempt to develop in this country sufficient forward motion so that we catch again the imagination of the world as a power and a system of government that represents the kind of government which all people want to endorse, the kind of government under which all people want to live.

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.

- John F. Kennedy

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quote icon Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

- John F. Kennedy

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