Quotes by John F. Kennedy

"If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him."

"There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction."

"A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people."

"Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate."

"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."

"Our growing softness, our increasing lack of physical fitness, is a menace to our security."

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

"It might be said now that I have the best of both worlds. A Harvard education and a Yale degree."

"Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly."

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."

"I don't think the intelligence reports are all that hot. Some days I get more out of the New York Times."

"The greater our knowledge increases the more our ignorance unfolds."

"The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth."

"I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House - with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other."

"Once you say you're going to settle for second, that's what happens to you in life."

"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."

"Things do not happen. Things are made to happen."

"Mothers all want their sons to grow up to be president, but they don't want them to become politicians in the process."

"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."

"I look forward to a great future for America - a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose."

"My brother Bob doesn't want to be in government - he promised Dad he'd go straight."

"The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings."

"The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty, and all forms of human life."

"We must use time as a tool, not as a couch."

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

"Mankind must put an end to war before war puts 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."

"There is always inequality in life. Some men are killed in a war and some men are wounded and some men never leave the country. Life is unfair."

"When written in Chinese, the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity."

"The pay is good and I can walk to work."