Our growing softness, by John F. Kennedy

Our growing softness,
by John F. Kennedy

There are risks and costs to action.
But they are far less than the long range
risks of comfortable inaction.
- John F. Kennedy

A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.
- John F. Kennedy

The greater our knowledge increases
the more our ignorance unfolds.
- John F. Kennedy

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.
- John F. Kennedy

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

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

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

Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs.
Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.
- John F. Kennedy

Once you say you're going to settle for second,
that's what happens to you in life.
- John F. Kennedy

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.
- John F. Kennedy

For time and the world do not stand still.
Change is the law of life.
And those who look only to the past or the present
are certain to miss the future.
- John F. Kennedy

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.
- John F. Kennedy

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

Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process,
gradually changing opinions,
slowly eroding old barriers,
quietly building new structures.
- John F. Kennedy

Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man.
And man can be as big as he wants.
No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.
- John F. Kennedy

The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge
and the dissemination of truth.
- John F. Kennedy

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.
- John F. Kennedy

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.
- John F. Kennedy

Too often we... enjoy the comfort of opinion
without the discomfort of thought.
- John F. Kennedy

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

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

Let us seek to invoke the wonders of science ...
explore the stars, conquer the deserts,
eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths,
and encourage the arts and commerce.
- John F. Kennedy

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.
- John F. Kennedy

And so, my fellow Americans,
ask not what your country can do for you;
ask what you can do for your country.
- John F. Kennedy

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

I am sorry to say that there is too much point to the wisecrack
that life is extinct on other planets
because their scientists were more advanced than ours.
- John F. Kennedy

Politics is like football; if you see daylight, go through the hole.
- John F. Kennedy

Washington is a city of
Southern efficiency and Northern charm.
- John F. Kennedy

My father always told me that
all businessmen were sons of bitches,
but I never believed it till now.
- 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.
- John F. Kennedy

I look forward to an America which
will not be afraid of grace and beauty.
- John F. Kennedy

Mankind must put an end to war
before war puts an end to mankind.
- John F. Kennedy

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.
- John F. Kennedy

If anyone is crazy enough to want to kill
a president of the United States, he can do it.
All he must be prepared to do is give his life for the president's.
- John F. Kennedy

The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.
- John F. Kennedy

All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin.
And therefore, as a free man, I take pride
in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner!"
- John F. Kennedy

Unconditional war can no longer lead to unconditional victory.
It can no longer serve to settle disputes...
can no longer be of concern to great powers alone.
- John F. Kennedy

No one has been barred on account of his race
from fighting or dying for America,
there are no white or colored signs
on the foxholes or graveyards of battle.
- John F. Kennedy

The cost of freedom is always high,
but Americans have always paid it.
And one path we shall never choose,
and that is the path of surrender, or submission.
- John F. Kennedy

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.
- John F. Kennedy

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.
- John F. Kennedy

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.
- John F. Kennedy

Communism has never come to power in a country
that was not disrupted by war or corruption, or both.
- John F. Kennedy

There are many people in the world who really don't understand -
or say they don't - what is the great issue between the free world
and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin!
- John F. Kennedy

We would like to live as we once lived,
but history will not permit it.
- John F. Kennedy

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible
will make violent revolution inevitable.
- John F. Kennedy

To state the facts frankly
is not to despair the future nor indict the past.
The prudent heir takes careful inventory of his legacies
and gives a faithful accounting
to those whom he owes an obligation of trust.
- John F. Kennedy

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.
- John F. Kennedy

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.
- John F. Kennedy

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.
- John F. Kennedy

The basic problems facing the world today
are not susceptible to a military solution.
- John F. Kennedy

If we cannot now end our differences,
at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.
- John F. Kennedy

We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind
in the history of the world or to make it the last.
- John F. Kennedy

We prefer world law in the age of self-determination
to world war in the age of mass extermination.
- John F. Kennedy

Geography has made us neighbors.
History has made us friends.
Economics has made us partners,
and necessity has made us allies.
Those whom God has so joined together,
let no man put asunder.
- John F. Kennedy

Now we have a problem in making our power credible,
and Vietnam is the place.
- John F. Kennedy

Quotes and Sayings

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- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

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Our growing softness,by John F. Kennedy

Quotes and Sayings

Our growing softness,
by John F. Kennedy