John F. Kennedy was a prominent political figure in the United States, serving as the country’s 35th president from 1961 until his assassination in 1963.
He was known for his inspiring speeches and memorable quotes, which continue to resonate with people around the world to this day.
Here are some characteristics of John F. Kennedy’s quotes:
- Inspirational: Kennedy’s quotes were often intended to inspire and motivate people to achieve their full potential. He believed in the power of human potential and often spoke about the importance of perseverance, hard work, and dedication.
- Optimistic: Kennedy was a firm believer in the power of positive thinking, and his quotes often reflect this optimism. He believed that anything was possible with hard work and determination, and encouraged people to approach life with a can-do attitude.
- Idealistic: Kennedy was known for his idealistic views and his commitment to social justice and equality. His quotes often reflect these ideals, calling on people to work towards a more just and equitable society.
- Poetic: Kennedy was a skilled orator, and his quotes often have a poetic quality to them. He used language to create powerful images and convey complex ideas in a simple and accessible way.
- Timeless: Despite being spoken over 50 years ago, many of Kennedy’s quotes are still relevant and resonate with people today. They continue to inspire and motivate people of all ages and backgrounds.
We have many to share in this article.
Let’s have a look.
John F. Kennedy Quotes
Here are 110 famous quotes from John F. Kennedy:
- “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
- “Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.”
- “Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.”
- “Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.”
- “If not us, who? If not now, when?”
- “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”
- “My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
- “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
- “Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.”
- “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.”
- “Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one’s own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.”
- As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
- “The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.”
- “Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.”
- “Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.”
- “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
- “We must use time as a tool, not as a couch.”
- “The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender or submission.”
- “The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.”
- “The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth.”
- “Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.”
- “There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long-range risks of comfortable inaction.”
- “If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.”
- “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.”
- “A man does what he must – in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures – and that is the basis of all human morality.”
- “For time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.”
- “In a time of domestic crisis, men of goodwill and generosity should be able to unite regardless of party or politics.”
- “We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch – we are going back from whence we came.”
- “In a democracy, every citizen, regardless of his interest in politics, ‘hold office’; every one of us is in a position of responsibility.”
- “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.”
- “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.”
- “Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.”
- “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.”
- “We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us through that darkness to a safe and sane future.”
- “The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds.”
- “The margin is narrow, but the responsibility is clear.”
- “Liberty without learning is always in peril, and learning without liberty is always in vain.”
- “I look forward to a great future for America – a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose.”
- “If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.”
- “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.”
- “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.”
- “I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for President who happens also to be a Catholic.”
- In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility – I welcome it.”
- “The best road to progress is freedom’s road.”
- “We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world – or to make it the last.”
- “The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings.”
- “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 future. And we are all mortal.”
- “A child miseducated is a child lost.”
- “We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.”
- “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.”
- “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 rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.”
- “Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.”
- “If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.”
- “If we are strong, our strength will speak for itself. If we are weak, words will be of no help.”
- “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!'”
- “Domestic policy can only defeat us; foreign policy can kill us.”
- “The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.”
- “When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.”
- “A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers.”
- “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.”
- “The human mind is our fundamental resource.”
- “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.”
- “We need men who can dream of things that never were.”
- “In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility – I welcome it.”
- “Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners, and necessity has made us allies. Those whom nature hath so joined together, let no man put asunder.”
- “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.”
- “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.”
- “Let us all take more responsibility, not only for ourselves and our families but for our communities and our country.”
- “All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talents.”
- “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
- “In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger.”
- “I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for President who happens also to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my Church on public matters, and the Church does not speak for me.”
- “The great battleground for the defense and expansion of freedom today is the whole southern half of the globe.”
- “In the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.”
- “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.”
- “We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch – we are going back from whence we came.”
- “A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.”
- “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 to the quality of a nation’s civilization.”
- “A child miseducated is a child lost.”
- “We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth.”
- “We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us through that darkness to a safe and sane future.”
- “We have come too far, we have sacrificed too much, to disdain the future now.”
- “The artist, however faithful to his personal vision of reality, becomes the last champion of the individual mind and sensibility against an intrusive society and an officious state.”
- “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 future. And we are all mortal.”
- “The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender or submission.”
- “Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.”
- “We are a nation of immigrants, and we must not forget that we are heirs to that legacy.”
- “The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth.”
- “Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.”
- “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
- “I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute.”
- “A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.”
- “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 great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.”
- “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 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!'”
- “If we are strong, our strength will speak for itself. If we are weak, words will be of no help.”
- “I’m an idealist without illusions.”
- “The human mind is our fundamental resource.”
- “The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word ‘crisis.’ One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger – but recognize the opportunity.”
- “The American, by nature, is optimistic. He is experimental, an inventor, and a builder who builds best when called upon to build greatly.”
- “The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.”
- “We must use time as a tool, not as a couch.”
- “All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talents.”
- “For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet.”
- “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”
- “Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one’s own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.”
These are just some of the many inspiring quotes from John F. Kennedy, a charismatic and visionary leader whose legacy continues to inspire people around the world today.
Final Word – John F. Kennedy Quotes
John F. Kennedy was not only a political leader, but also a skilled orator who had a remarkable ability to inspire and motivate people through his words.
His speeches and quotes continue to resonate with people around the world, as they reflect his ideals of freedom, justice, and equality.
JFK’s legacy is a testament to the power of language and leadership, and his words continue to inspire generations of people to strive for a better future.
In a world that often seems divided and uncertain, his messages of hope, courage, and progress are more relevant than ever, and serve as a reminder of the enduring human spirit to overcome adversity and work towards a better world.
