Quotes by John F. Kennedy

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

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

The greater our knowledge increases the more our ignorance unfolds.

I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House - with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.

My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.

The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.

We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.

The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy.

A nation which has forgotten the quality of courage which in the past has been brought to public life is not as likely to insist upon or regard that quality in its chosen leaders today - and in fact we have forgotten.

Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.

There are many people in the world who really dont understand-or say they dont-what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin!

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

To state the facts frankly is not to despair the future nor indict the past. The prudent heir takes careful inventory of his legacies and gives a faithful accounting to those whom he owes an obligation of trust.

Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.

My brother Bob doesnt want to be in government - he promised Dad hed go straight.

Politics is like football; if you see daylight, go through the hole.

Im always rather nervous about how you talk about women who are active in politics, whether they want to be talked about as women or as politicians.

Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.