“The life of the arts, far from being an interruption, a distraction, in the life of a nation, is very close to the center of a nation's purpose…and is a test of the quality of a nation's civilization.”

—  John F. Kennedy

"LOOK Magazine Article 'The Arts in America' (552)" (18 December 1962) http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations.aspx; also inscribed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C.
1962

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John F. Kennedy photo
John F. Kennedy 469
35th president of the United States of America 1917–1963

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