John F. Kennedy
probably the greatest concentration of talent and genius in this house except for perhaps those times when Thomas Jefferson ate alone.Collection: House
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.Collection: Inspirational
Our practical choice is not between a tax-cut deficit and a budgetary surplus. It is between two kinds of deficits: a chronic deficit of inertia, as the unwanted result of inadequate revenues and a restricted economy; or a temporary deficit of transition, resulting from a tax cut designed to boost the economy, increase tax revenues, and achieve -- and I believe this can be done -- a budget surplus. The first type of deficit is a sign of waste and weakness; the second reflects an investment in the future.Collection: Believe
There is a connection, hard to explain logically but easy to feel, between achievement in public life and progress in the arts.Collection: Art
Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride.Collection: Simple
Finally, I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end; where all men and all churches are treated as equal; where every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choice; where there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote, no bloc voting of any kind; and where Catholics, Protestants and Jews, at both the lay and pastoral level, will refrain from those attitudes of disdain and division which have so often marred their works in the past, and promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood.Collection: Religious
I see no magic in tax dollars which are sent to Washington and then returned. I abhor the waste and incompetence of large-scale federal bureaucracies in this administration as well as in others. I do not favor state compulsion when voluntary individual effort can do the job and do it well.Collection: Jobs
I can't see that it's wrong to give him a little legal experience before he goes out to practice law.Collection: Funny
For plague and pestilence, plunder and pollution, the hazards of nature and the hunger of children are the foes of every nation. The earth, the sea and the air are the concern of every nation.Collection: Children
... the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was conquered by those who moved forward, and so will space.Collection: Country
Collective bargaining has always been the bedrock of the American labor movement. I hope that you will continue to anchor your movement to this foundation. Free collective bargaining is good for the entire Nation. In my view, it is the only alternative to State regulation of wages and prices - a path which leads far down the grim road of totalitarianism. Those who would destroy or further limit the rights of organized labor - those who would cripple collective bargaining or prevent organization of the unorganized - do a disservice to the cause of democracy.Collection: Organization
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.Collection: War
Only in the case of the Negro has the melting pot failed to bring a minority into the full stream of American life.Collection: Minorities
The Federal Government is the people and the budget is a reflection of their need.Collection: Reflection
Diplomacy and defense are not substitutes for one another. Either alone would fail.Collection: Defense
Self-government requires qualities of self-denial and restraint.Collection: Government
My experience in government is that when things are non-controversial and beautifully coordinated, there is not much going on.Collection: Government
The Family of Man is more than 3 billion strong. It lives in more than 100 nations. Most of its members are not white. Most of them are not Christians. Most of them know nothing about free enterprise or due process of law or the Australian ballot.Collection: Christian
I ask that you offer to the political arena, and to the critical problems of our society which are decided therein, the benefit of the talents which society has helped to develop in you. I ask you to decide, as Goethe put it, whether you will be an anvilor a hammer. The question is whether you are to be a hammerwhether you are to give to the world in which you were reared and educated the broadest possible benefits of that education.Collection: Giving
This knowledge, the knowledge that the physical well-being of the citizen is an important foundation for all of the activities of the nation, is as old as Western civilization itself.Collection: Civilization
The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time, and no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in this race for space.Collection: Leadership
Science contributes to our culture in many ways, as a creative intellectual activity in its own right, as the light which has served to illuminate man's place in the universe, and as the source of understanding of man's own nature.Collection: Men
Football today is far too much a sport for the few who can play it well; the rest of us, and too many of our children, get out exercise from climbing up the seats in stadiums, or from walking across the room to turn on our television sets.Collection: Sports
In the dark days and darker nights when England stood alone-and most men save Englishmen despaired of England's life-he [Churchill] mobilized the English language and sent it into battle.Collection: Dark
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.Collection: Fitness
Philanthropy, charity, giving voluntarily and freely... call it what you like, but it is truly a jewel of an American tradition.Collection: Jewels
The labor movement is people. Our unions have brought millions of men and women together, made them members one of another, and given them common tools for common goals. Their goals are goals for all America - and their enemies are the enemies for progress. The two cannot be separated.Collection: Men
There has also been a change - a slippage - in our intellectual and moral strength. Seven lean years of drouth and famine have withered a field of ideas.Collection: Years
I think the American people expect more from us than cries of indignation and attack. The times are too grave, the challenge too urgent, and the stakes too high - to permit the customary passions of political debate.Collection: Passion
History will not judge our endeavors--and a government cannot be selected--merely on the basis of color or creed or even party affiliation. Neither will competence and loyalty and stature, while essential to the utmost, suffice in times such as these.Collection: Loyalty
I am flatly opposed to appointment of an ambassador to the Vatican. Whatever advantages it might have in Rome - and I'm not convinced of these - they would be more than offset by the divisive effect at home.Collection: Home
No treaty, however much it may be to the advantage of all, however tightly it may be worded, can provide absolute security against the risks of deception and evasion. But it can, if it is sufficiently effective in its enforcement and if it is sufficiently in the interests of its signers, offer far more security and far fewer risks than an unabated, uncontrolled, unpredictable arms race.Collection: Race
If we fail to encourage physical development and prowess, we will undermine our capcity for thought, for work, and for use of those skills vital to an expanding and complex America.Collection: Skills
If scientific discovery has not been an unalloyed blessing, if it has conferred on mankind the power not only to create but also to annihilate, it has at the same time provided humanity with a supreme challenge and a supreme testingCollection: Blessing
The state is the servant of the citizen, and not his master.Collection: Class
Persons are judged to be great because of the positive qualities they possess, not because of the absence of faults.Collection: Quality
The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.Collection: Patriotic
The high office of the President has been used to foment a plot to destroy the American's freedom and before I leave office, I must inform the citizens of this plight.Collection: Nwo
Our task is not to fix blame for the past, but to fix the course for the future.Collection: Future
The problem of power is how to achieve its responsible use rather than its irresponsible and indulgent use; of how to get men of power to live for the public rather than off the public.Collection: Trust
We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.Collection: Inspirational
If we are strong, our strength will speak for itself. If we are weak, words will be of no help.Collection: Strength
Sometimes party loyalty asks too much.Collection: Life
There can be no progress if people have no faith in tomorrow.Collection: Motivational
No responsibility of government is more fundamental than the responsibility of maintaining the highest standard of ethical behavior for those who conduct the public business.Collection: Responsibility
In a time of turbulence and change, it is more true than ever that knowledge is power.Collection: Knowledge Is Power
Hold fast to the best of the past and move fast to the best of the future.Collection: Moving
Democracy may not be perfect, but at least I don't have to build a wall to keep my people in.Collection: Wall