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John F. Kennedy: 938 quotes28 likes

“I can assure you that every degree of mind and spirit that I possess will be devoted to the long-range interests of the United States and to the cause of freedom around the world.”

John F. Kennedy

Acceptance speech (9 November 1960) http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/JFK-Speeches/Acceptance-Speech-by-John-F-Kennedy-Hyannis-Armory-Hyannis-Massachusetts-November-9-1960.aspx 1960

“Somebody once said that Washington was a city of Northern charm and Southern efficiency.”

John F. Kennedy

Speech http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKPOF-036-014.aspx to the Trustees and Advisory Committee of the National Cultural Center in the White House Movie Theater, 14 November 1961 1961

“That requires only one kind of defense policy, a policy summed up in a single word "first." I do not mean "first, if," I do not mean "first, but," I do not mean "first, when," but I mean "First, period."”

John F. Kennedy

Speech at Civic Auditorium, Seattle, Washington (6 September 1960)
1960

“We must first bring others to see their own true interests better than they do today.”

John F. Kennedy

1963, Address at the Free University of Berlin

“Things don't just happen, they are made to happen.”

John F. Kennedy

Speech given at the Arkansas State Fairground, Little Rock, United States of America (3 October 1963); quoted in John F. Kennedy in Quotations: A Topical Dictionary, with Sources (2013), McFarland, entry 1729
1963

“I appreciate very much your generous invitation to be here tonight. You bear heavy responsibilities these days and an article I read some time ago reminded me of how particularly heavily the burdens of present day events bear upon your profession. You may remember that in 1851 the New York Herald Tribune under the sponsorship and publishing of Horace Greeley, employed as its London correspondent an obscure journalist by the name of Karl Marx.
We are told that foreign correspondent Marx, stone broke, and with a family ill and undernourished, constantly appealed to Greeley and managing editor Charles Dana for an increase in his munificent salary of $5 per installment, a salary which he and Engels ungratefully labeled as the "lousiest petty bourgeois cheating."
But when all his financial appeals were refused, Marx looked around for other means of livelihood and fame, eventually terminating his relationship with the Tribune and devoting his talents full time to the cause that would bequeath the world the seeds of Leninism, Stalinism, revolution and the cold war.
If only this capitalistic New York newspaper had treated him more kindly; if only Marx had remained a foreign correspondent, history might have been different. And I hope all publishers will bear this lesson in mind the next time they receive a poverty-stricken appeal for a small increase in the expense account from an obscure newspaper man.”

John F. Kennedy

1961, Address to ANPA

“In 1945 a Mississippi sergeant, Jake Lindsey, was honored by an unusual joint session of the Congress. I close therefore, with this appeal to the students of the University, the people who are most concerned. You have a great tradition to uphold, a tradition of honor and courage won on the field of battle and on the gridiron as well as the University campus. You have a new opportunity to show that you are men of patriotism and integrity. For the most effective means of upholding the law is not the State policeman or the marshals or the National Guard. It is you. It lies in your courage to accept those laws with which you disagree as well as those with which you agree.”

John F. Kennedy

Radio and Television Report to the Nation on the Situation at the University of Mississippi (30 September 1962)
1962

“The great revolution in the history of man, past, present and future, is the revolution of those determined to be free.”

John F. Kennedy

Message to Chairman Khrushchev Concerning the Meaning of Events in Cuba (18 April 1961).
1961

“1) You would agree to remove these weapons systems from Cuba under appropriate United Nations observation and supervision; and undertake, with suitable safeguards, to halt the further introduction of such weapons systems into Cuba.”

John F. Kennedy

1962, Second Letter to Nikita Khrushchev

“My call is not to those who believe they belong to the past. My call is to those who believe in the future.”

John F. Kennedy

Speech at Civic Auditorium, Seattle, Washington (6 September 1960)
1960

“First, what does truth require? It requires us to face the facts as they are, not to involve ourselves in self-deception; to refuse to think merely in slogans. If we are to work for the future of the city, let us deal with the realities as they actually are, not as they might have been, and not as we wish they were.”

John F. Kennedy

1963, Address at the Free University of Berlin

“The artist, however faithful to his personal vision of reality, becomes the last champion of the individual mind and sensibility against an intrusive society and an officious state. The great artist is thus a solitary figure.”

John F. Kennedy

Remarks at Amherst College (26 October 1963)
1963

“…there is always inequity in life. Some men are killed in a war and some men are wounded, and some men never leave the country, and some men are stationed in the Antarctic and some are stationed in San Francisco. It's very hard in the military or personal life to assure complete equality. Life is unfair.”

John F. Kennedy

[http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations.aspx "President's News Conference (107)" (21 March 1962)
1962

“While the so-called religious issue is necessarily and properly the chief topic here tonight, I want to emphasize from the outset that we have far more critical issues to face in the 1960 election; the spread of Communist influence, until it now festers 90 miles off the coast of Florida — the humiliating treatment of our President and Vice President by those who no longer respect our power — the hungry children I saw in West Virginia, the old people who cannot pay their doctor bills, the families forced to give up their farms — an America with too many slums, with too few schools, and too late to the moon and outer space. These are the real issues which should decide this campaign. And they are not religious issues — for war and hunger and ignorance and despair know no religious barriers.”

John F. Kennedy

1960, Speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association

“War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.”

John F. Kennedy

Undated Letter to a Navy friend http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations.aspx; also mentioned by William Safire in his "On Language" article "Warrior" in the New York Times rubric Magazines (26 August 2007) http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/magazine/26wwln-safire-t.html; also in A Thousand Days : John F. Kennedy in the White House (1965), by Arthur Schlesinger, p. 88 http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations.aspx Pre-1960

“The green beret' is again becoming a symbol of excellence, a badge of courage, a mark of distinction in the fight for freedom. I know the United States Army will live up to its reputation for imagination, resourcefulness, and spirit as we meet this challenge.”

John F. Kennedy

"Letter to the United States Army" (11 April 1962) http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations.aspx; Box 5, President's Outgoing Executive Correspondence, White House Central Chronological Files, Papers of John F. Kennedy, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library 1962

“We have all seen these circus elephants complete with tusks, ivory in their head and thick skins, who move around the circus ring and grab the tail of the elephant ahead of them.”

John F. Kennedy

Comments on members of the Republican party, in Remarks at the Cow Palace, San Francisco, California (2 November 1960) http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations.aspx; Box 914, Senate Speech Files, John F. Kennedy Papers, Pre-Presidential Papers, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library 1960

“The one major area of these negotiations where the end is in sight, yet where a fresh start is badly needed, is in a treaty to outlaw nuclear tests. The conclusion of such a treaty, so near and yet so far, would check the spiraling arms race in one of its most dangerous areas. It would place the nuclear powers in a position to deal more effectively with one of the greatest hazards which man faces in 1963, the further spread of nuclear arms. It would increase our security — it would decrease the prospects of war. Surely this goal is sufficiently important to require our steady pursuit, yielding neither to the temptation to give up the whole effort nor the temptation to give up our insistence on vital and responsible safeguards.”

John F. Kennedy

1963, American University speech

“It's only when they join together in a forward movement that this country moves ahead…”

John F. Kennedy

"Remarks at Los Banos, CA at the Groundbreaking Ceremonies for the San Luis Dam (337)" (18 August 1962) http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations.aspx 1962

“The basis of self-government and freedom requires the development of character and self-restraint and perseverance and the long view. And these are qualities which require many years of training and education.”

John F. Kennedy

1961, Address at the University of Washington