John Fitzgerald Kennedy

United States
29 May 1917 // 22 Nov 1963
Statesman

Quotes

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And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.

Presidential inaugural speech (January 20, 1961)
The American people will find it hard... to accept a situation in which a tiny handful of steel executives whose pursuit of private power and profit exceeds their sense of public responsibility can show such utter contempt for the interests of 185 million Americans.

Speech (1962)
Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.
Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.

Presidential inaugural speech (January 20, 1961)
Too often we... enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.
In the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding on the back of the tiger ended up inside.

Presidential inaugural speech (January 20, 1961)
Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.
The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were.
The best road to progress is freedom's road.
Our privileges can be no greater than our obligations. The protection of our rights can endure no longer than the performance of our responsibilities.

Speech (1963)
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On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
On Destiny: "Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today."
Human, All Too Human
On Friendship: "A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
Essays