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.
Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.
Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.
We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." [Remarks on the first anniversary of the Alliance for Progress, 13 March 1962]
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. [Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, 1963]
Victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan. [News conference, April 21 1961]
Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. [Undelivered remarks for Dallas Trade Mart, November 22 1963]
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. [Address at Rice University, September 12 1962]
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. [Inaugural Address, January 20 1961]
Libraries should be open to all - except the censor. [Response to questionnaire in Saturday Review, October 29 1960]
A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on. Ideas have endurance without death.
One person can make a difference, and everyone should try.
Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men. [Quoting Reverend Phillips Brooks, during Remarks at Presidential Prayer Breakfast, February 7 1963]
If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. [Commencement Address at American University, June 10 1963]
Liberty without Learning is always in peril and Learning without Liberty is always in vain.
Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future. [Address in the Assembly Hall at the Paulskirche in Frankfurt, June 26 1963]
Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate. [Inaugural Address, January 20 1961]
Mankind must put an end to war - or war will put an end to mankind. [Address before the United Nations, September 25 1961]
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.
The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining. [State of the Union Address January 11 1962]
We cannot negotiate with people who say what's mine is mine and what's yours is negotiable." [ The Berlin Crisis: Radio and Television Address to the American People (The White House, July 25, 1961)]
I'm an idealist without illusions. [Ca. 1953, attributed to John F. Kennedy by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. in 'A Thousand Days'
Art is the great democrat, calling forth creative genius from every sector of society, disregarding race or religion or wealth or color
Without debate, without criticism no administration and no country can succeed and no republic can survive.
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.
We need men who can dream of things that never were.
The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.
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.
All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days . . .nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.
A child miseducated is a child lost.
Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.
I look forward to 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
We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch - we are going back from whence we came.
We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth.
The most powerful single force in the world today is neither Communism nor Capitalism, neither the H-bomb nor the guided missile -- it is man's eternal desire to be free and independent.
The rising tide lifts all the boats.
Once you say you're going to settle for second, that's what happens to you in life, I find. [Quoted by Theodore Sorensen in 'Kennedy']
If not us, who? If not now, when?
There is, in addition to a courage with which men die; a courage by which men must live.
The supreme reality of our time is the vulnerability of our planet.
The one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is certain or unchangeable.
Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past, let us accept our own responsibility for the future.
Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.
A boy spends his time finding a girl to sleep with. A real man spends his time looking for the one worth waking up to.
Not every child has an equal talent or an equal ability or equal motivation, but they should have the equal right to develop their talent and their ability and their motivation, to make something of themselves.
Immigration policy should be generous; it should be fair; it should be flexible. With such a policy we can turn to the world, and to our own past, with clean hands and a clear conscience.
I was born an American, I live like an American, I will die an American.
Children are the world's most valuable resource and its best hope for the future.
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.
There are costs and risks to a program of action, but they are far less than the long range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.
Probably the greatest concentration of talent and genius in this house except for perhaps those times when Thomas Jefferson ate alone.
If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.
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.
For, in the final analysis, our most common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.
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.
Just because we cannot see clearly te end of the road, that is no reason for not setting out on the essential journey.
Every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day when this planet may no longer be habitable .. The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us.
The ancient Greek definition of happiness was the full use of your powers along lines of excellence.
A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers.
So let us begin anew - remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof
Those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside
Time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life.
The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were.
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.
Great crisis produce great men and great deeds of courage.
We choose to go to the moon in this decade, and the other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
Do not pray for easy lives. Prey to be stronger men.
No American is ever made better off by pulling a fellow American down, and all of us are made better off whenever any one of us is made better off.
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.
The very word Secrecy is repugnant in a free and open society.
We should not let our fears hold us back from pursuing our hopes.
When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations.
The 1930s, Kennedy said, 'taught us a clear lesson; aggressive conduct, if allowed to go unchecked and unchallenged, ultimately leads to war.
Things don't just happen. They are made to happen.
A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.
When written in Chinese, the word "crisis" is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.
When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.
War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.
Washington is a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm.
We must use time as a tool, not as a crutch.
The greater our knowledge increases the greater our ignorance unfolds.
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.
All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop those talents.
The life of the arts... is a test of the quality of a nation's civilization.
The life of the arts, far from being an interruption, a distraction, in the life of the nation, is close to the center of a nation's purpose - and is a test to the quality of a nation's civilization.
Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners. And necessity has made us allies. Those whom nature hath so joined together, let no man put asunder.
We, in this country, in this generation, are - by destiny rather than by choice - the watchmen on the walls of world freedom.
You can't relate to a superhero, to a superman, but you can identify with a real man who in times of crisis draws forth some extraordinary quality from within himself and triumphs but only after a struggle.
It is compromise that prevents each set of reformers from crushing the group at the other end of the political spectrum.
Every dollar released from taxation, that is spent or invested, will create a new job and a new salary.
I don't think the intelligence reports are all that hot. Some days I get more out of the New York Times.
Truth is a tyrant-the only tyrant to whom we can give our allegiance. The service of truth is a matter of heroism.
We cannot negotiate with those who say, 'What's mine is mine and what's yours is negotiable.
The highest duty of the writer is to remain true to himself and let the chips fall where they may. In serving his vision of the truth the artist best serves his nation.
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
Our progress as a nation can be not swifter than our progress in education.
