John Fitzgerald Kennedy quotes

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”

— John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“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.”

— John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“The United States has to move very fast to even stand still.”

— John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“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.”

— John Fitzgerald 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 Fitzgerald Kennedy

“I don't think the intelligence reports are all that hot. Some days I get more out of the New York Times.”

— John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”

— John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth.”

— John Fitzgerald 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 Fitzgerald Kennedy

“We must use time as a tool, not as a couch.”

— John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty, and all forms of human life.”

— John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“Communism has never come to power in a country that was not disrupted by war or corruption, or both.”

— John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war.”

— John Fitzgerald 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 Fitzgerald Kennedy

“Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all.”

— John Fitzgerald 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 Fitzgerald Kennedy

“The world knows that America will never start a war. This generation of Americans has had enough of war and hate... we want to build a world of peace where the weak are secure and the strong are just.”

— John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“My brother Bob doesn't want to be in government - he promised Dad he'd go straight.”

— John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's futures. And we are all mortal.”

— John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.”

— John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“The tax on capital gains directly affects investment decisions, the mobility and flow of risk capital... the ease or difficulty experienced by new ventures in obtaining capital, and thereby the strength and potential for growth in the economy.”

— John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce.”

— John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“Once you say you're going to settle for second, that's what happens to you in life.”

— John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.”

— John Fitzgerald 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 Fitzgerald Kennedy

“Do you realize the responsibility I carry? I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House.”

— John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“The human mind is our fundamental resource.”

— John Fitzgerald 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 Fitzgerald Kennedy

“Our growing softness, our increasing lack of physical fitness, is a menace to our security.”

— John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“It might be said now that I have the best of both worlds. A Harvard education and a Yale degree.”

— John Fitzgerald Kennedy