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.
The basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a military solution.
We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For 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.
I hope that no American will waste his franchise and throw away his vote by voting either for me or against me solely on account of my religious affiliation. It is not relevant.
When we got into office, the thing that surprised me most was to find that things were just as bad as we'd been saying they were.
I believe in a president whose religious views are his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the nation or imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office.
I am the Democratic Party's candidate for president who happens also to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my church on public matters - and the church does not speak for me.
Sure it's a big job; but I don't know anyone who can do it better than I can.
I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party's candidate for President, who happens also to be a Catholic.
Now we have a problem in making our power credible, and Vietnam is the place.
In a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.
Khrushchev reminds me of the tiger hunter who has picked a place on the wall to hang the tiger's skin long before he has caught the tiger. This tiger has other ideas.
The Republican Party can lead any person to believe that their promises will be fulfilled in the future. They follow the Hitler line – no matter how big the lie; repeat it often enough and the masses will regard it as truth.Collection: Lying
This country cannot afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor.Collection: Country
One person can make a difference, and everyone should try.Collection: Inspirational
Ask not that the journey be easy; ask instead that it be worth it.Collection: Journey
Effort and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.Collection: Inspirational
Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom.Collection: Freedom
All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talent.Collection: Inspirational
Only an educated and informed people will be a free people.Collection: Freedom
I will splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the winds.Collection: Wind
Don't pray for an easy life, pray to be a stronger man.Collection: Strength
Don't ask 'Why', ask instead, 'Why not'.Collection: Optimism
We are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence — on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by dayCollection: Mean
The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.Collection: Freedom
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.Collection: Inspirational
We had a dog who was named Pushinka, who was given to my father by a Soviet official. And we trained that dog to slide down the slide we had in the back of the White House. Sliding the dog down that slide is probably my first memory.Collection: Dog
I believe in an America where the rights that I have described are enjoyed by all, regardless of their race or their creed or their national origin - where every citizen is free to think and speak as he pleases and write and worship as he pleases - and where every citizen is free to vote as he pleases, without instructions from anyone, his employer, the union leader or his clergyman.Collection: Inspirational
And only the very courageous will be able to keep alive the spirit of individualism and dissent which gave birth to this nation, nourished it as an infant, and carried it through its severest tests upon the attainment of its maturity.Collection: Inspirational
Our children and grandchildren are not merely statistics towards which we can be indifferent.Collection: Children
The voters selected us, in short, because they had confidence in our judgement and our ability to exercise that judgement from a position where we could determine what were their own best interest, as a part of the nation's interest.Collection: Inspirational
There's an old saying that victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan.... I'm the responsible officer of the Government.Collection: Inspirational
Every American ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as one would wish his children to be treated. This is not the case.Collection: Children
I know few significant questions of public policy which can safely be confided to computers. In the end, the hard decisions inescapably involve imponderables of intuition, prudence, and judgment.Collection: Decision
Courage--judgment--integrity--dedication--these are the historic qualities of the Bay Colony and the Bay State....And these are the qualities which, with God's help, this son of Massachusetts hopes will characterize our government's conduct in the four stormy years that lie ahead.Collection: Integrity
Abroad, the balance of power is shifting. There are new and more terrible weapons - new and uncertain nations - new pressures of population and deprivation.Collection: Balance
In that case, there is no time to lose. Plant it this afternoon!Collection: Inspirational
Peace does not rest in charters and covenants alone. It lies in the hearts and minds of the people.Collection: Rest In Peace
The White House was designed by Hoban, a noted Irish-American architect, and I have no doubt that he believed by incorporating several features of the Dublin style he would make it more homelike for any President of Irish descent. It was a long wait, but I appreciate his efforts.Collection: White
When I was growing up I had three wishes. I wanted to be a Lindbergh-type hero, learn Chinese, and become a member of The Algonquin Round Table.Collection: Growing Up
To those peoples in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required - not because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.Collection: Peace
Those whom nature hath so joined together, let no man put asunderCollection: Men
Any system of government will work when everything is going well. It's the system that functions in the pinches that surviveCollection: Government
But wherever we are, we must all, in our daily lives, live up to the age-old faith that peace and freedom walk together. In too many of our cities today, the peace is not secure because freedom is incomplete." (John F. Kennedy, June 10, 1963, American University speech)Collection: Peace
While much remains to be done to achieve full equality of economic opportunity-for the average woman worker earns only 60 percent of the average wage for men-this legislation is a significant step forward.Collection: Opportunity
The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war.Collection: War
Partnership is not a posture but a process-a continuous process that grows stronger each year as we devote ourselves to common tasks.Collection: Years
We've spent half the expenditures, we've wrecked our budget on all these other domestic programs, and the only justification for it, in my opinion, to do it in the pell-mell fashion is because we hope to beat them and demonstrate that starting behind them, as we did by a couple of years, by God, we passed them. I think it would be a helluva thing for us.Collection: Fashion