Quotes by John F. Kennedy

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.

Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation.

Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain.

Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.

The American, by nature, is optimistic. He is experimental, an inventor and a builder who builds best when called upon to build greatly.

The ancient Greek definition of happiness was the full use of your powers along lines of excellence.

The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie -- deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

The great French Marshall Lyautey once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardener objected that the tree was slow growing and would not reach maturity for 100 years. The Marshall replied, 'In that case, there is no time to lose; plant it this afternoon!'

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

There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.

Washington is a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm.

We must use time as a tool, not as a crutch.

We stand for freedom. That is our conviction for ourselves; that is our only commitment to others.

When we got into office, the thing that surprised me the most was that things were as bad as we'd been saying they were.

The men who create power make an indispensable contribution to the Nation’s greatness, but the men who question power make a contribution just as indispensable, especially when that questioning is disinterested, for they determine whether we use power or power uses us.
(Amherst College, Oct 26, 1963 - Source JFK Library, Boston, Mass.)

"...probably the greatest concentration of talent and genius in this house except for perhaps those times when Thomas Jefferson ate alone."
(Describing a dinner for Nobel Prize winners, 1962)

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
(In a speech at the White House, 1962)

And so, my fellow americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
(Inaugural address, January 20, 1961)

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
(Inaugural address, January 20, 1961)

We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth.
(October 26, 1963)